Talking about Vista, Vista definitely handles resources much
more better than the other versions of OSes MS has produced. It's
the way they handle startup programs that greatly improve the
performance of Vista.
Although Vista has lots of process starting, only a few are under
startup, so memory resources could be given priority to them,
rather them to all processes that are listed in the Task
Manager.
Vista fancy looks is what kills this good memory management. The
aero looks of Vista, is actually very similar to the KDE desktop in
Linux. KDE desktops in Linux has a glassy look, which MS has copied
(not entirely, just the idea and named it Aero). Some Linux users
will tell you that KDE does in fact slow down the PC a lot, and
GNOME, Xfce or IceWM is preferred. I myself prefer Xfce, looks nice
and doesn't use up of resources.
Compatibility issue wise, it's a step backward because not many are
as enthusiastic when compared with XP. When XP was released, it was
supported by most hardware. Drivers were also readily available.
Same for software. The reason for this is because it's based on
Windows NT and Windows 2000. Programs that work on these platforms
will work on XP.
On the other hand, Vista is being completely rewritten. It's being
completely overhauled. Hardware wise, the minimum is based on 2002
PC standards. Since Vista is being overhauled, drivers have to be
rewritten as well. Softwares have to be completely rewritten since
Vista is being rewritten as well. It takes time to write and test
the programs, so don't expect everything to be in order until at
least the mid of this year.
Coming to the issue on Mac laptops, I would hardly agree on
viruses. Those who surf carefully, practise safe hex should have no
problems. This applies to those using Windows as well. As long as
one practises good computer practices, nothing will hurt your PC.
Windows is more vulnerable because it has the majority of the
market share, and it makes sense to attack them. As Mac starts
gaining popularity, the number of critical fixes have also been
found. Same for Linux, as it's also a Unix-based OS. If something
can attack Mac, Linux won't be spared.
Compatibility issues on Mac isn't a great problem, as most
companies will release a Mac compatible program. Books on using Mac
are widely available, same for resources. This is not quite true
for games, as not all games are compatible. Since Mac has moved
over to use Intel chips, expect game support to improve, at the
same time, keep your fingers crossed. Programmers cater to the
majority, not minority, so if the games situation on Mac doesn't
improve, just install Windows on Mac, using Boot Camp.
