I apologize for not posting sooner but it's been a really busy fall and I've been catching up on my projects, upgrading our ERP system, rewriting our entire data warehouse, participating in two TAPs (Microsoft's Technology Access Program) as well as sitting on the Visual Studio Customer Advisory Council. Oh, yeah, I've also got another case study being published this winter. And I've been helping out some folks get started with their Commerce Server 2007 project planning and development. As you can tell, it's been pretty hectic lately.
Windows Vista
Well I've taken the plunge and moved to Vista lock, stock and barrel! I purchased a spare hard drive for my Dell notebook and loaded Vista Business (RTM) from scratch. It was the easiest and least painful operating system load I've done in years and I finished within two hours. I also loaded Office 2007, Visio 2007, Visual Studio 2005 with the SP1 beta as well as SQL 2005 with it's SP2 CTP. Everything works just great! Since BizTalk Server 2006 and Commerce Server 2007 don't run under Vista (yet?) I also downloaded and installed the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Beta and loaded up my development vm's without a hitch. The VPC 2007 beta is significantly fast than VPC 2004 and since I'm running my development vm's from a fast external HD, it really smokes!
Now I've got to confess. I moved from a perfectly good, stable and robust development environment on WinXP SP2 to Windows Vista for the "eye-candy" (Glass). Yes, I admit it! I really love the new look and feel, especially Glass and the new SideBar. The animations are cool, the gadgets are neat and the new wide-screen backgrounds are just plain fine to look at. Windows XP has been a great operating system but Vista really does make things much more interesting!
So even if you're a "serious" developer, give Vista a look. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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