I finally found something that Windows Vista does better than XP. At the University of the Western Cape, fetching SSL-encrypted Web pages requires configuring a proxy server. Folks with XP laptops were having to ask for assistance and get hostnames and ports. My Vista laptop managed to figure it out for itself after I asked Windows to “diagnose the problem with the network”.
Sadly, MSIE could not let go of those proxy settings. When I later connected to an open wireless network, which had a different SSID from the university’s, MSIE still insisted on using the proxy and couldn’t get any Web pages at all, encrypted or otherwise. I had to go deep into the Internet Options menu to disable automatic configuration to get it to work.
So… Vista can be networked just as long as you have 5 or 10 years of experience with computer networking….
Nit: Transparent frames around windows are distracting and, as far as I can tell, pointless. If Window A is on top of Window B, it is because Window A is the one currently in use. If a user wants Window B, he or she can pull it up from the task bar at the bottom. Why should garbage from Window B leak through into Window A?
Update: The computer got into a state yesterday where it wouldn’t recognize certain keystrokes, e.g., the letter “m”. A reboot fixed the problem. MSIE crashes periodically, though the machine is fresh and not saddled with plug-ins. The system continues to drop about 1/10th of the characters typed into a Web browser textarea. This is very annoying indeed.
Keyboard update: I may have been unfairly maligning Microsoft (could it be our national sport?). I found a USB keyboard here in Kampala and plugged it into the laptop. No more dropped keystrokes. So perhaps the problem is simply with Toshiba’s hardware.
Power Management Update: I plugged in the laptop, but forgot to throw the little switch next to the mains outlet, so I was actually running on battery for a couple of hours. Windows Vista informed me that the battery was getting low by… snapping the machine off and throwing away all of my typing into a Weblog form. Unlike XP, which popped up “your battery is getting low; please plug in the power adaptor”, Vista just shut down instantly and without warning.
I think we’ll have to wait for Vienna… that will be the ultimate end-all.
@Nit: I actually like turning the transparency off; the whole system is snappier and it reduces the distraction level.
Do you have any idea at all how difficult it is to resist replying to posts like this with a one-liner like “Ubuntu is nice!”? It’s taking all my will power, dammit!
(If you check your logs – if you bother with such things – you’ll see that I’m posting this from XP, so I plead guilty to a modicum of hypocrisy. But really: Ubuntu IS nice. I resisted the upgrade from Win2K to WinXP back in the early noughties, but eventually I gave in because XP really was an improvement. That’ll never happen with Vista. I think MS have finally jumped the shark. Freaky!)