One of the newsletters I read each week is the Clif Notes Newsletter.

This week, Clif had a link to a great Vista cartoon at ctrlaltdel-online.com.

Thanks for the grin, Clif. I’m pretty sure anyone trying to change to Vista is going to recognize the feeling.

DesktopLinux.com has a great multi-part article where the author is installing Vista and Linux on the same computer for a showdown.

A Vista vs. Linux Matchup describes the installation, issues and compares Vista Ultimate and SimplyMepis 6.1, which is based on Ubuntu Linux.

So far, the articles in the series are “Part 1: Leveling the Playing Field, ” “Part 2: Dual-booting Vista and Linux” and “Part 3: Hardware Wars.” The series has more to go…

Reuters reported today that Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates said on Tuesday the company’s Windows Vista operating system had been incredibly well received.

This is strangely at odds with some of the other articles that I’ve read recently.

Companies like Dell are pushing Vista on many of their popular models. Retail stores with the usual set of prebuilt systems are all pushing Vista. Why not? It’s the first new Microsoft operating system in 5 years! For most people, new OS means New Computer! Yippee!

George Ou at ZDNet reports, based on an Arstechnica article, that Windows Vista Upgrade Edition will not permit “clean installs.”

For years, just to make sure we have completely clean installations, we have been able to boot an upgrade CD, insert our valid previous Windows CD to validate it, and then install Windows (95, 98, 2000, Me, XP) in a partition of our choice.

No longer. Now, we have to install Windows XP or Windows 2000 first — then upgrade it to Vista.  He also reports that there is one workaround — if you tell Vista to wipe the hard drive after validating an existing Windows XP installation, it will install as a clean copy.

Got a new hard drive? You’ll have to install XP first. Then, you can upgrade it to Vista.

What brain-dead, clueless idiot thought up this?

ZDNet has an interesting article by David Berlind about Intuit’s Quickbooks and its incompatibility with Windows Vista.

More interesting is George Ou’s article, quoted and linked from there, that puts the problem squarely on Intuit — who apparently decided long ago not to make the application capable of getting certified for Windows XP. Unfortunately, those same things that were “no-no’s” in Windows XP are now blocked in Windows Vista. Seems like Intuit was sending communications to other applications via the Windows Registry…

Windows Vista is a nice piece of eye candy – Microsoft has dramatically changed the interface and added much more impressive graphics (if you have the graphics card to handle the Aero interface) and many security improvements under the surface.

Windows Vista, on the other hand, will be confusing to almost everyone whose been using Win98, WinMe, Win2000 and WinXP.

But, like new versions of Windows for a long time, Windows Vista doesn’t come with a manual.

That’s where the new manual from O’Reilly comes in –
Windows Vista – The Missing Manual.

George Ou has a great article on Windows Vista bugs at Tech Republic (www.techrepublic.com).

Check out his Long list of Vista bugs that will keep me off Vista