Well - Microsoft released Vista, formerly, and definitely better known as 'Longhorn', to the developer masses just yesterday. And finally, after a grueling 2.4 gigabyte download which took a few DOZEN hours. I hope to give you a little glimpse into the world of Vista. If only the install would finally complete.

So far, we waited nearly 27 hours for the download to complete. It probably would have been a little faster, but as you are all aware - there are millions of us pulling off of their network pipe at this moment - just hoping for a peek at the new OS.

Once the download was ready, I fired up my copy of Virtual PC 2004, which is by far one of the most useful packages available to us as developers and to the commercial users out there. If you don't own it - get it! I setup a little test v-machine for the install and sat with watchful eyes as the install kicked off.

First impression - 'FINALLY'. Yes, the folks at Microsoft finally recognized that to break the old mold and prove once and for all that their OS is now a full fledged system, not a DOS shell - the install no longer looks or feels like DOS. In fact, the install literally boots into a Windows inteface - complete with working mouse and beautified User Interface.

Second impression - 'Okay, So I have filled in the settings they needed, that was fast... But how long should an OS install take?'. I started the install at about 11:00 am EST, and now - typing away into this blog entry we are still awaiting a completion - at 1:39 pm EST. I don't really feel like waiting for the install to complete right now. This install is nice so far those, it hasn't prompted me for anything since the initialization questions in the beginning. And now - it says that it is 'Completing Installation...'. Which has been the general statement for atleast the last 45 minutes.

Before I continue into the review of the OS - I have one initial impression. A whopping 2.8 Gigabytes is now utilized on my blank virtual disk. 2.8 - Is this right? What the heck did they put in there? I hope you all have been keeping up with your system requirements!

With that said, the story becomes worse. Microsoft has released a new OS which looks and feels nearly exactly like the interface of Windows XP/2003. With a few added features, all of which appear to be modifications to the Theme. Meaning, in short, this OS is nothing more than a Theme upgrade at best.

What am I saying, I mean, what about Avalon, WinFS and WinFX? In short, all three of these architectural marvels have been stripped out of the Vista release, meaning, Microsoft has said -  "Remember all the cool functionality, and the reason for the whoopla about our secret Longhorn OS, and the little demonstrations we gave about how incredible the technology will be. Well - it had a little accident, and we had to trash it and start over. So we will release our new operating system, because we want your money, and then we will release everything in seperate add-on's, which will work in Windows XP and 2003, demonstrating that you have completely wasted your money on the new 'OS'. But thanks for the money and enjoy the new theme folks because - that is Vista!".

Long story short, Vista is a shorter name than Longhorn, and it uses a completely different set of letters. Plus, it's defined as a grand view, meaning - it looks different than XP, but, its no fighting bull, and its nothing to write home about. For now, Vista a.k.a Longhorn is about as much fun as a flat tire.

Happy Nuking!