Blog

I have been doing a lot of beta testing lately. Here is the breakdown of the products that I am testing:

1. Windows Defender (Used to be called Microsoft AntiSpyware)
   
   • Description: This is Microsoft's AntiSpyware program. Technically it is still called Microsoft AntiSpyware, but when Beta 2 comes out, the name will change. I really like this program. The interface is clean and easy to use. It also seems to catch a lot of things, and isn't bugging you constantly to approve or disapprove something. This is in part due to SpyNet. Which is basically all Microsoft AntiSpyware users that have checked the SpyNet option in the program. If I run a program that Windows Defender does not know about, I can choose to send this information to SpyNet. It sends my choice that the program is either trusted or not and along with other user's SpyNet contributions, Microsoft can update Defender.
   • Release Date & Price: Beta 2 is due the first half of 2006. Microsoft has not released when the final product will ship, though probably late 2006. It is and will be Free.
   • My Recommendation: Use it; it's stable and effective. It doesn't replace all Anti-Spyware products, but then again no one should be running just one Anti-Spyware product. Unlike Anti-Virus and Firewall products, this is one area where product overlap is a good thing.
2. Windows OneCare Live
   
   • Description: This is an Anti-Virus, Firewall, Backup, and Performance tweaking tool. The interface is also clean and easy to use. The one thing I like about it, is their mantra, "Get Green, and Stay Green." You see, it displays a icon in the system tray that shows you its current status. When it is green you know you are protected. I do have a couple of gripes about it though. It is too simple for me, a power user; for my mom, it would be great. The backup and firewall both do not have enough options available to me. The OneCare team walks a fine line between configuration and simplicity. It also works. I have it installed on my work computer. You don't even have to plug a computer into the internet to get it infected around here. Just bring it in and set it down on a table. A part of the problem is that we are on a college campus, and as such, there are a ton of users that don't know much about computers or are purposely trying to hack stuff. It's all those dang kids that live in dorms. :) I think part of the problem is that all our machines have public IP's. Which is the way most corporate networks work. At home, most people have a NAT (network address translation) router that acts has a hardware firewall to protect machines.
   • Release Date & Price: Don't know and don't know. I do know that it will not be free, most likely it will be a subscription based pricing scheme. The beta is free though.
   • My Recommendation: Don't use it if you already have solutions (a different firewall and anti-virus product) that work for you. If anything, just check it out to see what it can do. It too is stable and effective.
3. Windows Live Messenger
   
   • Description: The successor to MSN Messenger, this product hasn't changed a whole lot. It sports a different interface which I like better. I have had connection problems and audio problems with its predecessor, MSN Messenger 7.5, but Windows Live Messenger seems to have solved those. It's slow and a memory hog, just like it's predecessor. It has this new concept feature called Sharing Folders, which theoretically is like a mini peer2peer client. If I put a file in a sharing folder specific to another contact they will automatically get it in their shared folder and vice-versa. The reason why I said theoretically is that it wouldn't work with me. There is an option to go back to the old way of things (file transfer). It also put an 8gb file on my computer. Don't know why. I contacted support and told them and they have yet to get back to me. Which is surprising because they are almost always helpful.
   • Release Date & Price: Don't know and free.
   • My Recommendation: Skip it. While it isn't buggy per say, it is slow and clunky.
4. Windows Live Mail
   
   • Description: This is great. This is the successor to Hotmail. The interface is so much faster and better to Hotmail's. It is similar to Outlook in Office. It has a preview pane, drag and drop capabilities, live spell checking when writing emails, and more. I like the interface much better than Gmail. And like Gmail, it is using AJAX. It still uses your regular old Hotmail email address and sign-in. I think the Hotmail name will still be prevalent. Firefox isn't 100% compatible yet, but most features do work in Firefox. They are working on improving other browser support.
   • Release Date & Price: Don't know and free.
   • My Recommendation: What are you waiting for? Go sign up and join the beta.
5. Yahoo Mail Beta
   
   • Description: This interface is more similar to Outlook Express in that the preview pane is on the bottom of the screen, not on the right like Windows Live Mail. The interface seems slower than Windows Live Mail. I don't like the visual look of it as much as Windows Live Mail, however I do like the experience (how it works). I like both Windows Live Mail and Yahoo Mail Beta.
   • Release Date & Price: Don't know and free.
   • My Recommendation: No reason not to use it.
6. Windows Internet Explorer 7
   
   • Description: This one is great as well. Microsoft has finally added tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer. It works just as good as Firefox and Opera too. However, it too is a memory hog, but strangely seems faster than IE6. Though not completely standards compliant, they have fixed some bugs, including eliminating many CSS hacks that people had to create to support IE. Also added are built in Phishing filter, RSS support, and a much improved printing capability. It has a shrink to fit option when printing webpages, so no longer will half of your webpages be cut off because it is too big. It also features a completely redesigned user interface, which I was hesitant about at first, but it's growing on me.
   • Release Date & Price: Late 2006 and free.
   • My Recommendation: I'm running Beta 2 Preview, Beta 2 will come out around April and will be more stable. Wait until then.
7. Windows Vista (formerly known as Longhorn)
   
   • Description: There is no way I could even begin to write about all of the great things in Vista. I'll leave that to the pro's. I will just tell you a few things that I like about it. Security, Stability, and Speed. Yes, I know you may be wondering what the heck I'm smoking or drinking, but I'm serious. I have used it and Security, Stability, and Speed, are always a recurring theme that comes to mind. Windows Vista is by no means ready for prime time yet, it is after all a beta. It's probably the most beta like of all the betas listed on this post. Let me go over the three themes I listed:
     
     • Security: Before I change any system wide settings Vista asks if I want to permit this action. OSX and Linux (sudo) have had this for a long time and now Windows is finally catching up. Also, Internet Explorer has even less permission to do anything. Vista includes built in Anti-Spyware and the security center now detects anti-spyware products. The firewall is improved for out-going and in-going communications as well. This is just a few of the security improvements. I mean, there are systems in place that can kill a program if it detects a buffer overrun. Only time will tell how well these improvements will perform, but all in all I'd say Vista is much more secure than XP.
     • Stability: Stability on a computer is two-fold. Not only does software affect system stability, but the hardware does as well. If you have bad memory your system can crash. Last night, while playing with Vista, explorer crashed. "No big deal," I though, "It's a beta." Explorer restarted immediately and I was back on my way. Playing around in the Control Panel I found a section that listed problems. My explorer crash was on there and as a solution Vista wanted to run a memory scan on my computer and then send the results to Microsoft. I told it to and it did. Pretty cool huh? I didn't have any problems with my memory. There are also ratings in the system that correspond to performance and stability. It seems to me that there are systems in place to figure out why this broke or why is this getting slow.
     • Speed: Performance is pretty good. Not as good as a clean install of XP on my system, but pretty good. Vista is pretty responsive though. Things are popping up right away and the visuals look good too. I don't have a good 3D graphics card in my machine so I can't get Aero Glass running. Which is all the transparency and 3D visual effects. But as is, I like it.
   • Release Date & Price: Late 2006 (Finally) and don't know. There has been speculation that it will cost the same as XP, or that it will be a yearly subscription based price, or that it will be free. Yeah, I said free. Who knows, maybe it will be.
   • My Recommendation: Since this is an entire operating system, stay away unless you know *exactly* what you are doing.

A few interesting observations: Microsoft has been taken out of the names of most of these products. Also, MSN has been removed in favor of Windows Live. Also, none of these products have actually crashed on me. All in all, these beta experiences are pretty good.

Also, for all these Don't Know release dates, I have a sneaky suspicion that most of this stuff will come out when Windows Vista comes out.

If that's not enough, I also downloaded and installed Suse Linux at home. Now I am running three operating systems on one computer.