After the horrific laptop incident and madness, we’ve finally got a new laptop in the house (which means I have my computer back). After a little research and some luck, we picked up the Toshiba U200 ultra-portable (the computer in the linked page is a generation or two behind what we got; it’s really cutting-edge-ish). It’s a sweet little thing, I’ll tell ya. We were asking the folks at the shop - a reputable one, I assure you - if it was Vista-capable, and sure enough it was. When we booted it up, we got quite a surprise.

To our shock (and possible chagrin and dismay) Vista Home Premium was pre-installed. At least we knew it really was Vista capable. But how capable is Vista?

Inputting all user information and getting things started was truly a snap. It’s all visual, no more of that DOS Shell nonsense of yesterdecade. It’s not too time-consuming, at roughly 20 minutes, including three automatic restarts. We’ve installed MS Office 2007 Professional on there, and it’s running very smoothly; we’ve watched a DVD with Media Explorer, connected wirelessly to the internet and experimented with the Vista Gadgets on the side of the desktop. It’s startlingly intuitive and smooth. I’m kind of scared, actually.

There are a few caveats to this post, though. One is we haven’t set up file sharing – including streaming things to our Xbox 360 – and two, we haven’t played any games on it yet. To be honest, the laptop isn’t going to be a major PC gaming rig. It will, however, be a bastion of casual titles in all likelihood.

Since nobody else I know has taken the plunge, stay tuned to the Vista Saga, right here on NextLust. I’ll let you know what happens whenever we try anything with the new OS, any possible security or privacy issues. Or if everything just blows up in a big, sticky, gooey mess.

1. Ariel Carmeli says:
   February 2nd, 2007 at 4:45 pm

   Nice laptop, the only dislike for me is the integrated graphics but yeah laptops aren’t meant to be gaming rigs. Of course, I had to be a rebel and play call of duty 2 on my 2 year old presario r3000 back in the day, although I don’t play it anymore.

   I look forward to some more unbiased opinions about Vista because odds are I’m going to end up using it sometime in the near future.