Vista for the backgrounds

(tags Windows Vista, picture, wallpaper, background, photo-expose, free)

My take on Vista? Well I haven't even tried it yet, but talking with Mr. Alvin who is going full bore on Windows Vista x64, drivers and games are annoyingly problematic, but he's already hit a sweet spot or readjusted his tolerance level, one of the two. I want to try all the nice "little things" like the type to find Start menu, the Services For Unix 6.0 (nee Interix), new command line utilities, real symbolic links, and ... is there more? I don't know. (Get a clue with "Features new to Windows Vista" and "Technical features new to Windows Vista" at Wikipedia. Heh, a new Japanese font "Meiryo".)

That PowerShell (nee Monad) scripting environment isn't standard in Vista, which is really a pity. The reactions to Windows XP seem to generate more discussion about userland tools that bring XP part of the way to Vista, like Launchy or AutoHotKey, etc. As always, I'm keeping my eye on Download Squad and Lifehacker.

The "annoying" UAC serves as a reminder to me to start trying Limited User Accounts in Windows XP, but why do it at all? I'm behind a NAT, I keep that Windows XP firewall on. I still haven't gotten a virus as far as I know (based on my anti-virus software). I am more for convenience than security.

One thing I didn't expect to get much airtime was the new wallpapers or background pictures in Vista. Is this why OS keep on getting bigger? I like background pictures. I don't show icons on my desktop. I even bought a CD-ROM filled with Japan in Autumn season pictures. I was intrigued by the beautiful pictures in Windows Vista. In any case, the whole point of this post was to link to photographer Hamad Darwish's rejected Windows Vista Wallpapers. Even though these pictures didn't make the cut, they still are beautiful to me. I must be a sucker for gradient color changes.