I've covered every release since Windows 95 and the path to launching this one is starting to have a much more familiar ring. I've been in production with Vista RTM for a few days and am really starting to like it. It's the little things that have me missing Windows XP less and less. This week, let's chat about your timing for Vista and make sure you have thought through the things you need to do before you make the switch.

Click through the Windows Vista RTM gallery ...

See the Tom's Hardware preview gallery of Windows Vista ...

Some history

The Windows OS didn't appear until Windows 95. Before that, it was just a GUI upgrade to DOS. When launched, Windows 95 was reserved for the general desktop and Windows NT, basically a clean room version of OS/2, was aimed at servers and workstations, which was why most didn't care much about Windows NT.

This changed in the late 90s when Windows NT was targeted at the corporate desktop and Windows 98/ME became a consumer only platform. Windows 2000 blurred the lines, but it wasn't until Windows XP that both consumer and corporate markets became the "consumers of one" platform - even if there were two versions: one for the home PC (Home Edition) and one for business (Professional Edition).

Windows 95 and its successors were supposed to follow the major/minor/major release cycle, but NT messed that up and we basically had three minor releases after Windows 95. Those releases were Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Windows Millennium Edition (ME).

Windows XP RTM discs from August 2001

Now the corporate market has had several major releases to deal with over the last decade. There were Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 2000. For consumers, there was basically just Windows 95. The others were all minor releases.

Let me just stress that there is a big difference between a major and a minor release. In a minor release, often called either a "point release" or a "maintenance release," there really isn't much changed. It's more of a roll up of all of the patches and some additional features or enhancements. A major release is a top to bottom redesign and it is in these releases where you see a major change in functionality. Major releases are very difficult to do well. And Windows Vista is a major release.

Things are going to break

With a major release, things are going to break. While Vista appears to be much more mature than any other major release I've tested, including Apple's operating systems, it will have problems with hardware that isn't certified as "Vista ready" and particularly with hardware that is more than a year old. Remembering its predecessor, Windows XP was designed when memory was expensive, processors were relatively slow and viruses mainly came on floppies (if you don't remember what a floppy was you are in surprisingly good company now). In contrast, Vista likes lots of fast memory, both system memory and graphics memory, and the software is vastly more capable when it comes to defending itself against hackers, worms, viruses and other malicious attacks.

The Flip 3D feature in Windows Vista

It is beyond me why, given how inexpensive hardware is these days, anyone would want to spend hours trying to get a major new OS to work on old hardware that underperforms new entry-level Vista systems. Such computers can be had already for about $450 (typically with printers and monitors.) But people do this and a lot of these people will probably not be particularly happy with the result.

If you have hardware older than a year, stay on XP until you are ready to buy new hardware and you'll avoid being upset with the result. The key to a good experience with any new operating system is to wait and only move when you are ready.