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As I write this, I am using Windows Vista RC1 that I installed on another partition on my laptop.  I am somewhat impressed by how slick they have made it, but there are certain interface changes that have me looking for certain things a bit more than I like.  There are definitely some good changes, but there are enough differences just to drive me nuts.  Some of the increased security measures are good, but to an expert user such as myself it can get frustrating.  For example, one of the changes that has driven me crazy has been the rather overbearing way that Vista deals with site certificates–the things that make the padlock icon in your web browser appear.  Essentially, it looks like Vista does not like certificates from certificate authorities it doesn’t know.  Of course, it’s even more frustrating since I cannot quite locate where I make changes to the installed certificates in Vista. 

Also on this install, I installed Office 2007 Beta 2.  Admittedly, the interface changes–the “Ribbon”–in Office are markedly different.  A very thorough discussion of the changes to the office UI can be found at Jensen Harris’ blog.  Those changes have made using Word a bit of a challenge at best.  I like some of the changes in Outlook 2007, though, including the calendar and Task List as part of the regular view in your Inbox is pretty nice.  Interestingly, the interface changes in Office are in all applications but Outlook. 

Since my beta excursion is not complete without running yet another beta, I installed Firefox 2.0 RC2.  Nice to see some features become standard as opposed to requiring an extension.  One of the nice features is that Firefox 2.0 adds close buttons to all open tabs, which is nice.  Aside from that, it certainly does not appear to be a landmark release.  Heck, it’s just a web browser, but it does not seem to have the memory hogging problem that Firefox 1.5.x has.