Software
Thoughts on Some Recent Software Stuff
Here are some thoughts and reactions to some software and updates I’ve been working with lately.
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The install went fine. As expected it took several days before things really settled in after the install was complete. I’ve noticed a few quirks that I’m not sure I can pin any specifics on though.
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Outlook is the only application that seems to take longer to load under SP1 than it did before. I’ve noticed this with Xobni installed and not installed.
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Some times screen rotation is absolutely faster than it was before. Sometimes it seems like it will take forever to get the screen to reappear.
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Moving large files is noticeably faster.
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I’ve had more system hangs under SP1 than I had before installing it, and I’ve noticed that it takes much longer to get the system back to a state of running smoothly after a reboot, than it did before.
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Accessing other computers on our office network is considerably more hit and miss than it was before. Once a month or so, I would not be able to access the network prior to installing SP1. Now, sometimes this occurs several times a day. It often requires a reboot to fix it.
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My guess it is time for a clean install and then adding SP1 to that.
I’m not sure if this Outlook add-in solves anything for me or not. While I like the searching functionality it provides and the ability to track conversations through various emails, I don’t find the search any more or less reliable than than Windows native search. Going back and forth I’ve been able to get less than reliable search results with both.
As mentioned above I’ve seen a slow down with Outlook loading since I installed Vista SP1. I’ve uninstalled Xobni to see if that had any significant impact and to be honest, I can’t tell one way or the other, but at various times, and in various scenarios, Outlook will take quite awhile to load.
This is becoming more and more of an application that I rely on as I move between computers. While still in beta, I love being able to store and retrieve info between multiple platforms and devices. The Windows client needs to do some serious catching up with the Mac version on a number of things, most importantly:
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We need the same PDF support on the Windows side that we have in the Mac version.
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I want a thumbnail view in the Windows version. Now. Please.
The Mac version needs to allow me to view Inked documents sooner rather than later.
It is still far too early to tell if this will deliver on the promise it holds as a syncing tool and more. I do like what I see here so far, but so much hasn’t been implemented that commenting is really unnecessary. That said, I’d like to see those things start rolling out pretty soon.
