My first 24 hours on Windows Vista

I am so behind on work after taking delivery of my new Asus Pro 50 SR! I spent an evening installing software, including the odd few which had Windows Vista incompatibility issues. And I spent ages trying to delete Arial, a typeface family I never use, because one has to change the administrator privileges (not easy during your first 24 hours with Vista).
   First impressions are generally positive. The keyboard is great, the res is not bad (but I feel it is less than what I saw at the shop and I don’t think I dreamed this, unless the guy at Dick Smith gave me the wrong model number). Good processor, independent graphics RAM, and generally a more solidly made machine than the Acers that I saw. After my experience with Compaq, I won’t return there for a while. And the Num Lock works when I tell it to! Eat that, Compaq!
   I also like the fact that even my old Type 1 fonts are natively supported, which means a saving on buying an extra site licence for a new platform.
   But there are some down sides:

• not quite wide enough for a numeric keypad, though having said that, I have limited desk space for the laptop;
• no noticeable speed increase from some of my older machines as Vista is clunky, though it’s streets ahead of the Compaq;
• function key where I expect Control to be;
• while the battery theoretically can go for three to four hours on the power-saving mode, in normal mode it runs for under two;
• the idea that the power-saving mode is less efficient for computer performance (!);
• the double quotation mark (the one on the keyboard) seems to be a bit slow (!);
  
• no infrared or Bluetooth, as far as I can tell. I had expected the SD card reader to be able to take my MicroSD off the cell, but the smallest it can do (with an adapter) is the MiniSD.

   That last item means that my latest batch of photographs on my cell are still trapped there and I might need to spend another $22 on a Bluetooth dongle.
   I also don’t go for the wankiness of the Vista interface. I am not a Luddite: when I first got a Windows 98 machine a decade ago, I was very amazed by it. I loved Mac OS 7. Windows XP, I thought, was actually quite a well presented interface from a design point-of-view, and it was more customizable than Vista. These three-dimensional effects in Vista seem unnecessary to me, and I have the same qualms about Mac OS X.
   I know I can turn them off but I’m going to give it a chance.
   So, no pics of the machine coming out of the box (I know a few of you like seeing those) and none of it on my mega-messy desk. But here it is from a publicity shot (the real thing has more stickers with specs, and logos from ATI, Intel and Windows Vista):    I am sorry to say I am using the stock wallpaper, too. In the past I would have had something cool by now.
   In true Jack fashion I have been able to find bugs. Didn’t Microsoft say that ClearType was standard in Vista? Try telling me that after seeing how it displays Loïc Le Meur’s blog: