A look at Windows Vista's interface

That’s all true, but the operating system interface shouldn’t be relegated to mere eye candy status. After all, we use the operating system’s interface for many nontrivial tasks during a typical day: starting programs; saving our work; finding documents; moving, copying, and deleting files; maintaining the computer; troubleshooting problems; networking with others; and so much more. If the interface to all these tasks is ugly, inefficient, or confusing, then we’ll simply get less work done or have less fun than we would otherwise.

So how does Vista’s interface rate? As you’ll see in this chapter, the answer has to be "pretty darned good," although with a few reservations. Vista’s interface is almost certainly the best that Microsoft has come up with so far (some would claim that’s not saying much), and it’s got plenty of eye-popping and jaw-dropping features without descending into gaudiness and mere trickery.