Charging Complete

Whatever happened to the biggest reason for getting Vista Ultimate, Ultimate Extras? The last update to DreamScene was nearly 6 months ago, the content packs released for it don’t even work for most users, and GroupShot still hasn’t been released. At one point last year, plenty of people thought the Ultimate Extras developers had stopped developing. They dismissed that thought by posting on their blog that the final version of DreamScene would be out by the end of the year, and that content packs would be released soon for it. These things happened, but what now? The only thing that hasn’t been released yet is GroupShot, a feature that allows people to clip body parts from several different photos to get the best-looking picture. After that, nobody besides Microsoft insiders knows if there will be more features to come. I sure hope so.

In defense of Ultimate, it’s few extras are handy and helpful and can be great for certain tasks. One of my favorite features of the OS is the ability to have 2 physical CPUs, versus only being able to use one in Home Basic and Home Premium. The Remote Desktop Connection is also handy for using your PC from another computer, if you left it at home for vacation or don’t feel like going into the office to edit a document or two. In my opinion, Windows Vista Ultimate just isn’t worth the extra $80 over Home Premium. DreamScene and BitLocker and all of the other features are nice, but Ultimate in general has disappointed me. What do you think of Microsoft’s premium operating system? Is it worth the price hike over the other versions?

-John