Vista looks better than ever

Whether or not Microsoft's long-awaited Vista system ships by year's end is still debatable at this point, but a recent review of the first beta shows that Microsoft has made some impressive changes to the much anticipated OS. Installation is easier and it seems the initial trouble with a lack of drivers has been corrected as well. But the best news is that Vista is speedy now--not the clunky slow-loading application first tested. In addition, some simple tweaking has also boosted Vista's security functions.

For more on how Vista RC1 is looking:
- check out this InformationWeek review