Windows Vista

**TheUnknown** · 11-18-2006 12:54 AM

Looking at Vista from a purley objective view, having run both RC1 and RC2 (even though i'm registered as a beta tester, i still had to grab RC2 through a torrent network since they decided to open downloads for like a day). Vista final I can't expect to be much different.

The UI is very nice, Aero looks good. One of the main gripes about Windows XP was that they stole the design from Tellytubbies. It seems to run well provided one has relatively modern hardware, older hardware just turns it off.

Its user management is nice for a novice user, by asking a crapload of questions and locking administrator rights out most of the time, security is will generally improve as programs will not have full access to the system as easilly. However, for an experianced user, it might be wise to turn it off.

One thing I noticed running Vista is it hogs ram, OSX is much like this as well. From what I see though, it appears much of it is used as cache, so just like linux generally runs at its best after some libraries have been loaded, Vista takes advantage of this as well.

I hate one thing about Vista more then anything else. It has like 8 different flavors. I can understand server, regular (professional in most cases), and maybe something like a media center edition, but to have like 8 flavors, bullshit. I'm not the typical "I hate Microsoft" person, but this is REALLY agressive marketing. Perhaps Microsoft is trying to become as insane as Apple now with Vista.

Overall, I expect many people will use Vista, gaming will initially suffer from the new DirectX and all the eyecandy, but for general use, the OS is looking like a needed improvement to XP.

Driver support needs some improvement, especially for laptops, but its not bad right now. I'll give it a year for everything to be good.

Myself, I cannot see myself using Vista, as I feel in most uses it is inferior to Linux. However, for someone not as knowledged as I am, ease of installation and OEM support is not there for linux yet. My hope is that in a year or two, distros like Fedora will improve to surpass Windows in security, driver support, and ease of use. Myself, I develop with gentoo from time to time, which is why I have such a shift towards free operating systems. The times are changing, just as web content has become more open, I believe users will become alienated with Microsoft's aggressive marketing and this slow wheel that has been GNU/Linux, will pick up and soar in popularity. Indeed, Microsoft has lost a great deal of support due to the spyware/virii issue.

In the short-term, Vista should be a sucess. In the long-term, I think Microsoft is going to have to be more competitive.

**Wolffe** · 11-18-2006 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by TheUnknown

In the short-term, Vista should be a sucess. In the long-term, I think Microsoft is going to have to be more competitive.
[/b]

Hopefully a little more original too

**Kaniaz** · 11-18-2006 03:07 PM

It has like 8 different flavors. I can understand server, regular (professional in most cases), and maybe something like a media center edition, but to have like 8 flavors, bullshit.[/b]

What, and like 200 Linux distros is not bullcrap at all?

Although all joking aside, I'm thinking the same thing. It manages to confuse me to a degree and god knows how pissed off some people are going to be if they go out and buy the wrong version. Apparently - apparently - they might be putting several versions on one DVD or something strange - so it might be a little less insane than eight entirely different versions of Vista on a shelf. And I think at least one version, "Vista Starter" or something is meant for poorer places, it doesn't come with Aero or much more than "just the OS" so I'm doubting that'll even be available in many places, not that you'd want it.

Memory is "hogged", but in a good way. It's cached. It's better than just leaving it around dumbly doing nothing, I mean, it makes you wonder who came up with that stupid idea anyway.

Still, Vista hasn't blown me away on every level like they claim it should. It's a good upgrade, I'll get it, and there are some things that are just finally here that we should've had before (decent search, better GUI). I can't think of a real reason you'd want to stay on XP, other than maybe application compatability, and that's a problem that usually goes away with time. I would like to see how Vista gets adopted in the computing world. I'm a little skeptical. I'm thinking it might be pretty low.

If it's going to take them six years to come up with the same amount of improvements again then I think Microsoft might as well dig themselves a grave now, because more agile development (Linux, Macs) is becoming much more popular for a very good reason and becoming a threat all over again. It will be interesting to see.

**Wolffe** · 11-18-2006 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by Kaniaz

Still, Vista hasn't blown me away on every level like they claim it should. It's a good upgrade, I'll get it, and there are some things that are just finally here that we should've had before (decent search, better GUI). I can't think of a real reason you'd want to stay on XP, other than maybe application compatability, and that's a problem that usually goes away with time. I would like to see how Vista gets adopted in the computing world. I'm a little skeptical. I'm thinking it might be pretty low.

If it's going to take them six years to come up with the same amount of improvements again then I think Microsoft might as well dig themselves a grave now, because more agile development (Linux, Macs) is becoming much more popular for a very good reason and becoming a threat all over again. It will be interesting to see.
[/b]

I reckon it'll be like 'Windows 2000' again

**Kaniaz** · 11-18-2006 08:21 PM

I reckon it'll be like 'Windows 2000' again[/b]

Nah, I think they learned from that particular mistake. Did I say mistake? I meant utter failure.

**Ynot** · 11-19-2006 12:20 AM

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do...tsrc=hm_ts_head

**MSG** · 11-19-2006 02:35 AM

You mean Windows ME?

Does anyone even remember that?

I do. And wish I didn't.

**Wolffe** · 11-19-2006 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by MSG

You mean Windows ME?

Does anyone even remember that?

I do. And wish I didn't.
[/b]

Nah, I mean 2000. I dont think it'll fail, but it won't be the next XP

**Kaniaz** · 11-19-2006 08:59 PM

Wolffe why are you never in IRC any more (don't you dare tell me you have a life).

People are getting too comfortable.

They need someone hyper to piss them off.

**Wolffe** · 11-19-2006 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Kaniaz

Wolffe why are you never in IRC any more (don't you dare tell me you have a life).

People are getting too comfortable.

They need someone hyper to piss them off.
[/b]

Ahar, *returns*

**Umbrasquall** · 11-27-2006 03:56 AM

I have the final version of Vista Ultimate Edition installed. I have to say it is quite a bit more streamlined than XP. The Sidebar function is useful and I don't have to install all the tools I did with XP to optimize my computer because they come included with Vista.

Office 2007 is also quite a step up from the last office. The layout takes a bit to get used to but I've been using it since beta 1 and by now I've concluded that the new interface is a lot easier to navigate.

**pellucid** · 12-10-2006 05:31 PM

I've had Vista running at work and it looks very pretty, seems to work suprisingly fast and all - but - it doesn't seem to offer any more than XP as far as features are concerned...

Having said that it will be interesting to see the capabilities of DirectX 10 coupled with 64 bit processing... That aught to make my emails download quicker

**Ne-yo** · 12-10-2006 05:39 PM

**Kaniaz** · 12-10-2006 09:52 PM

Linus Is Not Ur <strike>X</strike>God?

**Umbrasquall** · 12-13-2006 05:40 AM

Update on Vista impressions.

Vista still has a lot of compatibility issues that I'm not happy with at all.

Media Player Classic/10 doesn't work well at all and fails to play a lot of media, especially videos. Media Center is glitchy, again, with the videos and also has frustrating organization and navigation problems.

However, it does look a lot more smoother overall, and starts up very quickly. Still worth the switch I'd say, but I'd suggest keeping a partition with WinXP just in case.

And also, windows defender is annoying as hell.

**Ynot** · 01-02-2007 05:37 PM

came across this and thought I'd post it

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut00...vista_cost.txt

**TweaK** · 01-03-2007 01:24 AM

Such a big file in .txt = automatic fail.

**MSG** · 01-03-2007 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by Ynot

came across this and thought I'd post it

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut00...vista_cost.txt
[/b]

Microsoft is doing this because Sony will not allow them to play it's Blu-ray discs without doing so (duh). As for HD-DVD, would the recording industry even look at releasing stuff in that format if they didn't offer just as much protection?

Blu-ray and HD-DVD are going to flop, anyway, so no worries

**TweaK** · 01-03-2007 01:47 AM

The thing is.. Blu-Ray is Sony's. PS3 is Sony's. Xbox 360 is Microsoft's. X360 and PS3 are sworn enemies. Sony will probably make a deal with MS that they get negative media attention before they'll allow MS to play Blu-Ray disc's (there is a lot more third party support for Blu-Ray)

Win-win situation for Sony.

**MSG** · 01-10-2007 03:07 AM

I just bought a 2gb flash drive and am now using it as a readyboost stick

... I haven't noticed much of a difference except when loading the desktop

Cool!

**Ne-yo** · 01-10-2007 09:22 PM

If your installed RAm is already 1GB or more, you will not see much improvement if any.

**Ynot** · 01-10-2007 09:41 PM

and in 6 months time, you'll have a dead flash drive......

**Kaniaz** · 01-10-2007 09:44 PM

Nope, they already worked out algorithms that are meant to use different parts of the drive. I thought the same thing at first, but somehow I doubt they'll promote something that would crap out everyone's drives after the first six happy months of flash swap and they're claiming you'll still get 'years of use' out of them.