Microsoft's marketing campaign is banging on about the "Wow factor" that Vista induces. So far I'm feeling underwhelmed by the 'great improvements' it supposedly offers. From what I've read, you get the inevitable 'improvements to security' that make life diffcult and the expected additional drain on resources that comes with a new version of windows, brought on by 'enhancements' to the interface. From what I've seen, you basically get something that still looks like XP with a few extra bells and whistles that you could prolly find in the open source community or buy elsewhere*

Aside from a whole load of DRM that nobody needs, or wants (and actually lowers the quality of HD media purposely** - wtf?), some encryption - if you pay extra for it - that will only benefit a tiny handfull of pedos, crims & terrorists and a new version of DirectX that isn't going to be anything like mainstream for at least 3 years - if Vista takes off significantly - what exactly is the point?



*Video Wallpaper

Windoze DreamScene: hxxp://windowsultimate.com/blogs/extras/archive/2009/02/02/windows-dreamscene.aspx) just out
VLC player: hxxp://www.videolan.org/vlc/) has been doing it for ages - admittedly on Windoze only.
Via Frontpage: hxxp://www.metacafe.com/watch/355411/how_to_make_video_wallpaper/
Via Win98 hxxp://www.windowsgalore.com/windows.98/tip5.html

*3D Desktop

Linux

XGL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xgl
AIGLX: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIGLX
Sourceforge: http://desk3d.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
Mandriva: hxxp://www.mandriva.com/en/projects/metisse | hxxp://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb9sz_mandriva-linux-2009-3d-desktop
Linux/Solaris/Windoze-ish

Sun/Java: hxxp://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/details.xml | hxxps://lg3d-core.dev.java.net/
Linux/Mac OSX/Windoze

Croquet: hxxp://www.opencroquet.org/
Windoze

3DNA: hxxp://www.3dna.net/products/undersea.htm
SphereXP: hxxp://www.spheresite.com/screenshots.html
Vapourware

BumpTop:http://www.bumptop.com/ | http://www.bumptop.com/BumpTop.pdf
An article comparing Looking Glass & Croquet: hxxp://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/two_views_of_3d_desktop

**The Register: Windows DRM is the 'longest suicide note in history' & The Register: Vista's Suicide Bomb: who gets hurt?

"...in order to playback HD-DVD and BluRay content, Microsoft agreed to degrade video and audio functionality in Windows. Gutman points out that when "premium" content is being played, component video - YPbPr - and S/PDIF interfaces are disabled. Third party hardware that fails to obey these orders may have its be "certified" status revoked by Microsoft - leaving the user with minimal (eg VGA) functionality."

BBC News Online: Vista gives a view of a new world

"Early reviews have tended to damn the upgrade with faint praise, however, characterising it as the best, most secure version of Windows, yet one that contains few, if any, revolutionary features. While those reviews have focused chiefly on new functions, for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vista's "fine print". Those communities have raised red flags about Vista's legal terms and conditions as well as the technical limitations built in to the software at the insistence of the motion picture industry. "

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The Pancreas of S.T.F.U. | Never take life too seriously - nobody gets out alive anyway.
Disco_jim: um..... I have no excuse. | Chips: Thank the Beef | Rev Dr: Beef, I think i wee'd a little

the only reason i WILL buy vista is:

Direct X 10

other than that i would happy stay with XP/linux.

im sure in a few years when 99% of stuff will be made for vista and ive got used to it then i may change my mind.

but my veiw is atm, its overweight and pointless (every little of the 'new' stuff i will ever use)... 4Gb of ram in vista = 2Gb in XP (performance wise)

vista is pointless atm, but is the future
i think most ppl can see/agree with that.

shrek

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Designer of the hardware used in BF:2020

^^Learning CS2, dont laugh^^

Vista is the biggest release Microsoft ever did since they made a graphical userinterface on top on DOS.
Why, you might ask?
The kernel is rewritten in many areas, and now work like a modern kernel.
Its componentized. This means that Microsoft can do kernel changes on a more regular basis.

Alot of stuff have been done on this level. Most you wont notice right now, but a more smooth, stable and secure platform for you to do your work on. But you will see that in the future, microsoft can do even greather things.

Vista do bring alot of things to do table. You just take them for granted now already.

You CANNOT blame microsoft for DRM. Microsoft do certenly listen to their users. If you saw the launch event from NY, you will see that the users have a huge impact on how the software turns out, which have been the approach of microsoft for 2 years now.
But the industry requires microsoft to do certain things, to make sure that their products can not get shared on the internet.

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Codito Ergo Sum | Even i, who have no clue about social life

and that is why i'm not interested in buying it whatsoever (at least until it becomes the new standard like XP is now), my security is fine, stability is fine, and my games would only suffer if i didnt upgrade to 4gb ram from 2gb..

alot of the stuff u just mentioned chadk means nothing to most people, and it isn't a good selling point.

i suppose security will benefit businesses and pc noobs more than anyone else.

good review beefy

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Those kernel changes are good, I'll give you that - they've now caught up with Linux, which in turn is based on UNIX which was written in the 60's



Again, they've caught up with linux, UNIX and MacOSX as far as stability goes. As for the even greater things, that'll be stuff like WinFS and the other bits they chopped out of the feature list - things which appear in the NIXs



In other words we should get excited about the bits that windoze already does in this new release?



Oh. Oh yes. Oh yes we can Windoze is on 90% of all desktop PCs. If Microsoft had said 'do it our way or we won't support you', the DRM pushers would be dead in the water if they'd stuck to their guns. Any court action would be protracted, by which time their formats would be irrelevant and the case would no doubt go MS's way according to precedent

Don't get me wrong, Vista's development has seen some very positive changes from MS - engaging the development community with the beta releases has no doubt proven a very rewarding experience for both consumer and company. Taking their time in development was a massive step in the right direction (even though they've released an unfinished product).

But paying over the odds for what appears to be another Me is laughable

Mike's right - joe public couldn't give two hoots about the stuff they can't see and if nothing seems any different why pay new money for old rope?

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The Pancreas of S.T.F.U. | Never take life too seriously - nobody gets out alive anyway.
Disco_jim: um..... I have no excuse. | Chips: Thank the Beef | Rev Dr: Beef, I think i wee'd a little

I liked ME

Windows was behind the times, its now with the times - it may not be ahead of the times, but who is?

Putting the price aside (hard as it may be) vista seems to me to be a worthwhile upgrade.

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“There are some people in this world who don’t love their fellow man, and I HATE people like that!”

Right now, yeah Vista is a slow bag of poo. How ever give it time and it is a much better platform for the future, expecially once DX10 takes off. I reckon in two years time it will be great. The drivers are next to useless at the moment,

I actually like the new interface but thats about it. I used chrystal GL for KDE about two years ago and it looked better and it was way more configurable. Like people keep saying it is the future is what vista is all about.

Shame about lack of WInfs though, maybe it will be in a service pack. They should have used reiser is the mean time heehee.

(Was that alright Chad?)

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Don't worry Sony, I'll just cancel my date of birth and get a new one.

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Yeah, but a good joke is a good joke - Lemon=GCHQ=
It is JGC right? Or did i just piss my pants in front the geeks? - Wowyouareacow
Just loading up now....
Stay Frosty

in no rush for it myself, but i do feel once they have released sp1, it will be even better (maybe sooner than we think)

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m
mmmmYou sir, are a swaggering addlepated jackanapes!
m

tbh I think most people have said this about every single windows update to date...

Additionally I don't even know 95% of windows existing features, and know of no features in XP that weren't in 98 (or noticeably different from then).

Simply put, it's irrelevant to me for all the extra stuff.
I guess the difference is therefore the software and other applications that i do use which specifies XP instead of 98. It says it needs XP's features, ergo, I have XP.

However, the big upgrade for me will be if I go dual core 64 bit stuffage. Why buy another version of XP at the same price, instead of just being Vista.

You can get the basic for £50 OEM.

Tbh as soon as linux developers develop a Direct X interface ill ditch Miscrosoft forever, im already running WOW on ubuntu

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-- Don't bring a knife to a gun fight --
;

Totally with you.

One of the main reason why I use Windows (XP) is that games work..well..beter on it then on MacOS or Linux. The rest of the programs I use can be replaced easly on any of those other OS's.


One of the major downside for me with Vista is that 64bit isn't well implemented (you don't really get an edge over 32bit). Besides the 64bit drivers for my hardware aren't really that abuned yet.

The other downside is that Vista doesn't support EAX anymore. So you can't use EAX on Vista. Atleast for now cause Creative is working on a workaround for it (beta of it is out I think).


I have tried Vista btw....it looks good but I don't really care that much a about looks. I care about stuff like memory usage, stability etc. I dislike bloated software and I'm really a big fan or user of open-source software.

Is it gonna happen?
Not really

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Codito Ergo Sum | Even i, who have no clue about social life

Lovely.
Yet i disagree with you that its a slow bag of poo.
Sure, it IS slow if you do not have 2gb of ram, and a fairly highend computer.
But you can do things in order to compensate for that, like getting a fast usb stick and use some of the new cool performence tools in Vista.

I can't speak about the current state of drivers. But as i understand, they are fairly good at this point. The new kernel makes up for the stabillity issues.

Vista will lay the foundation for next generation windows. You might not find it good at this point. But Vista is one of the biggest milestones in Windows history, and we will see alot of cool stuff in Windows 7 and 8, which would not be possible without Vista!

Orion, do you even know what you are talking about, when you talk about the 64bit stuff? I would consider reconsidering what you wrote, cos its bs

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Codito Ergo Sum | Even i, who have no clue about social life

|I wouldn't buy VIsta for a while unless you have good reason to. For me Winxp does everything I need and doesn't require expensive hardware to run.

Total shite about stability of Vista. When you make a new product it will not have the stability of a 5 year old product that's been through alot of use in the field.

Good luck pouring your cash down that technology sink (assuming its your own money).