Your thoughts on Windows Vista

After reading about Vista from the Microsoft website (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista) I came to the conclusion that Vista is a much larger update from XP than XP was from 2k/98. With the features like using a USB stick as a type of RAM and the cool looking 3D windows, they seem to have made some drastic changes to their previous versions. I'm happy to see IE taking on tabbed browsing, even though I will forever use Mozilla, and suprised to find the change in how the desktop looks. Although I haven't researched Vista anymore than what I've read on the site, I must say Vista is looking to be impressive. My only question is does Vista take advantage of the 64 bit procs?? I am currently waiting for the arrival of my new Alienware, AMD Athlon 64 FX - 60, Dual 512MB Nvidia 7900 GTX w/SLI enabled, 1GB RAM, Liquid Cooling, and all that jazz, but I'm concerned if I'll ever find a program that will take advantage of the 64 bit proc. (This is my first post so please be gentle :) )

I believe that the 'first' delay in release was because of the 64 bit capability requirement
and it WOULD seem kinda dumb to bring out a 'new' OS that cannot take advantage of it

just my 0.02c

I will wait until the first SP is released before I buy my copy
let someone else do the 'omega' testing :)

I think Vista and it's successors will bring a needed change to the computing world.

Upgraded graphic capability, increased security model, 64bit operation, easier VPN support, IPv6, hardware virtual support, etc.

I'm glad MS is bringing out a new product after 5-6 years and not the same stale product repackaged. This, along with 64bit hardware, gives the computer industry a chance to revive commerce.

Reviving by: new hardware will be/must be bought, 3rd party software must be updated/created and relearning/supporting a new operating system by technicians and OS junkies.
It also gives the Linux OS folks another reason to step up to the plate and reach further, a replacement for the new MS desktop.

Although change is not readily greeted by the masses I will accept it and welcome it, although it WILL obsolete my laptop with a mere 64MB video ram. (just another reason to get a newer $$ toy)

Finally, somewhere in the mix there's something to do with my job security.

Competition is good from an overall perspective.

Couple of things I find interesting:

Shared Calendars without Oulook which is a huge POS 1000 times more than it needs to be.

Improved back-up - brings it on par with commercial 3rd party systems

Complete start over and build of the network stack from ground zero

Volume Control per user app. Very nice.

Special account for installation of programs outside normal user base. This model is EXACTLY like Linux now. The model of folder based permissions where as a user can only run programs from within folders he is assigned, And vista locks these as read only. So it's like a folder for execition on one for data. For legacy support like Doom3. The write process gets redirected to a subfolder in the "home directory". Anyway too detailed for this post

Everyone talks about the brand new graphics model. What is it? In WinXP access to the GPU is all or nothing and windows often switches between 2d and 3d, depending on the app. Now GPU cycles can be distributed within the OS. Kind of like GPU "hyperthreading"?

IE 7... who cares /EDIT already seen 2 systems require code changes on the server to support basic axtive x controls.

Build in Parental Controls. Could be huge for home users with children.

And the most exciting for system tweaking...... WinSAT diagnostic and tweaking unheard of. Assuming it works.

:D With MS you have to wait and see if they are blowing smoke or not. But their is enough there to get most of us interested.

Hey Hey,

As already mentioned by RoadClosed, the advantages look great... Now will I make the switch??? I highly doubt it, Not until I'm forced to..

With XP, I happily moved to it... I made the switch when the Beta's were around and it ran quite nicely on my 800Mhz CPU w/ 64MB RAM (Contrary to what some people here will tell you is required to run XP) My Current system has 768MB of RAM... pretty low by todays standards, but when I bought it I paid around $500 for the RAM... Sure I Use a lot of VMs but their the only resource intensive application I run... Suddenly for vista I'm going to require a minimum of 512MB just to install it (and yes I've installed Vista several times for testing at work and I've seen this requirement... if you have less than 512MB of RAM it simply locks up and doesn't tell you that more is required).... Then there's the minimum of 15GB of HDD space.... I don't know about everyone else here but I maintain a seperate OS partition/drive (depending on the system).. .many people I know also do this.. Generally I've gotten away with 5 - 8GB for my system drive with XP.. I'm going to have to double to triple that for Vista??? That doesn't seem right at all..

Then there's things like this -- http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...1250154&size=o -- which I'm sure many people have seen around the office by now. Sure this is a restricted user account but still... that's ridiculous... Unless Vista has modes for their restricted user account and this one is called idiot mode... there's no way I'll use it..

While I'm glad that Vista is raising the bar with security... I think that Microsoft has gone a little overboard... I think that if the current "security trend" that the OS is setting continues that Vista will be the next MS Bob... there are limits to what people will take... and things like this make me wonder if they even consulted the home user... or the professional before stepping up to the plate..

Peace,
HT

Quote:

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Originally posted here by foxyloxley
I believe that the 'first' delay in release was because of the 64 bit capability requirement

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Dont know if that was the case but I do know they arnt releasing the 64 bit till at least 6 months after the 32bit version comes out. Went to the TS2 meeting and thats what they told me.

Now my Likes and dislikes (taking in account the copy I have is beta)
The look is pretty and all but I find the graphix is way to extream.
I do like the folder veiwing option
I also love the alt tab feature, even live video will play in that view.
Dont like that the run box is missing making it difficult to get a cmd going.
havent seen it on a dual screen yet but I hope to god they stretch the status bar across both screens.
Looks like they are pushing hibernation instead of the shutdown feature in Vista.
The best quality is the loading speeds of different programs, they changed how processes handle each other so now you dont need to shut down all your processes just give presidence to the process you are using over all others and watch the speeds.

Now you wanna talk about a good product look at Microsoft Office 2007. The ribbon feature is awsome and so is the new clipart and insert picture features.

Oh yeah one more thing all versions of Vista will come on one DVD, making it much easier for those of use who reload customers computers. the Key you enter will determine with version of Vista will be installed.

prolly have to enter your credit card # when you register it
so they can bill you for updates.
:cool:

Thats a funny article HT. Wonder if a simple "shift-delete" would work. :D

Quote:

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The look is pretty and all but I find the graphix is way to extream.

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One note on the graphics I forgot to mention and one that seems unnoticed is windows are aparently rendered in REAL time as 3d objects. We all know what that did to games. Instead of hard coding a sprite you give the engine some mathematical vectors and poof there is a "real" object within the engine that can be tracked without refreshing the sprite for every bit of screen movement. Possibilites here, hell yes.

http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/222
-> Vista will have memory locations randomized to make it harder to exploit.

Hmm. I'm beginning to feel better about this OS. Microsoft truly is working on it.

Just remember it ain't finished yet.
What you are reading now and what you will get when it comes out could be very different.

I agree with HT and Foxy that I won't be in the first round of adopters. I will change but probably only when my current machine gives out and only if the OEM price of Vista (whichever bleedin version it is basic, ultimate, cheapskate, manwhore etc) isn't stupid. Otherwise I'll buy new hardware and stick XP back on.