Windows Vista
 

Well, it's been a while since much mention was made of this so here we go again.
I have read this article, rather childishly called "Why Windows Vista won't suck". Please try and see past the pre-school title, the article itself is intelligent and well written.

In short, it does it's best to explain the changes from XP to Vista, some of which I wasn't aware of despite liking to think i'm fairly up to date on these things. There's a lot more than a pretty new desktop.

As for actually getting it, I'm still going to wait a couple of months after it comes out before making my decision. I want to see what initial problems there are, what works and what doesn't.

It does look intriguing though.

Re: Windows Vista
 

I'm waiting for an official release of OS-X for the PC.

Vista may be a lot prettier than XP but some of the DRM stuff seems a little overkill for me.

Plus I really dont want to have to upgrade again just to run a new OS.

Re: Windows Vista
 

thanks for that, I enjoyed reading it.

Re: Windows Vista
 

I read there will be advertisement shown on the screen as Vista starts up. Anyhow, I'm switching to Apple after this computer.
I liked your article though. Well done.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Does it come in a range of exciting colours?

Re: Windows Vista
 

Yeah, well.
Time to switch to Linux, methinks.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Not really.
And don't start another OS war for heaven's sake. All Linux distros have a long long way to go before they become as user friendly and intuitive as Windows or OSX, and that is assuming developers even WANT it to be that way. Some are closer than others, but none are close enough.
Linux is a fantastic OS for high-reliability business uses (web servers and so on), and for the scientifically/technically minded. However, I know that even if I gave one of the friendlier distributions to my parents, they'd be stuck within 5 minutes.

In short, what I'm saying is that everything has it's place, and Linux's isn't in Average Joe's study just yet. What Microsoft is trying to acheive with Vista (and what Apple have already acheived with OSX) is to bring some of the benefits of a *nix approach to security and fault tollerance to a much wider install base. While the changes will not be obvious to most users (except for the "ooh, pretty" bits), they will undoubtedly be beneficial. Unfortunately, Microsoft are doing a piss poor job of telling this to their target market.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Ubuntu is really straightforward for a damn lot of stuff.

I was impressed. They've come a long way.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Ubuntu is getting there.
However, there are still limitations. One example is that it cannot play MP3s or many video formats out of the box. I know there are good reasons for this, but most users aren't interested in the reasons and certainly aren't interested in downloading extras from a package repository, once they've had the concept of a package repositrory explained to them of course. If it won't do it, they'll use something else that will instead.

Re: Windows Vista
 

any word yet on how easy it will be to fool the authentication/genuine user stuff on vista copies? ;)

Re: Windows Vista
 

Look I'll agree that Ubuntu isn't perfect, and Linux is by far the least user friendly OS there is. But lately I've just gotten so sick of the 'user friendly'ness of Windows XP (Since jumping from Win98). I'm not starting an OS war, I'm far too unnerdy for that. But I'm tired of the rockyness of Win XP.

In the end, it's nothing but personnal preference.

Re: Windows Vista
 

I challence you to use Solaris 5.6 which comes with a CDE desktop. Linux rocks compared to that.
I cry myself to sleep every night because of that horror I have to endure at work every day.

Re: Windows Vista
 

your poor poor bastard

(i had to write java on one of those machines for a month once)

Re: Windows Vista
 

Solaris has to be the most EVIL operating system known to man. When I worked at Sky they asked me to install it on 5 machines. After a week I had managed to pursuade 3 of them to work. The other 2 refused to install. These were identical Compaq things as well.

It's horrible, truly horrible.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Yes... see... and imagine this:
I have to use Citrix for editting/writing documents in MS Word.
Now somehow someone managed to combine the three most horrible pieces of software to become the ultimate software configuration from hell:
- Solaris
- Citrix
- Microsoft Word

Whoever came up with this must be one enormous sadistic motherbastard.

Re: Windows Vista
 

(what's wrong with word?)

Re: Windows Vista
 

Well, the combination of Citrix and Word is unbearable. Laggy piece of crap. I can get myself some coffee every time I save my document. And you know how often I have to save when I use Word?

Re: Windows Vista
 

Qft.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Also depends on taste. I dislike using word due to excessive use of its -- apparently inferior due to popular belief -- 'arch nemesis' Word Perfect.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Windows Vista won't suck because I won't run it. Simple as that.

This isn't an OS war that I'm getting into, but I've spent enough time trying to get the Janes games (F/A-18, Fleet Command, Longbow 2) and Flanker 2 to run on XP. **** getting them to work on Vista for a game of soldiers.

My desktop PC will continue running XP, perhaps even dropping to 98SE if Longbow continues to crash when flying the Kiowa (yes, I'm running XP with 366Mb of memory in boot.ini)

As for this little OS war. Linux is not friendly. It isn't simple. It isn't easy. It is by far the best OS out there though if you're happy to get your hands a little dirty and not accept everything pre-packaged in the box. Sure, MP3's need a few extra downloads. Windows doesn't come with the xvid or divx codecs, but even the simplest of folk have started playing with downloaded movies now broadband is standard. Just think of it like that.

Anyway.

I'm entirely neutral in this.

Desktop in bedroom = XP SP2
Toshiba Laptop = Gentoo (just trying it out)
Powerbook = Mac OS 10.4.2
SGI Origin = **** knows. Some version Irix, but no idea what one.

Re: Windows Vista
 

Well I have absolutely no ****ing idea about computers, my knowledge is not large. Ive used windows since 3.1 till well XP SP2. Now a few weeks back I went and had a look at vista on the microsoft website and it looks impressive, there seems to be a genuine attempt from microsoft to grow up of sorts and take note of not only what the avg consumer wants but also what people who know alot about computers want. Anyway I will probably get vista unless I get an apple.

Re: Windows Vista
 

I don't know if I'd like to upgrade to Vista. It's sounds pretty neat (everything new is sometimes neat). But there's no way I'm going to put it on my personal computer. I'm happy with my XP Pro SP1 (SP2 is ****ing horrendous, it ruined my family PC and I can't seem to run things properly).

I might put Vista on the family computer just to see how things go. If it's too good (and all of my games, which includes Max Payne 1 (the only stress reliever), run smoothly) , I might also install it on my personal PC and laptop.

At the moment, it's all "just maybe".