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Jul 21 / Ozymandias

Windows Vista Coming Together

Saw a computerworld.com article about the latest build of Windows Vista that details how some of the rough spots are getting ironed out. I won’t quote the whole thing, and just recommend you take a read if you have any interest in Vista.


I’ve been using Vista on my desktop machine at work for daily use for a couple of months now and have to say I really like it. May sound like heresy, but I’m a dual-platform guy – run both Macs and PCs at home for different purposes. In my opinion, Vista has done a great job of cleaning up a lot of the Windows UI, interface issues, and overall stability. There are a lot of nice little things that just “work” the way you’d expect they should – strongly reminds me of OS X in that way. What I’m most excited about is that in spite of all these changes, you still feel at home. The good parts of that PC heritage we’ve all grown up with are still there. You still have a File Explorer, but it’s much cleaner and easier to use. You still have ways to connect to networks, but it’s a lot more obvious what you’re doing, and why. And you still have all of those Windows games to play (which is an unfortunate weakness of the Macintosh right now).


Anyway, check out the article if you’re curious. I don’t have any special insight into the Windows team and their schedule, but I can say the Vista builds we’re using now are stable and very usable for day-to-day work. Feels like we’re almost there!


Oh, and for the record, my current dream machine (and the next machine I’ll be getting) will be the next revision of the MacBook Pro, running both Windows Vista and OS X Leopard (ideally virtualized, just as Parallels allows you to do).

Related posts:

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  2. Games for Windows Articles
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  4. Get your Windows 7 Beta!
  5. Vista "Hacked" at Black Hat Conference

34 Comments

  1. HcC / Jul 21 2006

    I’d look into vista but the requirements scare me. I use this laptop for recording using a light version of protools, just as an idea machine, and I’m worried it will eat up all the memory I need for that.

  2. Enzo304 / Jul 21 2006

    I just built this computer with mostly high end parts, so I’m not too worried about system requirements.  The DRM’s are what scares me most.  I have over 6500 songs plus hundreds of movies, and don’t want to have to worry about losing any of it due to not being in the right format or having a licence or anything else.

    More than likely, I’ll skip Vista or wait for a while until the price drops to under $150.  Until then, I’ll be having fun on my XP/SuSE Linux dual-boot computer.

  3. Enzo304 / Jul 21 2006

    By the way, I too have a Windows and Mac.  While my Mac is getting outdated (iMac G3 700mhz, 256mb RAM, 60gb hard drive), it still runs OSX ok.  I’m currently using  OSX 10.2.8, and still haven’t figured out why I would want to spend another $150 on 10.3 or 10.4 or the upcoming 10.5.  I used to use it as my primary computer, but as it gets old, it mostly just sits there.  I’m considering giving it to my mom, as she can’t figure out Windows.  Mac OSX is pretty simple to use, so hopefully she’ll figure it out.

  4. Escobar4Life / Jul 21 2006

    Vista doesn’t really interest me as much. I just see it as a tiny XP update for some reason. I’m definately looking forward for Mac OS X Leopard. I never used a Mac by the way. I’m going to buy a MacBook or MacBook Pro soon. I feel like it’s time I try something new and in this case, it’s the Mac OS (X). I’ll also be dual booting too. But I think I’ll stick to Mac OS X. I also don’t like what Microsoft is doing and that’s taking some of Apple’s ideas from Mac OS and adding them to Windows Vista. To me thats like a cheapshot. I like Microsoft though. But not a big fan of what they are doing right now with Vista.

  5. itsgreen / Jul 22 2006

    Emmm is it me or is the RSS-feed above not yours? More on topic, I also love Vista but it is hard for me to sell it to others; what can it do what xp doesn’t? "it is just XP with a nicer shell"…

  6. bean / Jul 22 2006

    Will Xp have some of the things that I’ve wanted from Windows:

    1.  Let me easily turn off programs that want to startup with the PC and/or always live in the QuickLaunch bar?  Basically help protect me from bad businesses that want to turn my PC into a platform to advertise to me w/o giving me free content like I get from the television.

    2.  Not turn on features I do not want like Instant Messenger.

    3.  How expensive will it be to upgrade?

    Media Center compatability with my 360 is cool, and DirectX 10 is fine. . .  I won’t be able to afford a new video card that uses it anyway.  While these are neat features – unless they promise an end to obtrusive programs and a means to prevent against them, I don’t know why they would expect us to be interested?  I don’t need or really care about 3D windows. . .  

    I just want the operating system to load fast, allow me to set options, run correclty and well, and prevent obnoxious businesses from wasting my time with pop-ups and malware.

    Xp is not doing all of that, but it’s close, and the two features of Vista don’t really interest me.

  7. Gropo the Great / Jul 22 2006

    Screw Parallels.  Boot camp, dude.  Turns your Mac into a fully-fledged native windows machine via dual-boot.

    -GtG-

  8. iiii Link iiii / Jul 22 2006

    I love vista :D and am using build 5456 at the moment.

    PS: Does ozy even reply on these boards?

  9. Ozymandias / Jul 22 2006

    I reply. :)

    As to Boot Camp, it’s cool, but Parallels is (in my opinion) even more useful. Instead of booting from one OS to another, you basically run both simultaneously, with Vista running in a Window in OS X. (It might be possible to do it the other way around, too – I just haven’t seen it.)

    This has been done before, but Parallels takes advantage of some of the CPU virtualization features Intel has included in the chip. The OSes basically run in protected memory spaces and don’t stomp on each other, and even cooler, you can do things like cut and paste between the OSes as you need. So you basically have both OSes at your finger tips, but don’t need to reboot.

  10. iiii Link iiii / Jul 22 2006

    wow, that’s kwl. and its great to see you replying. I’m gonna come on this blog even more then Major Nelsons now :D . SO tell me, what’s your role for microsoft. I heard you were Dave’s boss.

  11. Nocebo / Jul 23 2006

    Wow. This parrallels idea sounds great, but wouldnt it eat through gigs of RAM? And aslo, we would have to buy 2 OSs, which might not be to cheap. But then again, Vista is really all the Vast majority of people would need I would assume?

    With the DX10 being released with Vista, I was wondering how important it is? Should i upgrade my graphics card now to a decent (and not too expensive) Nvidia card, or would it be better to upgrade to a DX10 card, when they are released?

  12. Ozymandias / Jul 23 2006

    Windows Vista itself does not require a DX 10 card – it’ll run just fine on most DX 9 cards out there. However, if you’re a gamer you’ll definitely want to think about getting a DX 10 card when they’re available. LetsKilLDave posted a link to some great articles on why, so I’d point you guys there for some good reading. My favorite section is part 4, where game developers talk about what DX 10 will let them do in their games. Check it out!

    http://letskilldave.com/archive/2006/07/19/The-People-Behind-DirectX-10.aspx

  13. Jacko / Jul 23 2006

    Yes i am also very! interested in buying a macbook pro with vista and leopard me being a long time user of XP i have always wondered what the Mac os x is like, ive had little plays with it but nothing big. Thanks for that Ozymandias.

    Jack from UK

  14. floman / Jul 23 2006

    Look on my works ye mighty and despair.

    Hopefully not re: Vista. With all the 3Dness, can it do stereo vision?

    bp

  15. Ozymandias / Jul 23 2006

    :)

    "…boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away."

    I really should put up a link to the poem and some information about Shelley. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people think it comes from the Watchmen comic (which I haven’t read, for the record).

  16. focused / Jul 23 2006

    A random question pertaining to Vista. Is it to early to buy a windows-vista compatible machine? I am very interested in picking up a laptop that will be compatible with windows vista home premium or even ultimate for the windows media center functionality. The hardware requirements for Vista are a bit hard to dissect currently and I was just wondering if anyone had some insight. Thanks.

  17. itsgreen / Jul 24 2006

    Ozy, what about your RSS feed? Getting some strange feeds from that one…

  18. PaleGringo / Jul 24 2006

    I’m a network administrator, of sorts, for a college District in California.  We’re moving to a new campus in Fall 2007, and if that monumental and unprecedented task isn’t enough, there’s talk about switching to Windows Vista in the same semester to match the books and the new campus.

    Joy.

    I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the configuration and support of Vista in the meantime, and I’m starting with installing it on a quartet of student computers in one of my labs, probably this week.  After I downloaded the Beta from the MS site, I noted that it, and most likely the retail version to be released in January of this coming year don’t seem to get along very well with Remote Installation Services on Windows 2003 servers.

    This is unfortunate for me, since I deploy upwards of 600 computers with RIS every single semester.  The culprit, as far as I can tell? RIS wants to make flat images off the i386 legacy directory from the old NT versions.  From what I can tell, that’s no longer part of Vista.

    Instead, there’s a 2.84GB single file called INSTALL.WIM that our W2K3 Server isn’t agreeing with.  Seems like businesses will be enjoying a lot of learning in the next few years.

  19. Ozymandias / Jul 24 2006

    From itsgreen: "Ozy, what about your RSS feed? Getting some strange feeds from that one…"

    Can you give any details? Anyone else having issues?

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