Windows Vista, More Than Just a Pretty Face

Nash writes "Ars Technica takes a look under the hood of Vista, discussing the need for a new API and comparing the graphics engine in Vista to that of Mac OS X. 'With Windows Vista it will be possible to implement Exposé properly-with live window updates and low system overhead. That said, it doesn't thus far look like Microsoft will be doing anything so useful as Exposé. Though the blurred glass effect is rather attractive, it's not exactly useful. Other visual effects include miniature window previews when the mouse cursor is hovered over taskbar buttons and an upgraded alt-tab device, and Flip3D.'"

Re:Glass Effect and Screenshots

[SirSmiley]

What about Alt+Print Screen, it only captures the active window...

Re:Glass Effect and Screenshots

[Applekid]

This is one feature I really like. I remember using NVTools to make all my windows in XP 75% transparent so I could "multitask" my screen real estate. Some applications which bypass the regular Windows GDI API tended to not be transparent and it usually was all for the best (games, mostly).

While I hardly ever have to perform screenshots, I guess now you just need to set up your desktop for a snapshot just like you might have to set up to get a halfway decent picture of anything in real life.

(I don't have Vista, but surely there's a way to turn off Aero if it's that big a deal?)

Re:OS X not that bad.

[Hozza]

OK, so the summary of the article suggests otherwise then....

Expose clone for the DWM already exists

[SEMW]

There already is an Expose clone for Vista using the Desktop Windows Manager (though of course not an official Microsoft one), here [labo-dotnet.com] (performance is apparently rather poor on that version, but there's a new version [labo-dotnet.com] coming out soon that improves this).

If you want something a bit different, there's another Vista DWM addon called Smartflip [osx-e.com] that presents the windows similarly to Apple's FrontRow.

I imagine as more and more people switch to Vista (or, more likely, get new PCs with Vista preloaded) we'll see more and more third-party addons to the DWM. Fancy-Effects-Eye-Candy war between DWM addons and Beryl, anyone? :)

Re:OS X not that bad.

[gEvil (beta)]

I read the summary as indicating that previous versions of Windows couldn't implement it properly, but that Vista would now allow it to be done right. I can see how it could be interpreted the other way, though.

Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ?

[Grashnak]

No offense, but you're obviously not the target market. Since apparently you intend to continue to run your existing hardware and software for the foreseeable future, and don't have any interest in the newer interface, then there is no compelling reason for you to adopt any new OS - VISTA or not. What exactly would it take from a new OS to make you upgrade? We've already established that you like the current interface and don't want to have to upgrade your computer, so what features are you looking for?

Re:Vista==more vendor lock-in

[SEMW]

Rather than use OpenGL, MS has developed DirectX. Rather than use Adobe's PDF printing subsystem, they developed XPS

Whilst I completely agree with you about OpenGL; with PDF they did have the pretty good excuse that Adobe refused to license it to them for use in Office 2007 (which they were understandably pretty ticked off about, considering Adobe had freely granted it to every other office suite on the planet).

Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ?

[neoform]

"If there are no new features that are relevent to you"

Other than the pretty new theme, is there *any* new features that are relevant to anyone?

Re:Glass Effect and Screenshots

[Hatta]

This is one feature I really like. I remember using NVTools to make all my windows in XP 75% transparent so I could "multitask" my screen real estate.

Real operating systems have virtual desktops so you don't have to layer everything 3 windows deep. Vista doesn't even have a power tool [microsoft.com] to do it.

Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ?

[dc29A]

Other than the pretty new theme, is there *any* new features that are relevant to anyone?

There are some interesting features of Vista, but none that can impress the computer illiterate folks other than: "Hey, it's pretty!". Tell computer illiterate people about UAC, SuperFetch, new IP stack, new driver model, display driver in User space, DX10 and whatnot and they'll stare at you as if you are talking some alien language. Of course once you mention they need to buy more memory (probably new PC so they see the "pretty") because their 256/512 MB laptop would crawl under Vista ... they won't upgrade.

But it's pretty! Then again, my mom would probably be lost with the new UI especially IE7, even if it's "pretty".

Re:Glass Effect and Screenshots

[itsmilesdavis]

Dude, just move your porn off of your desktop.

Then you can take all the screenshots you want.

Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Eye tracking just isn't accurate enough. You'd end up with a desktop that had 16 huge icons on it, and nothing else, because you couldn't hit anything smaller. Compared to a start menu + mouse where I can rapidly and precisely pick the right icon from 200 without obscuring the rest of the screen eyeball pointing would be a huge step backwards.

As for voice command - I share an office, thanks.

I agree that the current paradigms are pretty clunky but I haven't seen or heard of anything better.

The bigger problem

[aws910]

Complain all you want about Vista(I hate it!) but here's the reality:

Someone important to you will buy a Vista-loaded machine, things will crash constantly, and you will be called in to fix it. If you don't know how to fix it, you'll look like you don't know what you're doing. Happened to me when I tried to resist XP. Linux/Mac are great, but what are you gonna tell this person... "Hey, return this laptop and buy a Mac/Linux-loaded one just because I don't know how to fix Vista". That will make you look even worse! It wasn't always part of my job, but knowing how to fix Windows PC's has opened many doors for me(personally and professionally).

The moral of the story for most of us in IT is this: Love it or hate it, Vista is here to stay. You don't have to use it yourself, but unless you work at Ernie Ball or Google, you should at least be prepared to support this platform and its shortcomings.

Missing Feature, Wanted Since Win95

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft, why the hell can we still not move items around on the taskbar (without 3rd party software)!?
How damn hard is that? I know many people that are freaks about the way taskbar items are organized (this is especially true in call centres), so why can we still not do it?
I know lots of people who have wanted that feature since anybody even knew about resolutions larger than 640x480... get on with it!

Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ?

[BlindSpot]

You are very likely not in Windows' target market. I doubt anybody who reads Slashdot is. Their target market is ordinary users who want their computers to do what they need to do with minimal effort on their part. Microsoft understands this is the majority of computer users, and they target them accordingly. (Sadly, they also understand most users and businesses want support, so they gradually force upgrades by dropping support for old products. My workplace is going from Win2K to Win2003/XP for this reason alone.) I'm no fan of Microsoft's by any means, but I give them credit for understanding how most people use computers.

Also, I can't stand how the Linux crowd trots the "it doesn't do anything new" argument out every time a new version of Windows comes out, yet they want Windows users to switch to Linux because it does "more than Windows". Well I hate to break it to you, but for the vast majority of users Linux doesn't do anything new either. Most of what it does is too technical to understand or requires too much work for the average user, and that's why people won't switch. Honestly, I believe Linux has no chance in the desktop market until it stop trying to copy what Windows is doing and tries to do something totally new that is targeted at the average user and not at geeks. Linux does well in the server market because it does this, minus the non-geek requirement which isn't an issue for servers. But as far as desktop users are concerned, Linux is just a Windows clone that's harder to install and support, and has way fewer apps to run.

(Flame away.)