Windows Vista, More Than Just a Pretty Face 381
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 (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Glass Effect and Screenshots (Score:5, Insightful)
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. (Score:2, Insightful)
Expose clone for the DWM already exists (Score:4, Insightful)
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. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Vista==more vendor lock-in (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Other than the pretty new theme, is there *any* new features that are relevant to anyone?
Re:Glass Effect and Screenshots (Score:5, Insightful)
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" ? (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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 (Score:2, Insightful)
Then you can take all the screenshots you want.
Re:Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ? (Score:1, Insightful)
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 (Score:2, Insightful)
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 (Score:1, Insightful)
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" ? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.)