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.'"
Glass Effect and Screenshots (Score:4, Interesting)
So, say you have something you don't want to show up in your screenshot, but it's behind the Glass effect. It will show up in the screenshot.
Not normally that big of a deal, but it's kind of annoying taking a screenshot of a "single window" and picking up content from other windows.
Can you give me one good reason to "upgrade" ? (Score:2, Interesting)
I know some idiot is going post some "why don't you just use a horse and carrage" message. But, really, specifically, why on earth should I spend all that money, and go through all that trouble, for nothing?
W2K runs all of hw and sw. It's fast, and stable, it's not obtrusive, I know how to use it, and I don't need a new PC to run it. Not only do I not need that "eye candy" I hate it, I want my gui to look serious, not like a toy. W2K does not have all the DRM, WGA, and authentication cr@p.
So what does Vista do for me? How will Vista make me more productive? How will Vista save me money? Seems like paying money for an additional annoyance. I am not saying msft sucks, I am not saying vista sucks. But, this seems to be the worst "upgrade" imaginable.
Gnome + Beryl (Score:5, Interesting)
There's no easy to find minimum required specs for Beryl, so I thought I'd just try it anyway and see what happens; I only really wanted it for Exposé anyway, so I wasn't too worried whether the rest of it worked. It works better than I had hoped and all effects work with no noticeable stress on my system.
Ubuntu, Gnome and Beryl, more than just a pretty face. I'm very happy with it all.
Vista==more vendor lock-in (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:OS X not that bad. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Vector-based UI? Where? (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a list of WPF-based applications here [slashdot.org].
Re:Abyssmal I/O Performance and Usability (Score:2, Interesting)
This still doesn't fix the problem of editing of config files in notepad. Still have to run as admin, drag and drop is disabled... same for cmd prompt using drag and drop to cd to a specific directory...
Agree WTF is up with I/O in Vista? (Score:4, Interesting)
You just know there is some insane DRM checker running 50,000 a second to check to make sure that your actually allowed to view you own files.
Re:Expose clone for the DWM already exists (Score:3, Interesting)