PC World Tests Final Version of Vista SP1 210
Mac writes "PC World ran the final version of Windows Vista SP1 through a first set of tests last night. Here's the bottom line: 'File copying, one of the main performance-related complaints from Vista users, was significantly faster. But other tests showed little improvement and, in two tests, our experience was actually a little better without the service pack installed than with it.'"
In other news... (Score:3, Interesting)
... the sky is typically blue, the grass is mostly green, and the Pope is Catholic.
I un-installed Vista about 6 months ago and returned to XP. The main reason is because I simply didn't think that the main issues I had with it (some outlined in this article) really could be fixed... at least not with a service pack release or other patches. It seemed to me that the focus with Vista simply had shifted more to the shiny eye candy for end users, and that when you focus on the pretty stuff the necessary stuff will logically be less efficient.
I do have some reasonable high hopes for this new MinWin, but until then, I'll just continue to expect more tests and benchmarks like this one.
File IO results are contradictory (Score:1, Interesting)
Inside Vista SP1's File Copy Improvements (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a very interesting read.
But it hasn't fixed DVD Maker (Score:5, Interesting)
My biggest gripe with Vista has been the DVD Maker. I look upon OSX users with envy because of their iLife. I don't have HUGE needs for my digital media, but I would like to be able to throw one or more videos onto a DVD with a nice menu. I used to be able to do this without effort with Nero, but the version I have was an OEM that doesn't work with Vista.
So, I turned to what Vista has, and was thrilled to see DVD Maker, a simple program that seemed to do pretty much what I wanted and made really, really pretty menus with no hassle.
EXCEPT IT DOESN'T WORK.
I haven't had one successful DVD made using this dang thing.
I have tried burning DVDs with video taken straight from digital free to air tv (so already in DVD resolution and MPEG2 encoded), I've tried Divx files, I've tried everything. While you're creating the DVD in DVD Maker it shows EVERYTHING perfectly. If it burned the disc the way it SHOWED it in the program it'd all be fine... except what does it do?
One of two things:
* Fail with cryptic error at 99% of burn process (except it actually hasn't even touched the blank DVD)
OR
* Burn the disc successfully, but turn all widescreen material into squished 4:3 content... leaving only beautiful 16:9 menus working correctly.
It's utterly infuriating and is the only thing that has made me want a Mac really... just iLife... if I could have that on Windows I'd be happy.
Re:Inside Vista SP1's File Copy Improvements (Score:2, Interesting)
Furthermore,
I guess the end tells it all:
At least the article was an enjoyable piece of literature.
Vista already pulled from multicore boxen (Score:5, Interesting)
We have real work to do and shelling out cash for graphics cards we don't need for an OS that runs even slower is a total waste of time.
Most of our boxen are now Linux-only or Linux/XP dual boot now - performance matters, and making it only 45 percent slower than XP when it was 50 percent slower won't cut it in a production environment.
Re:I don't want to start a holy war here but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:stripped Vista - been done, MS should do it (Score:3, Interesting)
I was using nLite a while back, built a custom install of XP with driver support for my hardware. It installs significantly faster than a standard XP disc, due to the extraneous components being removed, and lets me get down to business mucho grande faster in the event of a reinstall.
I played around to see how far I could take it, I could get xp bootable on some fairly low end machines once it was striped to the core. However the further I stripped it down the more I realized there are alot of dependencies among the various components that would tend to limit functionality once you reached a certain point.
Re:Vista SP2 is coming soon to the rescue... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I don't want to start a holy war here but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Look at your task manager for some process hugging everything. Especially if you used WMP sometime during the session. Its uncommon, and Ive only seen it happen once out of many, many machine, since launch...but when it does happen, the computer is as good as dead.
As for your question: because Vista is more stable than XP (yeah, I said it), and when it has issues, its a total joke to figure them out (the diagnostic facilities are GREAT). The caching subsystem makes even large heavy software such as Visual Studio pop very fast in later uses. It has
I could go on. Win2k to WinXP was just painful. WinXP to Vista only has minor annoyances, and a decent bit of benefits.
Mind blowing 5.7MB/s file copy speed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Vista SP2 is coming soon to the rescue... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Vista SP2 is coming soon to the rescue... (Score:3, Interesting)
b) They can't look at what GPL'd software did without risking "contaminating" the source code and having to open it, so they can't "get inspiration" from GPL'd stuff. They may be able to gank code from some other more permissive licenses. I'm not positive but isn't the linux NTFS stuff GPL?
c) Smart ass comments might be justified based on what you said if those smart ass comments were at all related to what you said.
Re:But it hasn't fixed DVD Maker (Score:1, Interesting)
I've burnt several DVDs of Divx files and quicktime files - typically two-three vides on each DVD, with a menu.
The menus work perfectly well, and the DVDs can be burnt in 4:3 or 16:9 modes, PAL or NTSC.
Yes, it a third party app, yes it's NOT freeware. Can be found on all popular "software" websites *wink*