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Windows Operating Systems Software

Windows Vista Leaks ... Again! 424

Posted by samzenpus from the look-at-it-now dept.
10101001011 writes "The latest build of Windows Vista (5231) has been leaked to the public, again. This latest build includes some major revamping of Windows Media Player, including a smart interface. Also, IE 7 now sports tabs a la Firefox, under the address bar. Are these leaks accidental, or is Microsoft actually trying to pull a 360?"
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Windows Vista Leaks ... Again! More

Windows Vista Leaks ... Again!

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  • Subverting the release of Ubuntu 5.10? (Score:5, Funny)

    by 3dWarlord ( 862844 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:08AM (#13780532)
    I find it interesting that it is "leaked" the same day as Ubuntu "Breezy Badger" 5.10. Is MS trying to subvert its toughest FOSS competitor?

  • Oh wait...! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jkrise ( 535370 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:09AM (#13780538) Journal
    Any idea which of the several versions leaked?

  • Thats for the tabloids (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:10AM (#13780540)
    That looks like a hollywood starlet out to gain some cheap publicity by leaking news of her latest breast enhancement

  • 360 definitely (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zlib pt ( 820294 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:10AM (#13780542)
    Just check this story http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEklAEVplZ YuqLANUS.php [xbox-scene.com]

    Publicity is the soul of the game

  • Vista with new Sieve Security Technology (Score:5, Funny)

    by squoozer ( 730327 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:11AM (#13780544)

    Yes you heard it here first folks. Continuing the proud tradition of security first we at Microsoft have implimented new Sieve Security Technology (tm) throughout our systems. Now, as well as producing the most bug ridden insecure operating system around, we can't even keep hold of the software before it is written.

  • interesting... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by xao gypsie ( 641755 )
    I know that this has been discussed on /. before, but after reading http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_edit ions.asp [winsupersite.com], I am honestly thinking that I will be using Linux full time once I get tired of XP

    • Re:interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by HunterZ ( 20035 )
      WTF? Why are they placing arbitrary limits on the amount of RAM and number of CPUs supported?

    • Where's the beef? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by electroniceric ( 468976 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @11:53AM (#13782609)
      I wouldn't be surprised either. One of the most striking things about the screenshots is how MS seems to have fallen into the KDE/Gnome trap of changing button themes, adding & subtracting transparency, tweaking position of widgets on the screen, and so forth, without making any substantial changes to the user interaction paradigm:

      • Mouse to Corner -> Start Menu -> Click on Icon to Run Program
      • Click on Browser Icon -> Click on Link or Address Bar -> Navigate Page
      • Click on taskbar item -> Retrieve application window -> Work with application

      I'm not naive enough to demand that either Windows or KDGnome implement revolutionary improvements in desktop paradigm - that stuff really seems to happen by accretion, especially since we seem to be on a plateau for the desktop interface. But I do wonder why we need a new OS for this - especially at $200 a pop. Vista really seems like a service release of XP with its core libraries rewritten for extensibility and stability. Good thing to do, but not a boxed release. Why should I pay for a more performant graphic engine that does nothing new for me? Or a redone version of PDF? A truly integrated file system-database-document-management system probably would have been worth $200 a pop, but in its current incarnation as MS Google Desktop, I'll stick to the download version, thank you.

      It's not like there's a lack of interesting things to do, either:

      • Aforementioned document management system, even without the enterprise database filesystem. Just generating a map and TOC of all the docs on the machine would be incredibly useful, not to mention some basic versioning.
      • "Save to cloud" universal data storage. MS could well have built Freenet in 5 years.
      • Save and restore state from machine to machine
      • Functional, user controllable password management (peer-to-peer Passport)
      • and many more...


      If you read those articles about Ballmer "realizing" that MS needs more frequent releases of their OS, it's because they've accepted that companies are not going to upgrade Windows or Office on their present machines, but they will migrate over 3-5 years no matter what - new machines will ship with Vista licenses rather than XP, and eventually it will be easier to just replace the old machines with Vista machines than deal with the "legacy" OS. MS will have a tasty revenue stream from Vista no matter what, because it will still ship with every new machine sold. Enviable business position.

      I hope companies and OEMs will realize that if they pressure MS with the threat of breaking ranks for KDGnomeJavaFireLinux, they can repurpose their "OEM" XP licenses to new machines, and get Vista for free or very little. There's got to be a limit to the number of times people can be sold the same product.

      I know I sound like every other M$ $uxor /. wanker, but Vista really does seem to be an empty release, and I resent that I'll be obligated to buy it. Somebody, anybody, prove me wrong, or speed up the release of GoogleOS, please!

  • Of course it leaked (Score:5, Funny)

    by riflemann ( 190895 ) <riflemann&bb,cactii,net> on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:12AM (#13780555)
    Does that mean it's full of holes?

    *rimshot*

  • MS Security (Score:5, Funny)

    by mordors9 ( 665662 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:13AM (#13780559)
    Perhaps they will rely upon their usual method of security ..... "damn, it just crashed my machine."

  • Nothing to see here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Underholdning ( 758194 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:13AM (#13780560) Homepage Journal
    Why is it that Vista is all about the user interface? Transperencey and tabbed browsing is just a part of the GUI and could be included in XP just like that. I want to know about the OS. There is one slightly amusing thing in the screenshots though. He's chatting with someone named Ryan|Topside Porn

    • Re:Nothing to see here (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DaHat ( 247651 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:25AM (#13780629)
      Your average consumer doesn't understand an operating system very much... if you tell them about all of the work done under the hood to make it faster, more reliable and easer to use... they aren't likely to care, they just want to be able to use it and have it look nice.

      If in addition to changing the plumbing you change the faucets (ie things the user sees) they are much more likely to accept that things have changed.

      Yes, Vista has a new UI... but you should not forget about the backend things that have been done... two of my favorites are the new networking stack and the audio stack being brought into user land... what does that mean? Application level audio control! You will be able to raise the volume for the movie you are watching (that was no doubt ripped from a DVD and has low volume) and not go deaf when someone IM's you.

      • Re:Nothing to see here (Score:5, Funny)

        by tsa ( 15680 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:31AM (#13780650) Homepage
        Yes, Vista has a new UI... but you should not forget about the backend things that have been done... two of my favorites are the new networking stack and the audio stack being brought into user land... what does that mean? Application level audio control! You will be able to raise the volume for the movie you are watching (that was no doubt ripped from a DVD and has low volume) and not go deaf when someone IM's you.

        Wow, so they did something about safety after all! Amazing!
      • You will be able to raise the volume for the movie you are watching and not go deaf when someone IM's you.

        Like you can do already, in every media player, ever?

        • Re:Nothing to see here (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Powertrip ( 702807 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:43AM (#13780716) Homepage Journal
          Yes, but have you ever tried to 'turn-down' the volume of MSN Messenger? You can't -- unless of course, you turn down the entire 'WAV' slider....then you can't hear your DVD no matter how the volume is set within the Media Player app. With audio control brought to an application level, I am hoping that I could 'mute' the ouput from messenger while leaving the other media player alone.
      • Application level audio control! You will be able to raise the volume for the movie you are watching (that was no doubt ripped from a DVD and has low volume) and not go deaf when someone IM's you.

        So, since I stopped using Windows for OS X they still haven't fixed this?

        I've gotten so used to it on OS X, I figured MS might have fixed that on Windows by now...

        Nothing worse than watching/listening to something and suddenly AIM/MSN messenger/Yahoo! IM going off and scaring the shit out of me... Well, yes

        • There's a simple solution to that which I have found a couple of years ago. Go to your messenger, to the "sounds" configuration screen and choose "No sounds". Life became much less annoying ever since I did that.
          Do you REALLY need an audable signal to know when someone sends you a message? The blinking (or not blinking) icon is more than enough for me.

          But I also disable all the interface sounds (login, logout, open window, close window...)

          The only program that is running and is allowed to "surprise" me like
    • Why is it that Vista is all about the user interface? Transperencey and tabbed browsing is just a part of the GUI and could be included in XP just like that. I want to know about the OS. There is one slightly amusing thing in the screenshots though. He's chatting with someone named Ryan|Topside Porn

      Dunno about that. To my knowledge, they are implementing a completely new graphics engine. Yes, you *could* kludge together a bunch of crap and release it as a SP, but that's not a fantastic idea. Also, if the

      • Don't know how Vista's going to be from a usability standpoint (obviously), but at least it's not ass ugly like XP. That's at least one improvement.

        I find their use of transparencies quite ugly, actually. But, at least the giant Fischer Price red X to close button seems to be gone.

        Then again, I'm on OS X, so I find having menu bars on the program windows ugly, anymore. It took me a while to get used to the menu is always at the top of the screen that OS X uses, but I find it is less clutter, more use

    • He's chatting with someone named Ryan|Topside Porn

      Well there you have it. Now you KNOW the screenshots are real.
    • Transperencey and tabbed browsing is just a part of the GUI and could be included in XP just like that.

      Sorry, MS got there with the implementation before your idea. Google WinFX.
  • Maybe they should have blurred out the MSIE product ID... you know, if they don't want to get caught.

  • Gotta hand it to em... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SpasticThinker ( 892651 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:14AM (#13780568)
    Microsoft does an amazing job marketing and promoting their products. With "leaks" like this, they get people to download and look at their software who wouldn't normally do so if it were an "authorized" release/preview.

    Not to mention the fact that with leaks like this, they keep the Vista name in the news...no matter if it's politics or selling products, name recognition is one of the most important things you can shoot for.

    • Re:Gotta hand it to em... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gunpowda ( 825571 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:18AM (#13780585)
      Absolutely. It's not nominally a public beta, but they're not immensely selective about whom they grant access to. If you think about it, the only users that are going to be downloading beta software are the dedicated fans - potentially these users, even the unauthorised ones, will test it out and provide some useful bug reports. Microsoft don't stand to lose much either way.
      • To paraphrase Bear Strangler McGee from Red Dwarf IV, anyone who reports bugs for an unauthorised Windows release is either mighty brave, or mighty stupid.

        I agree that these "leaks" are deliberate (apparently Microsoft, like the ship of state, leaks from the top), but I don't see what they stand to gain other than perhaps feedback/PR from people who wouldn't touch an official beta release with a barge pole.
      • If you think about it, the only users that are going to be downloading beta software are the dedicated fans

        I disagree. I've always thought Windows was crap, Yet I've probably run more betas of that OS than most MCSE's. I as pleasantly surprised when Win2k was available and it was finally equivalent to Warp 3 from '94 :P It's nice to know what's on the horizon.

      • Re:Gotta hand it to em... (Score:5, Informative)

        by callipygian-showsyst ( 631222 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @09:09AM (#13781374) Homepage
        If you think about it, the only users that are going to be downloading beta software are the dedicated fans

        Huh!? While I am a Microsoft "fan", I also make a great deal of $$$ writing software for Microsoft operating systems. This may be a surprise to you, but there even are companies that make BILLIONS of $$$ writing software for Microsoft OSs. I download the beta to ensure compatibility, and to make sure I'm ready to support the new features. It's serious business, not just something to play with.

    • It's been Apple's week, so they had to do this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nice2Cats ( 557310 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @09:02AM (#13781312)
      Not to mention the fact that with leaks like this, they keep the Vista name in the news...no matter if it's politics or selling products, name recognition is one of the most important things you can shoot for.

      Especially because this has been Apple's week -- best year on record, 220 percent more iPods sold, about 50 percent more Macs sold, quadrupled quarterly profit, then yesterday a new iMac with built-in video camera and remote control, the big iPod with video features standard, a deal with Disney on selling Housewives. Microsoft had to do something to try to grab some mindshare so people don't forget they are still around.

  • For a moment I thought... (Score:5, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:17AM (#13780577) Homepage Journal
    ...it was the Windows source code that leaked...Again!

    Turns out it's just screenshots of some guy's desktop with a fancy wallpaper.

  • So, Mr Anderson. (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrselfdestrukt ( 149193 ) <nollie_A7_firstcounsel_com> on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:18AM (#13780578) Homepage Journal
    What good is a leak. If nobody wants it?

    • I'd Like To Weigh In On this... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      What good is a leak. If nobody wants it?

      This is a gross misconception and an attitude that is causing OSS to fall further and further behind commercial offerings from Apple and Microsoft. The fact is that millions or people want it! There are countless fan sites like Flexbeta [flexbeta.net], BetaNews [betanews.com], NeoWin [neowin.net], WinSupersite [winsupersite.com], PCWorld [pcworld.com], ZDNet [zdnet.com], and thousands more that are all breathless with anticipation of Vista. They and theirmillions of readers eagerly await Vista's release and the countless "innovations" that it will bring.

      • Re:I'd Like To Weigh In On this... (Score:5, Funny)

        by ninja_assault_kitten ( 883141 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @08:10AM (#13780892)
        "How many of your relatives know what Linux is? How many of them know what Windows is?" You have to remember to whom you're speaking to. This is Slashdot. Half these dorks probably come over to their relatives for Thanksgiving dinner in penguin costumes handing out free OSS CDs.

  • Internet Explorer - now menubar free? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by antsquish ( 320643 ) <(ua.moc.tensutpo) (ta) (rewamja)> on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:18AM (#13780579)
    Looking at the screenshots here: it appears that Internet Explorer has shed itself of a menubar! Any news on this?
  • Microsoft needs to get more people interested in Vista, so they have a continual stream of leaks to keep everyone talking about Vista.

  • pointless (Score:2, Informative)

    by CDPatten ( 907182 )
    the leak is pointless for ms to have done, because there is a new build ctp beta 2 that is getting released next week. Anyone who installs it will just have to do the upgrade again next week, well that assuming you are part of the beta program or an msdn sub. Both of which i am.

  • tabbed browsing (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Celt ( 125318 )
    Oh come on, this is hardy new news!
    We'ev known for ages that IE7 will have tabs and its more ala Opera then ala Firefox given that Opera had them before any Mozilla browser did :)

    Please can we get some decent news today, its a very slow day.

  • 5219 had tabbed browsing (Score:3, Informative)

    by dsmitchell1 ( 720633 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:20AM (#13780597)
    Did no one on Slashdot go to this year's PDC?! Oh, wait...I guess that's a dumb question...Anyway, they gave out copies of Vista build 5219 to everyone who attended, and it already had tabbed browsing in IE7. Why are people making such a big deal about this now?
  • would download a few gigs of leaked, leaky code and instal it on their systems just for the heck of it? Is there anything exciting (from the end user's point of view - NOT the MS marketing point of view) in Vista? All the exciting features have been deferred or declared missing in Vista.
  • Why is so much space devoted to areas that don't require it? The title bars are too large and the task bar is way too large. I've always been fond of those themes that reduce the task bar, window controls, and title bar down to a more reasonable size. I've been mouse clicking for 17,18 years now. I can precisely click on an icon that is 24x24. They need to reduce the overall size of these controls because they aren't used nearly as much as the content. Right now, having a title bar, menu bar, button b
    • I've been mouse clicking for 17,18 years now

      Beginning at what age? The PCs at our village library are used both by our senior volunteers and seven year old kids. Content is generally an ordinary web page with minimal interaction or a simple library form that has been greatly magnified to assist the bifocal generation.

  • Leak (Score:5, Funny)

    by parasonic ( 699907 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:24AM (#13780623)
    More importantly, does the keygen come with cool music?
  • In a company that big nothing happens by mistake or as an accident.
    Everything is to be planned and carefully prepared (maybe also bugs!) accordingly to precise roadmaps.
    For example, they need to show Vista is not vapourware, while not really being able (or willing) to release a beta or a RC. So the leak!
    It seems strange this can be true, but otherwise such a "distract and lazy" company should have sinked long time ago!

  • transparency makes reading difficult (Score:4, Interesting)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:28AM (#13780640)
    The transparency effect against a black background .. makes the text hard to read (look at the IE window title in this one (note in some of the screenshots they intentionally blurred text, but not in the IE window in this shot):

    http://www.neowin.net/staff/cashman/vist5321_2.jpg [neowin.net]
  • New icons, transparency pervasive throughout the OS (task bar, window borders, icons). What's the value of transparency, anyway? What does it give you? It seems like probably one of the first things I'd turn off. Looks cool, but ultimately makes the OS less useful as it drops the contrast between a foreground object and the objects behind it. All the most highly touted features of Vista were retracted anyway, so why is there any excitement over this at all? All you get with Vista is more DRM.

    Oh, and i

  • Thumnailed tabs view (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tweakt ( 325224 ) * on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:29AM (#13780645) Homepage
    Ok. I gotta say it, unless it really was done already, the thumnail view [neowin.net] for browser tabs is pretty neat. Tough to call it innovative since it's not a new concept or anything. In fact it's probably no different than OS-X's Exposé feature, just put into the browser. But it's new and it's something that might be useful.

  • Seeds... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @07:32AM (#13780657) Homepage
    Something tells me this will be one torrent that will be lacking seeders...

  • This latest build includes some major revamping of Windows Media Player, including a smart interface.

    This smart interface seems, from the images, to be a simplification and cruft-removal exercise. A good idea, I feel.

    Also, notice the place where the Avatar should be in MSN:

    To see this dynamic display picture, you need the latest version of Macromedia flash player

    *shudder*
  • It seems to me that blurry interfaces are a very bad idea. If you look at something blurry your eye automatically tries to put it in focus. But that's impossible since when it's in focus it is still blurry. Seems to me all this blurriness in the new Windows interface will cause problems with eyesight, kind of like carpal tunnel, where the body isn't meant to work that way.

    If you look you'll see Mac OS X's interface there is nothing blurry. Their default wallpapers are not blurry and the only thing even
  • It looks so much like the eyecandy I have turned of in KDE and OSX since it does not add anything to my productivity (transparancy is nice, but after a few minutes it gets pretty boring). Maybe they added unix style mouse behaviour too, just for fun to see how people react on that.

  • Think about it. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ninja_assault_kitten ( 883141 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @08:03AM (#13780849)
    The people who install the leaked version are software pirates. Pirates don't typically make software companies a lot of money. By leaking a product people want to people who never would have made you money in the first place, you get people talking about it. Seems like a great strategy for MS or any other software company for that matter.

  • We've known about tabbed browsing and leaked betas (Score:3, Informative)

    by SumDog ( 466607 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @08:19AM (#13780952) Homepage Journal
    um...we've known about the tabbed browsing in IE7 for several months. If I remember correctly, there was a slashdot article pointing to a review of IE7.

    On top of that, there are always insane amount of Windows betas floating around before a final release. My cousin subscribes to MSDN and has a box of CD/DVD spindles in his garage of Windows 2000 betas back when that was coming out. This really is now surprise.

    Now if the leaked beta came with viruses straight on the iso, that would be newsworthy.

  • Vista Porn Edition? (Score:3, Funny)

    by overpayd ( 855430 ) * on Thursday October 13, 2005 @08:21AM (#13780967)
    If the leaks aren't accidental, then why is one of the MSN messenger users displayed in the screenshots as "Ryan | Topside Porn..."

    Is M$ getting into the porn business as well? Maybe a Windows Vista Porn Edition is in the works, and Ryan is on the dev team? It could have features like the 'boss button,' racy desktop themes, and it could arrive in your mailbox in a non-descript paper bag....

    On the neowin.net message board, Raum says:I jsut thought I should mention this.the guy in the IM on some of the shots who's name is topside pornstar or whatnot.That's a grind in rollerblading. Just some trivia.

    I think my explanation is more realistic - everybody knows that only Google developers get to rollerblade [google.com].
  • In the first screenshot the Media Player has different close/max/min buttons than all the other windows.

    Haven't they learned anything from X?
    Mixing widgets is bad UI design.

  • It's hardly a leak.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by callipygian-showsyst ( 631222 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @09:06AM (#13781346) Homepage
    It's hardly a "leak" when anyone who's paid for an MSDN premium subscription can simply download it!

    Microsoft even has a link called Get the Beta [microsoft.com] right on its website. By calling this a "leak" you're trying to knock Microsoft in some strange way.

  • Pulling a 360? (Score:5, Funny)

    by payndz ( 589033 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @09:13AM (#13781397)
    "180, you stupid, spaghetti-slurping cretin - 180! If I did a 360, I'd go completely around and end up back where I started!"

  • I call shenannigans! (Score:3, Funny)

    by thesandtiger ( 819476 ) on Thursday October 13, 2005 @09:49AM (#13781698)
    In one of the screenshots it clearly shows that the guy only has 2 gigs of RAM. Isn't Vista supposed to require 2TB of Carbon-Nanotube RAM and a Quantum processor?

    Clearly these are fakes.

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