Aug 2006
Windows Vista on the Horizon?
08/26/06 09:12 AM Filed in: Technology
It appears as though it
is. Recently, there has been talk of a September
release. Unfortunately, this release is yet another
test version for developers--still no final for the
general public. So what has Microsoft been doing in
the six years it's been developing Windows Vista? I
decided to take a little look at the progression of
Windows Vista, starting at the 2004 WWDC in San
Francisco.
"Two years ago at WWDC we thought we'd poke a little bit of fun at the folks in Redmond. So, we hung in the hallways of the conference some big banners that said 'Redmond, start your photocopiers.' It was only a joke, but they actually took it seriously." - Bertrand Serlet, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Apple
After watching Steve Jobs' Keynote speech just a few weeks ago, I picked up on a lot of the similarities between Mac OS X and Windows Vista. Microsoft apparently was feeling a little left out after Apple's release of Spotlight, an extremely powerful and useful tool implemented in the Tiger OS. It's basically a search of all documents, folder, emails, IMs, applications, and even servers and other computers. Not only does spotlight search your computer for a file named what you type in, it also searched within the file for results. Vista took a little different approach...instead of Spotlight, they call it Instant Search. And instead of it being in the upper right corner, it has moved to the lower left. It seems to replace the Programs Menu as far as I can tell. That's an improvement, because the Programs Menu was extremely unorganized and very unappealing in all of Windows Operating Systems. Search is much more efficient.
Vista is kicking some serious butt in the eye-candy field. Honestly, Windows has never looked better. Microsoft is finally taking advantage of your video card, and this is good! Unfortunately, base requirements for Vista are at least 512mb of RAM. That's ridiculous. Tiger, on the other hand, requires only 256mb of RAM, and it runs just perfectly. That's a whole lot more reasonable.
A very impressive feature of Vista is the thumbnail view of your open programs. All programs open in your task-bar can be viewed in a thumbnail without actually opening them. All you have to do is roll over them! Tiger has a similar, although admittedly not quite as good, version of this, where your open programs, when minused down, are shown in the lower right hand corner, live. So if your iTunes is minused down and the song changes, you can see it change in the dock. It's too small to make anything clearly out, however.
Vista is kicking some tail in the 3-dimensional realm. Changing apps has never been more beautiful. A viewing window of a nearly full sized preview of all of your open applications appears, laying them out one in front of another. You can then select which one you wish to go to.
Vista is really trying to impress with their glassy effect, and they're succeeding. Windows and menus look beautiful with their reflective and see through appearance. The task-bar and Start Menu have these looks as well.
Good work on the Gadgets. It seems like a serious take off of Apple's Widgets, but at least Microsoft is catching up.
In the visual department, Windows Vista is coming along beautifully. I'm very impressed with that. The biggest draw backs are the RAM issue as I mentioned, and with that the registry and DLL files. Windows will not be able to advance further in the efficiency and overall speed of their operating system until it rids itself of the registry. DLL files are just terrible to keep track of and mess with! The beauty of Mac is the self-contained applications it runs. Few, if any, external files. Most applications are entirely self contained in a .app file. I believe it's probably also understood by most of you that 90-95% of all viruses write themselves TO the registry in Windows. Funny...Mac doesn't have any viruses, does it?
A recent news release has stated that Vista is the "last of its kind." Microsoft has admitted that Vista, after being in development for the past 6 years, has become too complicated. The OS is so confusing (programming) and complicated that 3rd party developers are having a difficult time writing software for it. Microsoft has also stated that it's having a hard time finding a way to create updates to release for the OS because the programming is so closed. That's a big issue.
Good work on the visuals, Microsoft. Next OS, ditch the registry and DLL files--go for simple! Next OS, get your nose out of the air; their are other Operating Systems out there besides Windows. Recognize them. Be compatible. They are.
"Two years ago at WWDC we thought we'd poke a little bit of fun at the folks in Redmond. So, we hung in the hallways of the conference some big banners that said 'Redmond, start your photocopiers.' It was only a joke, but they actually took it seriously." - Bertrand Serlet, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, Apple
After watching Steve Jobs' Keynote speech just a few weeks ago, I picked up on a lot of the similarities between Mac OS X and Windows Vista. Microsoft apparently was feeling a little left out after Apple's release of Spotlight, an extremely powerful and useful tool implemented in the Tiger OS. It's basically a search of all documents, folder, emails, IMs, applications, and even servers and other computers. Not only does spotlight search your computer for a file named what you type in, it also searched within the file for results. Vista took a little different approach...instead of Spotlight, they call it Instant Search. And instead of it being in the upper right corner, it has moved to the lower left. It seems to replace the Programs Menu as far as I can tell. That's an improvement, because the Programs Menu was extremely unorganized and very unappealing in all of Windows Operating Systems. Search is much more efficient.
Vista is kicking some serious butt in the eye-candy field. Honestly, Windows has never looked better. Microsoft is finally taking advantage of your video card, and this is good! Unfortunately, base requirements for Vista are at least 512mb of RAM. That's ridiculous. Tiger, on the other hand, requires only 256mb of RAM, and it runs just perfectly. That's a whole lot more reasonable.
A very impressive feature of Vista is the thumbnail view of your open programs. All programs open in your task-bar can be viewed in a thumbnail without actually opening them. All you have to do is roll over them! Tiger has a similar, although admittedly not quite as good, version of this, where your open programs, when minused down, are shown in the lower right hand corner, live. So if your iTunes is minused down and the song changes, you can see it change in the dock. It's too small to make anything clearly out, however.
Vista is kicking some tail in the 3-dimensional realm. Changing apps has never been more beautiful. A viewing window of a nearly full sized preview of all of your open applications appears, laying them out one in front of another. You can then select which one you wish to go to.
Vista is really trying to impress with their glassy effect, and they're succeeding. Windows and menus look beautiful with their reflective and see through appearance. The task-bar and Start Menu have these looks as well.
Good work on the Gadgets. It seems like a serious take off of Apple's Widgets, but at least Microsoft is catching up.
In the visual department, Windows Vista is coming along beautifully. I'm very impressed with that. The biggest draw backs are the RAM issue as I mentioned, and with that the registry and DLL files. Windows will not be able to advance further in the efficiency and overall speed of their operating system until it rids itself of the registry. DLL files are just terrible to keep track of and mess with! The beauty of Mac is the self-contained applications it runs. Few, if any, external files. Most applications are entirely self contained in a .app file. I believe it's probably also understood by most of you that 90-95% of all viruses write themselves TO the registry in Windows. Funny...Mac doesn't have any viruses, does it?
A recent news release has stated that Vista is the "last of its kind." Microsoft has admitted that Vista, after being in development for the past 6 years, has become too complicated. The OS is so confusing (programming) and complicated that 3rd party developers are having a difficult time writing software for it. Microsoft has also stated that it's having a hard time finding a way to create updates to release for the OS because the programming is so closed. That's a big issue.
Good work on the visuals, Microsoft. Next OS, ditch the registry and DLL files--go for simple! Next OS, get your nose out of the air; their are other Operating Systems out there besides Windows. Recognize them. Be compatible. They are.
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