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Windows Vista Leaks ... Again!

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?"

50 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. Subverting the release of Ubuntu 5.10? by 3dWarlord · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

    1. Re:Subverting the release of Ubuntu 5.10? by strider44 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh my god, you mean that a site run by the Open Source Technology Group brings to the front page a story about the release of a major open source Linux distribution quicker than three leaked screenshots of an alpha that look exactly the same as what we've already seen? Bloody hell this is a catastrophe!

  2. Oh wait...! by jkrise · · Score: 5, Funny

    Any idea which of the several versions leaked?

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Oh wait...! by PhraudulentOne · · Score: 3, Informative

      Ultimate Edition, as it says on the page with the screenshots (you will see this if you click on TFA).

      --
      You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
    2. Re:Oh wait...! by Taladar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That is probably the only version in existance until they build in the restrictions for the other versions right before the release.

    3. Re:Oh wait...! by rubberbando · · Score: 4, Funny

      Any idea which of the several versions leaked?

      That would be Windows Vista: Leaky Edition.

      --
      DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
  3. Thats for the tabloids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    That looks like a hollywood starlet out to gain some cheap publicity by leaking news of her latest breast enhancement

    1. Re:Thats for the tabloids by Universal+Indicator · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or possibly her breast enhancement is leaking, we're not sure :-)

  4. 360 definitely by Zlib+pt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just check this story http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEklAEVplZ YuqLANUS.php

    Publicity is the soul of the game

  5. Vista with new Sieve Security Technology by squoozer · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    --
    I used to have a better sig but it broke.
    1. Re:Vista with new Sieve Security Technology by tehshen · · Score: 5, Funny

      Some day, all software will be distributed through either leaks or invites, then one day someone will try to be special and different by actually releasing it on time, then everyone will try to do that again, and it will be a horrible vicious cycle

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    2. Re:Vista with new Sieve Security Technology by mysqlrocks · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...we can't even keep hold of the software before it is written.

      Wow, that's pretty talented. Releasing code before you've written it. I wish I could do that. Surely you mean released not written?

  6. Of course it leaked by riflemann · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does that mean it's full of holes?

    *rimshot*

  7. MS Security by mordors9 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps they will rely upon their usual method of security ..... "damn, it just crashed my machine."

  8. Nothing to see here by Underholdning · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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

    1. Re:Nothing to see here by DaHat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Nothing to see here by tsa · · Score: 4, Funny

      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!

      --

      -- Cheers!

    3. Re:Nothing to see here by Powertrip · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    4. Re:Nothing to see here by mattbrundage · · Score: 4, Interesting

      From DVDDemystified:

      Many people complain that the audio level from DVD players is too low. In truth the audio level is too high on everything else. Movie soundtracks are extremely dynamic, ranging from near silence to intense explosions. In order to support an increased dynamic range and hit peaks (near the 2V RMS limit) without distortion, the average sound volume must be lower. This is why the line level from DVD players is lower than from almost all other sources. So far, unlike on CDs and LDs, the level is much more consistent between discs. If the change in volume when switching between DVD and other audio sources is annoying, you may be able to adjust the output signal level on some players or the input signal level on some receivers, but other than that, there's not much you can do.

      DVD Audio Levels

      --
      Matthew Brundage
      Silver Spring, MD
  9. Gotta hand it to em... by SpasticThinker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Gotta hand it to em... by gunpowda · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Gotta hand it to em... by callipygian-showsyst · · Score: 4, Informative
      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.

  10. For a moment I thought... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...it was the Windows source code that leaked...Again!

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

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  11. So, Mr Anderson. by mrselfdestrukt · · Score: 5, Funny

    What good is a leak. If nobody wants it?

    --
    "I used to have that really cool,funny sig ,but it got stolen."
  12. Internet Explorer - now menubar free? by antsquish · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Looking at the screenshots here: it appears that Internet Explorer has shed itself of a menubar! Any news on this?
  13. 5219 had tabbed browsing by dsmitchell1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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?

  14. Re:WMP11 by The+Slashdotted · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Hopefully, it won't sneak DRM in, when ripping from non-DRM source.

    Hopefully, it'll support Ogg Vorbis.

    Hopefully, some OSS developers will bring life back into CDex.

    Hopefully, it won't report that I'm infringing on Paris Hilton's copywrite.

    Hopefully, if you want a vision of the future, you'll imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

  15. Leak by parasonic · · Score: 5, Funny

    More importantly, does the keygen come with cool music?

  16. Clippy? by soloport · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Windows Media Player, including a smart interface.

    What does it mean when MS creates a "smart" interface?

    1. Re:Clippy? by D-Cypell · · Score: 5, Funny

      "What does it mean when MS creates a "smart" interface?"

      Roughly translated it means... "Virus runtime included!"

    2. Re:Clippy? by farzadb82 · · Score: 5, Funny
      What does it mean when MS creates a "smart" interface?

      It means the interface *knows* more than you and therefore will never allow you to do what you want it to - even if its correct.

    3. Re:Clippy? by cyclomedia · · Score: 5, Funny

      "smart" meaning that it decides for you what it wants you to want to do and throws up three confirm boxes if you want to do what you actually want to do, finally blue screening after you clicked ok in all three.

      --
      If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
    4. Re:Clippy? by tbone1 · · Score: 3, Funny
      What does it mean when MS creates a "smart" interface?

      They put a wrapper over iTunes?

      --

      The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
  17. Re:Screenshot 2 by SimilarityEngine · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Relatedly... why has the titlebar of one of the windows in screenshot 3 been blurred? You can still read the title in the taskbar! D'oh!

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  18. transparency makes reading difficult by backslashdot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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

  19. Seeds... by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 3, Funny
    Something tells me this will be one torrent that will be lacking seeders...

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  20. Re:interesting... by xao+gypsie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If he's using XP now, presumably like most of those idjits out there, he'll jump for joy when Vista comes out
    I resent that comment. I would call my self an informed user, with plenty of Linux experience. However, I get windows xp for free because I am a grad student, and currently don't have any need to switch over. But when Vista is actually released, I have no desire to run an OS that does not come with all the features that are available. That annoys me to no end. When I say, "when I get tired of XP", I mean in about a year or two when I am looking to upgrade. So you might want to quit putting all those 'idjits' into a pigeonhole and realize that there are informed users who use XP who also find that the Vista nonsense is the last straw...

    --


    xao
    http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
  21. Re:Tabs by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 5, Informative
    Who actually started this tabbed bowsing thing? I thought Opera had tabs before Firefox?

    The better question is what mod thought that this flamebait would actually be "Interesting" to discuss for the 2342343th time. Crixus, if you haven't seen this topic enough to make you sick, then you must have taken a 2-year leave of absence from slashdot (which doesn't sound like a bad idea).

    News at 11: Opera had tabs before firefox. But first, we'll go to breaking news indicating vi is much better than emacs.

  22. Think about it. by ninja_assault_kitten · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  23. Re:WMP11 by erroneous · · Score: 3, Funny

    The complaint is that a word that originally meant "with hope" is instead being used as a substitute for "I hope".

    There becomes a confusion when I write:
    "Hopefully, he left on Tuesday"

    Do I mean that I hope he left on Tuesday, or that he had hope when he left on Tuesday? It should mean the latter but in common use it's starting to instead mean the former.

    I wouldn't worry about it too much as languages have always been fluid and the relatively new usage isn't entirely unintuitive except in very rare circumstances like the one I outline above.

    Hopefully, you understand what I mean.

    --
    erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
  24. Re:interesting... by xao+gypsie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually my grad program is in Divinity (theology). I just don't have the time to make the switch over to Linux yet. But I will probably this summer.

    --


    xao
    http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
  25. Re:I'd Like To Weigh In On this... by ninja_assault_kitten · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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.

  26. Vista Porn Edition? by overpayd · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

  27. Re:WMP11 by Haeleth · · Score: 3, Informative

    There becomes a confusion when I write:
    "Hopefully, he left on Tuesday"


    That sentence is not ambiguous.

    Do I mean that I hope he left on Tuesday, or that he had hope when he left on Tuesday?

    The former. It would not be natural English to use it in the latter sense.

    It should mean the latter but in common use it's starting to instead mean the former.

    "It's starting" is a rather funny way of describing a usage that has been standard for about a century, and "in common use" is a bit strange given that the form has been predominant even in formal, literary, and technical English for at least 40 years.

    And I'm surprised to see you say that a word "should" mean something, when you go on to acknowledge, quite correctly, that language is a fluid thing. It's safe to assume you don't believe treacle "should" mean an antidote to snake venom, so why do you believe hopefully "should" mean "the subject acts with hope" rather than "I speak with hope"?

    (I like the subtle split infinitive, incidentally. Nice way to emphasise the fact that most "rules" are arbitrary stylistic decisions, rather than being founded in usage or convenience.)

  28. It's been Apple's week, so they had to do this by Nice2Cats · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.

  29. Pulling a 360? by payndz · · Score: 4, Funny

    "180, you stupid, spaghetti-slurping cretin - 180! If I did a 360, I'd go completely around and end up back where I started!"

    --
    You must think in Russian.
  30. Re:I have a MSDN copy of Vista by xerotime · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a full legal msdn copy of longhorn beta 1 and let me tell you first hand. it sucks. I have two gigs of ram...and its slow. it lags continously and only is efficeent half the time. when the Vista beta comes out i'll let ya know if its any faster. for now...i'm dissappointed.

  31. Where's the beef? by electroniceric · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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!
  32. Woah! by The+Real+Nem · · Score: 3, Informative

    You've actually seen Linux use it's swap file? I have Gentoo installed (KDE) and no matter what I do I can't for the life of me get Linux to use any of the swap file. Sometimes I wonder why I even created one. (I have 512 MB of memory BTW.) XP on the other hand seems contempt to thrash the hell out of its swap whenever I so much as launch a reasonably heavy application (or several lighter ones).