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Windows Vista and the Future of Hardware
NSIM writes to mention an article on ExtremeTech looking at the impact that Windows Vista will have on the future of computer hardware. In addition to obvious elements like CPUs, GPUs, and display interfaces, the article also touches on things like DRM (which Vista heavily supports) and audio formats. From the article: "Currently, only a few shipping products actually support the crypto-ROM needed to ensure compliance with Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, and CableCard. It's looking like next-generation cards will all implement the needed firmware. Continued... The impact on future displays is a bit more subtle, but we're starting to see the impact already. Widescreen displays offering very high resolutions, such as the Dell 2407WFP are starting to become more affordable. But a 1920x1200 resolution often creates legibility problems for some users resulting from the tiny size of the default Windows font."
Then the end-user does something stupid and makes the font legible and you lose desktop real estate again making 1920x1200 pretty small. While high resolution is nice and all, what we really need are 37" wide screen desktop monitors to come down in price. Or better yet, something that paints the image directly onto the rods and cones in our eyes. Of course at that point a screensaver will be mandatory if you don't want to be walking around with a Start button floating in view even when you're not on the system.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
".But I repeat myself."
- Mark Twain
When your article can't even be quoted for a a paragraph without a page break slipping in there, you have
Continued...
officially crossed the line.
What do you think quad core processors are for?
Ignore this signature. By order.
Actually, I was in line at the local CompUSA for the Windows 98 debut. I was hoping that I would win the copy they were giving away... so that I could take the CD from the box and grind it into the parking lot pavement in front of any cameras that might have been present. Alas, that didn't happen.
I was in line at midnight for windows 98. I have no idea why I was so excited for a new windows release, it's unimaginable.
I was also in line at midnight at CompUSA on the Win98 release. But I laughed at all the fools who were there to actually purchase Windows 98 (I ran Win95 and Redhat on two seperate machines at home and I was never an earlier adopter when it came to Windows). I was only there to get all the free-after-rebate stuff they had. And I got a ton of it, there was no shortage, as most of the sheep were there to get a copy of Windows. Unimaginable indeed.
I ended up getting a pirate copy of Windows 98 SE much later. It sucked only a little less than Win95 did.
#!/
As far as the other argument, where some people seem to think that their OS should be non-descript, small and boring, that might be a good thing. But, you are just going to fire up a game that uses all your video card anyway. It's like saying "we don't want any graphics, just gameplay.". Well, I suppose that explains why Maximum PC magazine reviews a dozen MUD games in every issue right? The whole industry is better off being all GO and no SHOW.
Personally, I think anybody that MINDS their OS using their graphics hardware, WHEN IT'S NOT DOING ANYTHING AT THE MOMENT ANYWAY needs to re-examine their thinking, just a little. If I can get an OS that can light up my graphics card that I just spent 500 bucks on, and give me a little something extra to look at, then great!
Most of you fail to realise that this is the exact same argument that the indistry has been having before the release of any OS, period. Examples? We upgraded from DOS to windows 1/2/3.x why? More features, more eye candy. We upgraded from 1/2/3.x to Windows 95 why? More features, more eye candy, better support for crazy people (like me) that wanted to use the new hardware. OMFG openGL screensavers? Is Microsoft crazy? If they think I'm going to upgrade to a 2 meg PCI video card JUST so I can have openGL screensavers, they are stupid!. So then what happened? We upgraded to Windows 98 for...Uh, big shocker here, more features, more eye candy. Active desktop anybody? Who here uses Konfabulator (yahoo widgets), the Google bar, or, even for you Mac guys, Konspose? Raise your hands everybody who shit a purple twinkie in '97 because you didn't think crap on your desktop was cool enough to warrant a few CPU cycles. Thanks, Win98!
Ok, so where were we now...Ah, yes Windows 2000. Why did we upgrade? Oh, come on, you know by now! But, it was just a tad different with 2000, wasn't it? yes! By this time people had been on the internet long enough to be producing some of the biggest and baddest little spyware / adware / virus / take over your shit- that in order to stay on top, had to start playing a little harder in the security game. "Built on NT Technology", still one of the worlds largest redundancies, made us feel warm and tingly in our anuses when we booted up.
So, then we arrive at Windows XP. And, the same arguments flew around that beta too, or have we all forgotten. Still, of the visitors to the site, what percentage of Windows visitors are XP users? probably most, if not somewhere in the 95-97% range. Alot of which were the loudmouths using 98 / 2k during the XP beta and cried like little bitches at the system requirments, and eye candy. Some of you may have discovered that you can turn it off, and have since STFU about something you can turn off if you don't like it. Great! We've acertained that the original argument is moot, stupid, redundant, childish and repetitive. Let's all spend the whole day arguing over it now, cause here comes Vista, and ..Lo-n-fuckin-behold, they are adding...More features! More eye candy! Higher system requirements! Better security!
And, to the suprise of absolutely nobody, Microsoft takes it to the bank, again. Everybody says the same crap about their product, again. And in the end, you all will be fucking using it. Again. Linux zealots excused, of course, as we all know, they NEVER make
Windows has more viruses because linux has more virus coders.