* - Nothing in this context means "No common business application"
Why would any sane company waste the time and money? They would be better off using older versions of the applications. They run faster anyway. Transparency on UI widgets does not make an employee more productive.
Ever booted up XP in a VM? Takes less than 20 seconds from POST to Desktop, and even faster with an SSD on the Host OS. Try that with Vista or Win7.
It's free, very very easy to get into with the available tools, and has a remarkably helpful community if you treat said community with respect.
Making TF2 levels/maps and/or HL1/2 levels/maps is very compelling, once you've played those games.
Of course, it's all just Quake and Worldcraft ~13 years later, but still, I can't think of any better way to get anyone onto the map->modding->coding path.
Second choice: NWN1 and the Aurora SDK. Same deal, but different genre.
Nah, I just disable all/any/the Indexing/Search service entirely, THEN note Win7 still likes to thrash the disk more than XP, and go back to XP which is faster, for my needs.
Oh, and I also prefer an operating system that launches the complete user desktop & all required services with only 14 process as default/minimal instead of 50+ (like Win7 does). But I'm odd that way. Then again I think I'm the only person I've ever met that measures DPC latency and context switching overhead, and rants about crappy drivers that abuse it.
There's no business/office productivity software that requires Vista or Windows 7. In fact, I'm not aware of any software of any kind that REQUIRES Windows 7.
You can run everything on XP.
Now ask yourself: "Why are we spending -any- money on upgrades?"
Two paths from this point.
1) Slap yourself, rebuild your corporate image with a nice current minimal build and give users the option to rebuild their machines with said image dynamically, at boot time. This will produce vastly greater productivity than any attempt to upgrade.
OR
2) Continue on your current path to justify your continued employment and claim Windows 7 is necessary and the upgrade is "a must have" to remain competitive.
In no test, on the same hardware, will you see any performance increases, by any time based measurement when comparing Windows XP SP3 vs. Windows 7. Windows 7 will always be slower. Boot time, shutdown time, application launch time, or install time. All slower. And you don't have to take my word for it, break out your stopwatch, you can see it for yourself.
Sending people off to war while remaining publicly puritanical has a long and glorious history. Western European nations have been doing this for as long as Western Europe has been around. The "gift" of colonialism granted such ideas to North America.
Some bad habits are hard to change. Pr0n and war being two of them. Hypocrisy being a third.
"... Yes, but that's meaningless to most people..." inside the United States.
Seriously... miles? In 2010? You know there's less than 350 million of you, right? How about you take one of those trillion dollars you spend on being the world police and catch up with the rest of world by switching to metric.
The registry tweaks to prevent any Windows operating system from broadcasting for NB queries has been around for a very long time. (as in, since at least Windows 95)
It is entirely possible to change the behavior to WINS/Unicast only, or turn it off entirely.
Go to the NBT section. Note the entry for BcastNameQueryCount , change it to zero.
If you do this as part of your corporate build strategy, you could even isolate rogue "Windows" hosts by noting -any- nbquery broadcasts and shutting down those ports a rogues on your client VLANs.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that in 1992 (yes, that's 17 years ago) you could buy the Virtual-IO I-Glasses for $900, and they were 320x240 (claimed 640x480 with scan line interpolation).
Apparently, 17 years is exactly enough time to increase the resolution from 320x240 to 800x600. Hm.
Some articles (from 1998) would claim that defect density is the main problem in high resolution LARGE displays:
from: http://www.ausairpower.net/OSR-0398.html " As is evident, the high cost of current AM TFT LCD panels is a direct result of very complex fabrication processes, which may produce often poor batch yields. The bigger the panel and its number of pixels, the greater the odds that a processing defect will occur rendering a pixel or row/column of pixels dead and thus resulting in an expensive and useless reject. "
So... would the logic then extend to smaller LCD panels being EASIER to make in higher resolutions? It seems reasonable. However, if that's the case, why isn't the market full of high resolution small LCD panels that can be used to make these $900 into $100 units that everyone could be using instead of massive LCD monitors?
If you've ever had the pleasure of actually seeing a quote from Nominum, you'll see why they're so down on 'freeware'.
Nominum's DNS software is extremely (and I mean VERY) expensive. For anyone. And I don't just mean it's hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's HUNDREDS _OF_ THOUSANDS of dollars for even a few licenses.
I suspect sales are down (in these uncertain economic times *cough*) so slandering the competition (errrmmm... how do you compete with free?) is apparently the current marketing strategy.
Happily, this interview/article makes me dislike them and their products even more than I already did.
Pretty sure a significant percentage of current WoW players are thinking: Man, I wish I could control my character like that! Imagine the shape I'd be in if I played like that...!
Yeah, if this reaches the market and allows for seamless integration into any/some/many/one MMO, talk about a runaway hit.
"Kill epic monsters, get a workout!" Where's the downside?
I've used every keyboard since the Apple ][+, and I have to say there are two favorites:
The first is the Compaq Keyboard (Spare Part Number: 269513-006). Relatively rugged, and I've never seen one fail. They are super easy to take apart and if you remove the controller, you can put them through the dishwasher if you want/need to.
The second (current favorite) is the Targus AKB0404. USB, Half height, half travel, sleep key, volume control, music control, and 11 application keys, all in a standard size layout. http://www.targus.com/US/product_details.asp?sku=AKB04US You can get them for $25 at any reasonably astute computer store. I've got three of these.
The primary differentiator on any modern keyboard though, in my opinion, is if the |\ key is above the enter key. If it has one of those monstrously larget enter keys, it's junk. And the Lenovo keyboards where the Fn key is in the exact spot Ctrl should be? Yeah, those are junk too.
You cannot switch to Offline mode without... wait for it... being Online. Can't go Online? Sorry! Can't go Offline! Thanks Valve, that's awesome!
Don't believe it? Go ahead a try it. It's an enlightening experience.
If it was possible to "go offline" or "play in offline mode" without any pre-requisites, I might actually be a big supporter of Steam. Until then, nope!
Any software model that forces customers to phone home/connect to the mothership is flawed at best and horrific at worst.
Regarding Team Fortress 2 (arguably one of their most successful recent titles)
Valve as a company has ridden on the coattails of technology originally developed (and not significantly improved since) from around 1997. The HL/HL2 entity/brush system hasn't changed significantly since Quake1 and to date they still haven't achieved the stunning leap forward of the original Team Fortress "mod". To be clear, the features and functionality available in Quake1 with the original Team Fortress Mod has not been seen in TF2. You would think after 12 years they could have come up with something better. Nope! (No, from a development/mapping perspective, more eye candy does not equal "better")
Take a walk through their bug database and see how long it takes to get anything acknowledged, never mind fixed. It's atrocious. It's embarrassing. The number of developers at Valve that actually know enough about their "flagship" engine and SDK is less than two, that is, one. And he has all the arrogance such a unique position would create. Two for two, Valve, well played.
That's awesome. How is removing the only publicly accessible bug submission and tracking tool a good thing? Oh right, it's not.
Steam is a cancer on the gaming world. Here's the way it should work: I give you money, you give me a product. That's where our business relationship ends, after the payment transaction.
Want to try something fun with Steam? Play your favorite game. Shut down your computer. Disconnect from the Internet (I know, shocking, but try it!). Now start up the computer and play your favorite game again. Oh wait, you CAN'T. In fact, without planning ahead and jumping through all their lame ass hoops, you CANNOT. EVER. PLAY. AGAIN. Until you reconnect to the Internet.
Guess what? Some of us don't live in a world of 100% guaranteeed Internet Connectivity. Yeah, like... you know, the part of the world that isn't australia, north america, and western europe. Well that's ok, says Valve, you're boned! Thanks for the money, we'll be snorting more coke off hookers while you can't play your game! Woo hoo!
Until it is possible to play the games I paid for without planning ahead for an Internet "outage", Steam is fundamentally broken. 100%, forever, stick a fork in it, it's done.
The size and resolution of the screen on the Kindle 2 is identical to the Sony PRS 500, released November 1, 2006.
E-ink had the screens (and eval kits) long before that.
Adding more shades of gray is not making the display vastly better. Making it the 8 inch diagonal that is a modern paperback and losing the wasted real estate (42% of the top surface area of the kindle 2 is NOT screen) would be an innovation.
Sorry Amazon, no money for you. I'll keep my PRS 500 and wait for a paperback sized display, not a ripoff of 3+ year old tech.
The Kindle 2 screen is the exact same size and resolution as the Sony Reader (PRS 500/505/700). Adding a few more shades of gray does not a good product rip-off make.
See here, on this page: http://e-ink.com/products/matrix/High_Res.html Where it shows 8" and 9.7" displays? Yeah, those be known as "better". Guess what the diagonal is on a typical paperback? Oh wait wait! Pick me! I know.. EIGHT INCHES. NOT SIX.
Noobs. Ever heard of a touch screen? Oh yeah, like Sony has on the PRS 700 and it uses the same exact screen?! Gee, what else uses a touch screen instead of a hardware keyboard? Oh right, the iPhone.
The most memorable naming scheme I've used was based on DC/Marvel super heroes and super villains. IIRC, non Unix machines were Marvel names and unix-like machines were DC names.
When we ran out of those, we threw in constellations and stars. I think that reached >=1022 hostnames, which was the goal.
The stiff shirts in the sysadmin group felt the names were unprofessional. When I pointed out that CNAMEs were fun, the entire debate boiled down to them wanting THEIR names first as default/A records, and "casual" names as CNAMEs.
They didn't actually care what the host saw itself as, just that they didn't have to use the "unprofessional" name when connecting. Apparently ssh'ing to a arbitrary DNS entry that didn't reflect what the host knew itself to be was an illogical incongruity they were willing to live with, as long as they got their way. They didn't even care about the reverse entries.
That was another life lesson learned: Dilbert was right, again! Some people do treat Operating System choices (and DNS naming conventions) like political affiliations. Oh, and it's more important to have sudo privileges on the authoritative name server than on the trusted host(s).;)
After many years of watching this happen, it -may- be the following:
A windows update occurs. For whatever reason, despite everything/everyone saying this should/could/would never happen, a newer, more recent driver is replaced by an older driver provided by Microsoft. The system slows right down, largely due to "generic" drivers for things like video, sound, or in particular drive controllers and my all time favorite, motherboard chipsets.
So, things to check?
Are you using the OEM provided drivers for sound, video, SATA/IDE controller and motherboard chipset? Have they recently been replaced? Did an update just occur?
If not, go and download this: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml... and check for deferred procedure calls of a volume that are indicative of very very bad drivers (which may be in place due to the above). I've seen drivers written so badly on a brand new XP SP3 system they will have real-time sound & video dropouts caused entirely due to DPC latency in the dozens of milliseconds.
For reference, my current system, with that tool, shows a modal DPC latency of 2 microseconds. yes, that's 2, not 20, not 200, not 20000. Two. A system with proper drivers should NEVER EVER EVER go above the 500 microsecond "green" limit.
Manufacturers such as Acer (and their ilk) are particularly bad for this, especially during the time period (and since) when laptops were offered with both Vista and XP. The XP drivers were/are absolute junk, and the resulting the performance is hideous. In some cases, using OLDER drivers provides relief, but sometimes, you have no choice but to install Linux and run XP in a VM.:|
Slashdot Mirror
"... that would have the potential to turn into a baby if it were in a womb ..."
Thank you for explaining the details so I know which part I specifically find morally objectionable. Good info!
Nothing* requires Vista or Windows 7.
* - Nothing in this context means "No common business application"
Why would any sane company waste the time and money? They would be better off using older versions of the applications. They run faster anyway. Transparency on UI widgets does not make an employee more productive.
Ever booted up XP in a VM? Takes less than 20 seconds from POST to Desktop, and even faster with an SSD on the Host OS. Try that with Vista or Win7.
So... HTML with images and/or with CSS support, which permits, if necessary, pixel accurate rendering of any output, that's no good?
Rich Text Format (RTF) works for 99% of recreational reading. Have they even stepped foot inside the fiction section of a library since 1950?
Way to have a solution looking for a problem. Fools.
Just show him the Source SDK from Valve.
It's free, very very easy to get into with the available tools, and has a remarkably helpful community if you treat said community with respect.
Making TF2 levels/maps and/or HL1/2 levels/maps is very compelling, once you've played those games.
Of course, it's all just Quake and Worldcraft ~13 years later, but still, I can't think of any better way to get anyone onto the map->modding->coding path.
Second choice: NWN1 and the Aurora SDK. Same deal, but different genre.
Nah, I just disable all/any/the Indexing/Search service entirely, THEN note Win7 still likes to thrash the disk more than XP, and go back to XP which is faster, for my needs.
Oh, and I also prefer an operating system that launches the complete user desktop & all required services with only 14 process as default/minimal instead of 50+ (like Win7 does). But I'm odd that way. Then again I think I'm the only person I've ever met that measures DPC latency and context switching overhead, and rants about crappy drivers that abuse it.
There's no business/office productivity software that requires Vista or Windows 7. In fact, I'm not aware of any software of any kind that REQUIRES Windows 7.
You can run everything on XP.
Now ask yourself: "Why are we spending -any- money on upgrades?"
Two paths from this point.
1) Slap yourself, rebuild your corporate image with a nice current minimal build and give users the option to rebuild their machines with said image dynamically, at boot time. This will produce vastly greater productivity than any attempt to upgrade.
OR
2) Continue on your current path to justify your continued employment and claim Windows 7 is necessary and the upgrade is "a must have" to remain competitive.
In no test, on the same hardware, will you see any performance increases, by any time based measurement when comparing Windows XP SP3 vs. Windows 7. Windows 7 will always be slower. Boot time, shutdown time, application launch time, or install time. All slower. And you don't have to take my word for it, break out your stopwatch, you can see it for yourself.
Sending people off to war while remaining publicly puritanical has a long and glorious history. Western European nations have been doing this for as long as Western Europe has been around. The "gift" of colonialism granted such ideas to North America.
Some bad habits are hard to change. Pr0n and war being two of them. Hypocrisy being a third.
"... Yes, but that's meaningless to most people ..." inside the United States.
Seriously... miles? In 2010? You know there's less than 350 million of you, right? How about you take one of those trillion dollars you spend on being the world police and catch up with the rest of world by switching to metric.
http://www1.ca.dell.com/ca/en/home/Laptops/laptop-inspiron-1545/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-inspiron-1545&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&ref=lthp
Not sure why you wouldn't get an Inspiron 1545. Full XP Driver support, runs Ubuntu or Fedora, or heaven forbid, comes with Windows 7.
4GB ram, 2.2Ghz dual core, and a 320GB drive for $500, and the 15.6" screen is a WHITE LED backlight.
The features and prices of that model have been increasing since January 2009, while the price has been the same or lower. Go Dell!
The registry tweaks to prevent any Windows operating system from broadcasting for NB queries has been around for a very long time. (as in, since at least Windows 95)
It is entirely possible to change the behavior to WINS/Unicast only, or turn it off entirely.
Enlightenment is only a click away: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160177
What you want is to make your host a "P Node".
If you don't want to do that, you can always go here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314053
Go to the NBT section. Note the entry for BcastNameQueryCount , change it to zero.
If you do this as part of your corporate build strategy, you could even isolate rogue "Windows" hosts by noting -any- nbquery broadcasts and shutting down those ports a rogues on your client VLANs.
Then you want these:
http://www.i-glassesstore.com/i-glasses-i3pc.html
800x600!
Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that in 1992 (yes, that's 17 years ago) you could buy the Virtual-IO I-Glasses for $900, and they were 320x240 (claimed 640x480 with scan line interpolation).
Apparently, 17 years is exactly enough time to increase the resolution from 320x240 to 800x600. Hm.
Some articles (from 1998) would claim that defect density is the main problem in high resolution LARGE displays:
from: http://www.ausairpower.net/OSR-0398.html
"
As is evident, the high cost of current AM TFT LCD panels is a direct result of very complex fabrication processes, which may produce often poor batch yields. The bigger the panel and its number of pixels, the greater the odds that a processing defect will occur rendering a pixel or row/column of pixels dead and thus resulting in an expensive and useless reject.
"
So... would the logic then extend to smaller LCD panels being EASIER to make in higher resolutions? It seems reasonable. However, if that's the case, why isn't the market full of high resolution small LCD panels that can be used to make these $900 into $100 units that everyone could be using instead of massive LCD monitors?
If you've ever had the pleasure of actually seeing a quote from Nominum, you'll see why they're so down on 'freeware'.
Nominum's DNS software is extremely (and I mean VERY) expensive. For anyone. And I don't just mean it's hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's HUNDREDS _OF_ THOUSANDS of dollars for even a few licenses.
I suspect sales are down (in these uncertain economic times *cough*) so slandering the competition (errrmmm... how do you compete with free?) is apparently the current marketing strategy.
Happily, this interview/article makes me dislike them and their products even more than I already did.
Well it's good it's not just a slightly-larger-than-average Golden Eagle claw. http://storeforknowledge.com/Golden-Eagle-Claw-Replica-P8556C220.aspx A claw that is 1cm larger than a modern bird and it's a legendary giant man eating bird? Interesting.
Pretty sure a significant percentage of current WoW players are thinking: Man, I wish I could control my character like that! Imagine the shape I'd be in if I played like that...!
Yeah, if this reaches the market and allows for seamless integration into any/some/many/one MMO, talk about a runaway hit.
"Kill epic monsters, get a workout!" Where's the downside?
I've used every keyboard since the Apple ][+, and I have to say there are two favorites:
The first is the Compaq Keyboard (Spare Part Number: 269513-006). Relatively rugged, and I've never seen one fail. They are super easy to take apart and if you remove the controller, you can put them through the dishwasher if you want/need to.
The second (current favorite) is the Targus AKB0404. USB, Half height, half travel, sleep key, volume control, music control, and 11 application keys, all in a standard size layout. http://www.targus.com/US/product_details.asp?sku=AKB04US You can get them for $25 at any reasonably astute computer store. I've got three of these.
The primary differentiator on any modern keyboard though, in my opinion, is if the |\ key is above the enter key. If it has one of those monstrously larget enter keys, it's junk. And the Lenovo keyboards where the Fn key is in the exact spot Ctrl should be? Yeah, those are junk too.
Sorry, BigJClark, but you fail @ Steam.
You cannot switch to Offline mode without... wait for it... being Online. Can't go Online? Sorry! Can't go Offline! Thanks Valve, that's awesome!
Don't believe it? Go ahead a try it. It's an enlightening experience.
If it was possible to "go offline" or "play in offline mode" without any pre-requisites, I might actually be a big supporter of Steam. Until then, nope!
Any software model that forces customers to phone home/connect to the mothership is flawed at best and horrific at worst.
Regarding Team Fortress 2 (arguably one of their most successful recent titles)
Valve as a company has ridden on the coattails of technology originally developed (and not significantly improved since) from around 1997. The HL/HL2 entity/brush system hasn't changed significantly since Quake1 and to date they still haven't achieved the stunning leap forward of the original Team Fortress "mod". To be clear, the features and functionality available in Quake1 with the original Team Fortress Mod has not been seen in TF2. You would think after 12 years they could have come up with something better. Nope! (No, from a development/mapping perspective, more eye candy does not equal "better")
Take a walk through their bug database and see how long it takes to get anything acknowledged, never mind fixed. It's atrocious. It's embarrassing. The number of developers at Valve that actually know enough about their "flagship" engine and SDK is less than two, that is, one. And he has all the arrogance such a unique position would create. Two for two, Valve, well played.
Oh wait, you can't look through their bug database! Looky here... the buglist was retired late in 2008/early in 2009, and used to reside at http://developer.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/bugzilla/buglist.cgi
Apparently now you can't submit bugs. http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/index.php?title=Bugzilla&redirect=no
That's awesome. How is removing the only publicly accessible bug submission and tracking tool a good thing? Oh right, it's not.
Steam is a cancer on the gaming world. Here's the way it should work: I give you money, you give me a product. That's where our business relationship ends, after the payment transaction.
Want to try something fun with Steam? Play your favorite game. Shut down your computer. Disconnect from the Internet (I know, shocking, but try it!). Now start up the computer and play your favorite game again. Oh wait, you CAN'T. In fact, without planning ahead and jumping through all their lame ass hoops, you CANNOT. EVER. PLAY. AGAIN. Until you reconnect to the Internet.
Guess what? Some of us don't live in a world of 100% guaranteeed Internet Connectivity. Yeah, like ... you know, the part of the world that isn't australia, north america, and western europe. Well that's ok, says Valve, you're boned! Thanks for the money, we'll be snorting more coke off hookers while you can't play your game! Woo hoo!
Until it is possible to play the games I paid for without planning ahead for an Internet "outage", Steam is fundamentally broken. 100%, forever, stick a fork in it, it's done.
The size and resolution of the screen on the Kindle 2 is identical to the Sony PRS 500, released November 1, 2006.
E-ink had the screens (and eval kits) long before that.
Adding more shades of gray is not making the display vastly better. Making it the 8 inch diagonal that is a modern paperback and losing the wasted real estate (42% of the top surface area of the kindle 2 is NOT screen) would be an innovation.
Sorry Amazon, no money for you. I'll keep my PRS 500 and wait for a paperback sized display, not a ripoff of 3+ year old tech.
icmp chat ( http://www.codito.de/ , http://www.codito.de/prog/icmpchat-0.7.tar.gz ) support encryption and pads data to appear like completely normal ICMP traffic. It also supports all ICMP types, not just echo request/reply, so getting creative is trivial.
Of course, port forwarding/proxy'ing anything/everything through ssh or openvpn is also trivial. Good luck eavesdropping on that.
If anyone is caught doing anything "bad" with Skype, they're just ignorant, lazy, or both.
The Kindle 2 screen is the exact same size and resolution as the Sony Reader (PRS 500/505/700). Adding a few more shades of gray does not a good product rip-off make.
This is not an innovation, it's the continuing exhausting E-ink's initial c. 2000 inventory of 6 inch 170dpi 600x800 screens. http://www.eink.com/press/releases/pr26.html
See here, on this page: http://e-ink.com/products/matrix/High_Res.html Where it shows 8" and 9.7" displays? Yeah, those be known as "better". Guess what the diagonal is on a typical paperback? Oh wait wait! Pick me! I know.. EIGHT INCHES. NOT SIX.
Noobs. Ever heard of a touch screen? Oh yeah, like Sony has on the PRS 700 and it uses the same exact screen?! Gee, what else uses a touch screen instead of a hardware keyboard? Oh right, the iPhone.
The most memorable naming scheme I've used was based on DC/Marvel super heroes and super villains. IIRC, non Unix machines were Marvel names and unix-like machines were DC names.
When we ran out of those, we threw in constellations and stars. I think that reached >=1022 hostnames, which was the goal.
The stiff shirts in the sysadmin group felt the names were unprofessional. When I pointed out that CNAMEs were fun, the entire debate boiled down to them wanting THEIR names first as default/A records, and "casual" names as CNAMEs.
They didn't actually care what the host saw itself as, just that they didn't have to use the "unprofessional" name when connecting. Apparently ssh'ing to a arbitrary DNS entry that didn't reflect what the host knew itself to be was an illogical incongruity they were willing to live with, as long as they got their way. They didn't even care about the reverse entries.
That was another life lesson learned: Dilbert was right, again! Some people do treat Operating System choices (and DNS naming conventions) like political affiliations. Oh, and it's more important to have sudo privileges on the authoritative name server than on the trusted host(s). ;)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100265160767669824996.000461b5f81c6c092e535&t=h&z=8 Hello, Anchorage!
After many years of watching this happen, it -may- be the following:
A windows update occurs.
For whatever reason, despite everything/everyone saying this should/could/would never happen, a newer, more recent driver is replaced by an older driver provided by Microsoft.
The system slows right down, largely due to "generic" drivers for things like video, sound, or in particular drive controllers and my all time favorite, motherboard chipsets.
So, things to check?
Are you using the OEM provided drivers for sound, video, SATA/IDE controller and motherboard chipset? Have they recently been replaced? Did an update just occur?
If not, go and download this: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml ... and check for deferred procedure calls of a volume that are indicative of very very bad drivers (which may be in place due to the above). I've seen drivers written so badly on a brand new XP SP3 system they will have real-time sound & video dropouts caused entirely due to DPC latency in the dozens of milliseconds.
For reference, my current system, with that tool, shows a modal DPC latency of 2 microseconds. yes, that's 2, not 20, not 200, not 20000. Two. A system with proper drivers should NEVER EVER EVER go above the 500 microsecond "green" limit.
Manufacturers such as Acer (and their ilk) are particularly bad for this, especially during the time period (and since) when laptops were offered with both Vista and XP. The XP drivers were/are absolute junk, and the resulting the performance is hideous. In some cases, using OLDER drivers provides relief, but sometimes, you have no choice but to install Linux and run XP in a VM. :|