Microsoft's grand plans for Vista have turned into a warmed over version of MacOSX. The new graphics engine is definitely lifted right out of Apple's OS. The advanced WinFS filesystem has been reduced to nothing new with a copy of Apple's Spotlight bolted on. Microsoft's User Account Protection is so annoying as to be pretty much useless. It kicks in when you delete a shortcut to a program? Are they nuts? Paul Thurrott lets Microsoft have it with both guns in his review.
"Promises were made. Excitement was generated. None of it, as it turns out, was worth a damn. From a technical standpoint, the version of Windows Vista we will receive is a sad shell of its former self, a shadow. One might still call it a major Windows release. I will, for various reasons. The kernel was rewritten. The graphics subsystem is substantially improved, if a little obviously modeled after that in Mac OS X. Heck, half of the features of Windows Vista seem to have been lifted from Apple's marketing materials.
Shame on you, Microsoft. Shame on you, but not just for not doing better. We expect you to copy Apple, just as Apple (and Linux) in its turn copies you. But we do not and should not expect to be promised the world, only to be given a warmed over copy of Mac OS X Tiger in return. Windows Vista is a disappointment. There is no way to sugarcoat that very real truth."
Microsoft has really fumbled the ball over and over with the development of this OS. It's nice to see them get called out for it.
The old school reasons for not even trying a Mac have fallen away. The old saw was that Macs used nonstandard parts that were more expensive. The truth is that you can buy a cheap Mac Mini which uses standard RAM and notebook hard drives, and has a socketed CPU which can be upgraded. You don't have to give up your investment in Windows software, since Boot Camp lets you run Windows on your Mac if you wish to. If you end up deciding that you don't like MacOSX then you have a very classy super small mini me Windows based computer. No wasted money.
Windows users who give MacOSX a try find that they like it quite a lot. Anand Lal Shimpi over at Anandtech.com springs to mind. Windows uber user Paul Thurott also couldn't review the CTP of Vista without saying "I have certain misgivings about Vista resembling Mac OS X. With its translucent windows, such comparisons are going to be hard to avoid. But Vista's similarity with OS X goes well beyond window dressing. Certain applications, such as Calendar, Sidebar, and Photo Gallery, appear to be directly, ahem, influenced by similar applications in OS X." This is an OS that geeks can't help but love once they use it.
The really amusing thing is now the Mac supports more software than Windows does. You can run everything that runs on Windows, everything that runs on MacOSX, plus quite a bit of the software that runs on Linux. It's geek nirvana.
There really isn't any reason not go give a Mac a chance anymore. I'm an MCSE (gee, did you guess from my handle?)and I like OSX quite a lot. I can't wait to see what they do in the next version of MacOSX since it looks like Vista is going to be used dog food.
Hopefully the EU will make Microsoft actually release information to let others create client software compatible with their servers. Not just release some information under a license that leaves out open source projects like Samba. Heck, while they are at it they should force Microsoft to open source the Office file formats. They got ahead in office software using thier illegal Windows monopoly too!
An Intel Core Solo at 1.5GHz with 2MB of L2 Cache onboard and a 667 Mhz Frontside Bus. (was a PowerPC G4 processor at 1.25GHz with 512K of L2 Cache onboard and a 167 Mhz Frontside Bus.)
A larger hard disk 60GB (was 40GB)
Bluetooth 2.0 built in (was optional)
WiFi G built in (was optional)
Gigabit Ethernet (was 100Mbit)
512 Meg RAM (was 256 Megs)
4 USB 2 ports (was 2)
Digital Audio Out(was headphone jack)
Digital Audio In (Was totally missing)
Remote Control
Support for up to 2 Gigs of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) instead of 1 Gig of 333MHz DDR SDRAM (PC2700)
Things You give up:
ATI's Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM for Intel's GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
Look kids, we are going to be very very happy that we kept all our nuclear waste and didn't shoot it into the sun or something. We already have some technology to recycle 'spent' fuel rods into usuable nuclear reactor fuel. I can only imagine that as time moves forward this is something that we will get a lot better at.
Nuclear weapons grade material along with spent nuclear material from reactors can can be recycled into Mixed Oxide or MOX fuel and used in reactors again. What a great way to get use from both unwanted nuclear bombs and spent reactor fuel!
Let's take a moment to thank the Democrats for the Copyright Term Extension Act that President Clinton signed into law back in 1998. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_ Term_Extension_Act However to be honest had the Republicans been in power then I doubt it would have made a big difference. Both parties act in the best intrests of whoever is throwing large sums of money at them at the moment and not in the best interests of the people they supposely represent.
Under the terms of the Copyright Term Extension Act works created by a person are protected for the life of the creator plus seventy years. Compare this with the original British Statute of Anne which provided protection for only 28 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#History_of_ copyright
Works created by a corporation are protected for 95 years. Since the Copyright Term Extension Act was largely paid for by Disney it's no wonder that the early Steamboat Willie Micky Mouse cartoons are still protected and not in the public Domain as they should have been.
Before this latest extension of copyright towards infinity we have to look all the way back to 1976 to find the last time US copywrite terms were extended.
Both the Newton and Palm are pretty outdated right now... Why try to extend tech that is that old? I think we're getting to the point where you could offer OS X on a small, light, and thin device. Look at the recent Apple patents for hand held devices.
Apple has already hired the BeOS programmers they wanted. The thing Be had over everyone else was that it was so multithreaded. If the OS had stayed in constant development it would be fun watching them kick everyones ass now on the new multicore cpu's. Since it has been abandoned so long it's really out of date now.
The music industry is very used to getting their way. They have plenty of money to give to politicians when they aren't giving it to radio stations in illegal pay for play schemes. Give them a while and they will bribe the bad news away...
Intel Macs will boot Windows Vista when it comes out. Windows Vista is the first version of 32 bit Windows that will support Intel's replacement for the old creaky BIOS that Apple uses in it's new machines. Why bother to support the old on-it's -way-out-the-door tech in your new hardware?
Here's text from the CERT advisory which was updated today:
disabling the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will not eliminate this vulnerability as it is currently thought to exist in the Windows Graphical Device Interface library (GDI32.DLL).
I also understand that Windows Vista is supposed to run IE with lower privileges than the current user. The sad thing is that lowered privileges wouldn't do a damn thing to stop you from being infected by the problem we are discussing. Just view the wrong image and *zap* you're infected.
It's ugly when the flaw is in the graphics display subroutines of the OS itself. Microsoft keeps promising that the next version of Windows will slice bread, walk the dog and fix all the security problems. The problem is that when a new version comes out it is no longer the *next* version... You'll still have to wait for that.
You might also recall that at the next 'Stevenote' Steve and most of the other people involved had to throw in the statement, "IE is my browser of choice on Mac." One of the developers who hit the stage even said "I think this is where I'm supposed to say IE is my browser of choice on Mac."
You have to remember back to when the browser wars were the most important thing in Microsoft's worldview.
I can tell you that one thing I have always advocated on a MS Windows Server box is using the generic VGA drivers for video. You aren't going to be playing games on a server, and you do want the best uptime you can get. Using generic VGA drivers gave me awesome uptime even back on NT 4.
Google has been buying an awful lot of dark fiber. I'm looking forward to them using it to offer free basic internet access across our nation. The large providers still don't offer any broadband connectivity options outside large cities. I'm in a rural area and there is no broadband option for me. Belive it or not the best option here is... AOL
Other providers in the area don't even have dial up at a flat rate price. It's all dial up you pay for by the hour. Through a combination of Wi-Fi and IP over Powerlines, I'd love to see Google offer basic connectivity to the nation. Talk about not being evil! Then let google, the cable companies, and phone companies offer fiber to the home for those willing to pay for even more speed. It might be nice to see some actual broadband connections in the United States. Other countries are way ahead of us here!
I just wanted to point out that a track you purchase from the iTunes music store can be burned any number of times. What you can not do is burn a playlist more than seven times without changing the order of the tracks. You must make some change to the playlist before you can burn it seven more times.
Nope, I was using computers before IBM decided to bring out their PC. Trash 80's and Commodore pet's anyone?
Actually, back in the DOS days MS Word would show text that would print differently (bold, italics) in different colors. Since the typefaces of the day were built into the printers it was totally understandable that what you saw on the screen was only simular to what you got on the page.
Today is a bit different! If I use the default margins on my document and two different print devices render my page differently than this is a bug and not a feature! I understand that it is possible to buy a crappy print device that cannot print too close to the edges of the page, but with standard margins this shouldn't be an issue. Sadly, it still is.
Microsoft and I both see this as a problem. One that Microsoft will be fixing with Metro in Longhorn/Vista. If you'd rather go back to punching cards, than more power to you!
I'm sorry, but haven't you heard of the amazing new ability to email a document to someone else? If they don't see the same thing I saw on my computer then what is the point of WYSIWYG?
Since this isn't a problem for Microsoft, why in the world would they be switching their page display/printing subsystem to the 'much more simular to pdf/postscript' Metro technology? Maybe the fanboys just want to claim it's not broken until we fix it in Vista?
Paul definitely butters his bread with MS flavored butter, but he is willing to speak up when the butter is rancid. He's been advocating Firefox over IE for a long time now. He came very close to calling Longhorn development a clusterfuck earlier this year when MS started cutting more features from release.
I think Paul is very aware that he's making his money writing about Windows and needs access to information. I would *not* call him a total Microsoft suckup though.
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Microsoft's grand plans for Vista have turned into a warmed over version of MacOSX. The new graphics engine is definitely lifted right out of Apple's OS. The advanced WinFS filesystem has been reduced to nothing new with a copy of Apple's Spotlight bolted on. Microsoft's User Account Protection is so annoying as to be pretty much useless. It kicks in when you delete a shortcut to a program? Are they nuts? Paul Thurrott lets Microsoft have it with both guns in his review.
"Promises were made. Excitement was generated. None of it, as it turns out, was worth a damn. From a technical standpoint, the version of Windows Vista we will receive is a sad shell of its former self, a shadow. One might still call it a major Windows release. I will, for various reasons. The kernel was rewritten. The graphics subsystem is substantially improved, if a little obviously modeled after that in Mac OS X. Heck, half of the features of Windows Vista seem to have been lifted from Apple's marketing materials.
Shame on you, Microsoft. Shame on you, but not just for not doing better. We expect you to copy Apple, just as Apple (and Linux) in its turn copies you. But we do not and should not expect to be promised the world, only to be given a warmed over copy of Mac OS X Tiger in return. Windows Vista is a disappointment. There is no way to sugarcoat that very real truth."
Microsoft has really fumbled the ball over and over with the development of this OS. It's nice to see them get called out for it.
What's the difference between MacOSX and Windows Vista?
Microsoft employees are excited about MacOSX.
The old school reasons for not even trying a Mac have fallen away. The old saw was that Macs used nonstandard parts that were more expensive. The truth is that you can buy a cheap Mac Mini which uses standard RAM and notebook hard drives, and has a socketed CPU which can be upgraded. You don't have to give up your investment in Windows software, since Boot Camp lets you run Windows on your Mac if you wish to. If you end up deciding that you don't like MacOSX then you have a very classy super small mini me Windows based computer. No wasted money.
Windows users who give MacOSX a try find that they like it quite a lot. Anand Lal Shimpi over at Anandtech.com springs to mind. Windows uber user Paul Thurott also couldn't review the CTP of Vista without saying "I have certain misgivings about Vista resembling Mac OS X. With its translucent windows, such comparisons are going to be hard to avoid. But Vista's similarity with OS X goes well beyond window dressing. Certain applications, such as Calendar, Sidebar, and Photo Gallery, appear to be directly, ahem, influenced by similar applications in OS X." This is an OS that geeks can't help but love once they use it.
The really amusing thing is now the Mac supports more software than Windows does. You can run everything that runs on Windows, everything that runs on MacOSX, plus quite a bit of the software that runs on Linux. It's geek nirvana.
There really isn't any reason not go give a Mac a chance anymore. I'm an MCSE (gee, did you guess from my handle?)and I like OSX quite a lot. I can't wait to see what they do in the next version of MacOSX since it looks like Vista is going to be used dog food.
Hopefully the EU will make Microsoft actually release information to let others create client software compatible with their servers. Not just release some information under a license that leaves out open source projects like Samba. Heck, while they are at it they should force Microsoft to open source the Office file formats. They got ahead in office software using thier illegal Windows monopoly too!
Or like Microsoft announcing a 'Dance Dance Revolution' interface for mail.
Looking over Apple's specs for both versions here is a comparison of the old PPC Mac Mini specs http://web.archive.org/web/20050401063720/www.appl e.com/macmini/specs.html and the new Intel Mac Mini specs http://www.apple.com/macmini/whatsinside.html
Things That Are Changed:
An Intel Core Solo at 1.5GHz with 2MB of L2 Cache onboard and a 667 Mhz Frontside Bus. (was a PowerPC G4 processor at 1.25GHz with 512K of L2 Cache onboard and a 167 Mhz Frontside Bus.)
A larger hard disk 60GB (was 40GB)
Bluetooth 2.0 built in (was optional)
WiFi G built in (was optional)
Gigabit Ethernet (was 100Mbit)
512 Meg RAM (was 256 Megs)
4 USB 2 ports (was 2)
Digital Audio Out(was headphone jack)
Digital Audio In (Was totally missing)
Remote Control
Support for up to 2 Gigs of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) instead of 1 Gig of 333MHz DDR SDRAM (PC2700)
Things You give up:
ATI's Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM for Intel's GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
A built in 56K V.92 modem
Things You Keep:
400 Mbps Firewire
Slot Loading Combo Drive DVD-ROM/CD-RW
VGA adapter
Since it has the same chipset and video, it should run cracked copies of OSX nicely without having to worry about driver availibility.
Nuclear weapons grade material along with spent nuclear material from reactors can can be recycled into Mixed Oxide or MOX fuel and used in reactors again. What a great way to get use from both unwanted nuclear bombs and spent reactor fuel!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOX_fuel
What party was Sonny Bono? Who signed the thing?
Under the terms of the Copyright Term Extension Act works created by a person are protected for the life of the creator plus seventy years. Compare this with the original British Statute of Anne which provided protection for only 28 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#History_of
Works created by a corporation are protected for 95 years. Since the Copyright Term Extension Act was largely paid for by Disney it's no wonder that the early Steamboat Willie Micky Mouse cartoons are still protected and not in the public Domain as they should have been.
Before this latest extension of copyright towards infinity we have to look all the way back to 1976 to find the last time US copywrite terms were extended.
Both the Newton and Palm are pretty outdated right now... Why try to extend tech that is that old? I think we're getting to the point where you could offer OS X on a small, light, and thin device. Look at the recent Apple patents for hand held devices. Apple has already hired the BeOS programmers they wanted. The thing Be had over everyone else was that it was so multithreaded. If the OS had stayed in constant development it would be fun watching them kick everyones ass now on the new multicore cpu's. Since it has been abandoned so long it's really out of date now.
The music industry is very used to getting their way. They have plenty of money to give to politicians when they aren't giving it to radio stations in illegal pay for play schemes. Give them a while and they will bribe the bad news away...
Andy Hertzfeld and his merry comrades did more to invent the current gui standards than Gates or Jobs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Hertzfeld
http://www.folklore.org/index.py
Intel Macs will boot Windows Vista when it comes out. Windows Vista is the first version of 32 bit Windows that will support Intel's replacement for the old creaky BIOS that Apple uses in it's new machines. Why bother to support the old on-it's -way-out-the-door tech in your new hardware?
Hmmm... Does that make the new ones INTEL-ligent Powerbooks? ;o)
Yup... The early Mac laptops were called Powerbooks before the Power PC chip. Remember that Apple's old slogan used to be "The Power to be your best."
Here's info on the Sony designed Powerbook 100
http://www.lowendmac.com/pb/100.shtml
Here's text from the CERT advisory which was updated today:
disabling the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will not eliminate this vulnerability as it is currently thought to exist in the Windows Graphical Device Interface library (GDI32.DLL).
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/181038/
That sure sounds like more than a flaw in User Space applications.
I also understand that Windows Vista is supposed to run IE with lower privileges than the current user. The sad thing is that lowered privileges wouldn't do a damn thing to stop you from being infected by the problem we are discussing. Just view the wrong image and *zap* you're infected.
It's ugly when the flaw is in the graphics display subroutines of the OS itself. Microsoft keeps promising that the next version of Windows will slice bread, walk the dog and fix all the security problems. The problem is that when a new version comes out it is no longer the *next* version... You'll still have to wait for that.
You might also recall that at the next 'Stevenote' Steve and most of the other people involved had to throw in the statement, "IE is my browser of choice on Mac." One of the developers who hit the stage even said "I think this is where I'm supposed to say IE is my browser of choice on Mac." You have to remember back to when the browser wars were the most important thing in Microsoft's worldview.
I can tell you that one thing I have always advocated on a MS Windows Server box is using the generic VGA drivers for video. You aren't going to be playing games on a server, and you do want the best uptime you can get. Using generic VGA drivers gave me awesome uptime even back on NT 4.
Other providers in the area don't even have dial up at a flat rate price. It's all dial up you pay for by the hour. Through a combination of Wi-Fi and IP over Powerlines, I'd love to see Google offer basic connectivity to the nation. Talk about not being evil! Then let google, the cable companies, and phone companies offer fiber to the home for those willing to pay for even more speed. It might be nice to see some actual broadband connections in the United States. Other countries are way ahead of us here!
I just wanted to point out that a track you purchase from the iTunes music store can be burned any number of times. What you can not do is burn a playlist more than seven times without changing the order of the tracks. You must make some change to the playlist before you can burn it seven more times.
Nope, I was using computers before IBM decided to bring out their PC. Trash 80's and Commodore pet's anyone?
Actually, back in the DOS days MS Word would show text that would print differently (bold, italics) in different colors. Since the typefaces of the day were built into the printers it was totally understandable that what you saw on the screen was only simular to what you got on the page.
Today is a bit different! If I use the default margins on my document and two different print devices render my page differently than this is a bug and not a feature! I understand that it is possible to buy a crappy print device that cannot print too close to the edges of the page, but with standard margins this shouldn't be an issue. Sadly, it still is.
Microsoft and I both see this as a problem. One that Microsoft will be fixing with Metro in Longhorn/Vista. If you'd rather go back to punching cards, than more power to you!
I'm sorry, but haven't you heard of the amazing new ability to email a document to someone else? If they don't see the same thing I saw on my computer then what is the point of WYSIWYG?
Since this isn't a problem for Microsoft, why in the world would they be switching their page display/printing subsystem to the 'much more simular to pdf/postscript' Metro technology? Maybe the fanboys just want to claim it's not broken until we fix it in Vista?
Paul definitely butters his bread with MS flavored butter, but he is willing to speak up when the butter is rancid. He's been advocating Firefox over IE for a long time now. He came very close to calling Longhorn development a clusterfuck earlier this year when MS started cutting more features from release. I think Paul is very aware that he's making his money writing about Windows and needs access to information. I would *not* call him a total Microsoft suckup though.