The Cellar - View Single Post

mbpark · 09-15-2006, 03:14 PM

I was running it on my 2.0Ghz Centrino laptop on another hard drive (I swapped out my hard drive for a 40GB spare).

The OS, with the most basic theme set up, took up 512MB RAM.

Everything worked except my Cingular Communication Manager software, which caused my Blackberry to crash. I use it as a tethered modem. It's a no-go for me because of that (Cingular will have to update their software).

After a reboot, it had drivers for everything on my Thinkpad, including the fingerprint reader (!). Again, Lenovo didn't have the Biometric software, so this was another no-go for me.

It also didn't have drivers for my second NIC, the CardBus IBM Etherjet (based off of a Intel 82557 chipset, no problems with any other OS, and well-supported in Linux). This is to be expected, however, as they're not going to have all the drivers done.

Aero Glass looks nice, and Flip3D looks good as well, but I missed the ability to see all windows open at once via Expose on OS X. Twisting the windows around in 3D is a little annoying. Expose is better for me because it allows you to see only the open Window, a clear desktop, or all windows tiled at once.

Java 1.5 runs well in IE7+, and AEP Networks' Netilla (a platform built upon Sun's Tarantella technology) works well. It can't print, but that's a Tarantella issue. Java 1.5 also causes Vista to switch from Aero Glass to Aero Basic mode due to some issues between the two. Java 1.6 may fix that.

It looks nice, but:

1. It's a memory hog. 512MB at idle is unacceptable, especially when Windows Server 2003, which is what Vista is based on, takes up 120MB or so at idle with nothing else loaded.
2. UAC (User Account Control) is incredibly annoying.
3. Unlike 2000 or XP, vendors will really have to work to get their software operational on Windows Vista. Remember how a lot of devices didn't work with Windows 2000 at first?
4. There's no Start -> Run option anymore. I had to add a shortcut to the Command Prompt to my desktop to get it to work.
5. The boot time is a bit slower. This is unlike my transition to XP from 2000, which made my boot time FASTER.
6. Aero Glass does slow down the machine, especially those with slower video cards (I have a Radeon x300). The same card runs XP beautifully.
7. The user navigation with back buttons always in the same place is a User Interface nightmare! It got me a few times.
8. IE7 is nice, however the navigation and menu system is a user interface nightmare as well.
9. The lack of backward compatibility with older apps is going to cause a lot of users who expect their apps to work with whatever version of Windows they run to not be happy.
10. Their approach of trying to put the genie back in the bottle with application security and supporting the older apps that they can with "shims" is going to inflame developers more than anything else.

In short, it's a nice try by MS, but I'll at the least wait for SP1 before moving to it.

Mitch

09-15-2006, 03:14 PM	#29
mbpark Lecturer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 761	Vista RC1 I was running it on my 2.0Ghz Centrino laptop on another hard drive (I swapped out my hard drive for a 40GB spare). The OS, with the most basic theme set up, took up 512MB RAM. Everything worked except my Cingular Communication Manager software, which caused my Blackberry to crash. I use it as a tethered modem. It's a no-go for me because of that (Cingular will have to update their software). After a reboot, it had drivers for everything on my Thinkpad, including the fingerprint reader (!). Again, Lenovo didn't have the Biometric software, so this was another no-go for me. It also didn't have drivers for my second NIC, the CardBus IBM Etherjet (based off of a Intel 82557 chipset, no problems with any other OS, and well-supported in Linux). This is to be expected, however, as they're not going to have all the drivers done. Aero Glass looks nice, and Flip3D looks good as well, but I missed the ability to see all windows open at once via Expose on OS X. Twisting the windows around in 3D is a little annoying. Expose is better for me because it allows you to see only the open Window, a clear desktop, or all windows tiled at once. Java 1.5 runs well in IE7+, and AEP Networks' Netilla (a platform built upon Sun's Tarantella technology) works well. It can't print, but that's a Tarantella issue. Java 1.5 also causes Vista to switch from Aero Glass to Aero Basic mode due to some issues between the two. Java 1.6 may fix that. It looks nice, but: 1. It's a memory hog. 512MB at idle is unacceptable, especially when Windows Server 2003, which is what Vista is based on, takes up 120MB or so at idle with nothing else loaded. 2. UAC (User Account Control) is incredibly annoying. 3. Unlike 2000 or XP, vendors will really have to work to get their software operational on Windows Vista. Remember how a lot of devices didn't work with Windows 2000 at first? 4. There's no Start -> Run option anymore. I had to add a shortcut to the Command Prompt to my desktop to get it to work. 5. The boot time is a bit slower. This is unlike my transition to XP from 2000, which made my boot time FASTER. 6. Aero Glass does slow down the machine, especially those with slower video cards (I have a Radeon x300). The same card runs XP beautifully. 7. The user navigation with back buttons always in the same place is a User Interface nightmare! It got me a few times. 8. IE7 is nice, however the navigation and menu system is a user interface nightmare as well. 9. The lack of backward compatibility with older apps is going to cause a lot of users who expect their apps to work with whatever version of Windows they run to not be happy. 10. Their approach of trying to put the genie back in the bottle with application security and supporting the older apps that they can with "shims" is going to inflame developers more than anything else. In short, it's a nice try by MS, but I'll at the least wait for SP1 before moving to it. Mitch