NEW YORK (AP) -- Acrobatics, blaring music and plenty of hype accompanied Microsoft Corp.'s long-delayed debut of its new Windows Vista operating system.
Hours before the software went on sale in New York, dancers clad in Microsoft colors dangled from ropes high above street level Monday and unfurled flags to form the red, green, blue and yellow Windows logo against a building wall.
Later, two explosively loud, percussion-heavy rock bands riled up Microsoft enthusiasts amid flashing lights at the Nokia Theatre -- temporarily renamed the Windows Vista Theatre -- in Times Square. As employees at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters watched live video feeds, company-colored balloons dropped from the ceiling, a few wielding prizes.
Vista went on sale in 70 countries Tuesday, along with new versions of Microsoft Exchange e-mail software and the flagship Office business suite, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Several retailers even held midnight openings.
But unlike the recent launches of next-generation game machines like Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, customers haven't been camping out for days.
"When I look at Windows Vista, I see a technology that is interesting, that is relevant, but to some extent is evolutionary," said Al Gillen, an analyst at the technology research group IDC. "I do not believe it will create a lot of motivation for people to rush out and get a new operating system."
---Has anyone heard anything good or bad about it? Ive seen one online demo and Vista has a lot of bells and whistles. I have also heard its still full of planty of bugs. Does anyone know if this is true? If it is stable, I would consider upgrading sometime in the future.---
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
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9 comments:
I've heard that it's not compatible with some old serial peripherals. Some peripherals driver, like ATI Radeon graphics cards, aren't updated to take full advantage of some features. Some apps, like the clock are a hassle to change. Most importantly it's got some pretty hefty hardware requirements.
Thanks for letting me know Mike. I ran a compatability check with Vista this morning and my system was good to go, except for a few system add ons I have, like for example, my webcam....
It may be compatible but it may bog down if your memory is on the low end of it's requirements. Technically, XP can run on 256K of RAM but it clocks pretty bad and can just stall outright if you're trying to run multiple applications. My stepmom had that problem. XP ran but when she was trying to run excel the machine just hung. We threw some more RAM in there and it worked just fine.
Personally, I don't plan on migrating to it anytime soon. I'd wait a while until any bugs and security holes are patched.
yeah, I agree, Ill be sticking with XP for a while after reading your comments.
You can reduce performance gaps by jacking up your RAM. The current standard 2GB appearantly is causing noticable performance gaps leading XP to run faster than Vista. Adding RAM can reduce these lags. I've read reports that 4GB of RAM reduces these lags. You can check GOLDENRAM.COM to check out where your machine maxes out on RAM
The video card issue comes into play when playing hogs like Prey and Second Life, games that use the Doom OpenGL engine.
My girlfriend works for Microsoft, so I've actually seen Vista. There are some new features that I think are pretty cool, but I haven't really used it that much. I don't know if the overall user experience is significantly better or worse than XP. I would expect that it isn't tremendously different from XP -- otherwise, millions of users would have to learn how to use their computers all over again.
As for performance, it's not surprising at all to hear that Vista is a little slower & uses more resources than XP. Software always bloats to fit the PC. Windows 95 was way bigger & slower than Windows 3.1, which was way bigger & slower than DOS. But with Windows 95, you got something that was much better (in many respects) than DOS.
Mark, I am pleased to hear an engineer slam DOS.
An old friend emailed this gem to me.
Gates vs. GM
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way
computers have enhanced our lives, read on.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated,
"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we
would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........
Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to
buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You
would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows,
shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could
continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause
your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would
have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,
five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only
five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all
be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation"
warning light.
I love the next one!!!
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out
and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door
handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn
how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate
in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
Please share this with your friends who love - but sometimes hate -
their computer!
E, you have a web cam???? And you are not sharing!!!!!
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