Microsoft names new OS
S2000 Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 1,459
Likes: 0
From: Orlando, Fl, USA
Originally Posted by soopa
The IE7 team seems to be doing a great job. They've made what sounds to be a great browser rather rapidly.
The one serious flaw that will continue to remain however is crappy old aliased text. Hopefully ClearType in Vista is trully clear type and not the crappy aliased crap we have in XP now.
Web browsing is much more pleasent when you've nice smooth fonts.
This though, really isn't at all an IE deficiency as it is a Windows one. It just hurts so much in the case of web browsing specifically.
The one serious flaw that will continue to remain however is crappy old aliased text. Hopefully ClearType in Vista is trully clear type and not the crappy aliased crap we have in XP now.
Web browsing is much more pleasent when you've nice smooth fonts.
This though, really isn't at all an IE deficiency as it is a Windows one. It just hurts so much in the case of web browsing specifically.
I'll let you know if I notice a difference when I install it. I don't expect too much of a difference at first though. To be honest though...the XP Cleartype saves my eyes. I have shitty vision so its much better than standard
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
Originally Posted by O-Town_TypeS
To be honest though...the XP Cleartype saves my eyes. I have shitty vision so its much better than standard
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
LOL ... it has AQUA buttons too!!! 
It looks like XP with a new OSX/Techie skin. That being said, it does look better than regular XP.
Any fullsize screens? I'd like to know if the type is anti-aliased. If it is, then at least I could use my Windows box without having to wash my eyes afterwords...
It looks like XP with a new OSX/Techie skin. That being said, it does look better than regular XP.
Any fullsize screens? I'd like to know if the type is anti-aliased. If it is, then at least I could use my Windows box without having to wash my eyes afterwords...
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
I like the Photo Viewer folder thing. XP has been well ahead of OSX in that arena... Apple forces you to use crappy ass iPhoto if you want any kind of decent integrated photo management. This seems like an improvement over XP's even.
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
Originally Posted by Scrib
Doesn't the photo app:
Look an awful lot like...
Look an awful lot like...
iPhoto is awful. It's slow and crappy.
I'd rather use Windows XP's existing built in photo management than iPhoto... and if I wanted iPhotos extra functionality I'd rather use Picasa.
My life is shortened everytime I have to see a "Loading Photo" spinner.
Photography Nerd
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 21,489
Likes: 11
From: Toronto
Originally Posted by soopa
Yeah, but at least it's integrated with the shell.
iPhoto is awful. It's slow and crappy.
I'd rather use Windows XP's existing built in photo management than iPhoto... and if I wanted iPhotos extra functionality I'd rather use Picasa.
My life is shortened everytime I have to see a "Loading Photo" spinner.
iPhoto is awful. It's slow and crappy.
I'd rather use Windows XP's existing built in photo management than iPhoto... and if I wanted iPhotos extra functionality I'd rather use Picasa.
My life is shortened everytime I have to see a "Loading Photo" spinner.
The XP filmstrip view works quite well. If I could make one change to it, it would be to allow "plugins" or drivers to allow the filmstrip view to access RAW files. 99% of what I do is in RAW so the only way I can view the files is through the browser in Adobe.
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
Originally Posted by Dan Martin
The XP filmstrip view works quite well. If I could make one change to it, it would be to allow "plugins" or drivers to allow the filmstrip view to access RAW files. 99% of what I do is in RAW so the only way I can view the files is through the browser in Adobe.
That way I can use regular photo viewer to quickly browse through the files, and delete the accompanying RAW if I need to scrap the image. Or Open the accompanying RAW if I need to play with the image.
If I were on Windows, I'd just do it all in Picasa 2. If you're on Windows and youre using Adobe Bridge... you're a dumb ass
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
The large versions are just blown up copies of the small versions. Weird.
I want to see some at full resolution. From these, the text looks aliased... which is incredibly lame.
So what are they actually delivering on from their promises with Windows Vista?
I want to see some at full resolution. From these, the text looks aliased... which is incredibly lame.
So what are they actually delivering on from their promises with Windows Vista?
Photography Nerd
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 21,489
Likes: 11
From: Toronto
Originally Posted by soopa
I just shoot in dual mode so I get a RAW and a JPEG.
If I were on Windows, I'd just do it all in Picasa 2. If you're on Windows and youre using Adobe Bridge... you're a dumb ass
The Adobe browser works quite well and I don't see any advantage to using Picasa. I certainly haven't had any circumstances where I wished Adobe would do something that another program does.
Actually, I haven't really played around with the new features in the Adobe Bridge that came with CS2 because I really don't need them. Being that it's a home machine, I'm not sharing projects with anyone, nor am I using the other CS programs. I just need something to give me a thumbnail view of the files which it does just fine.
Anyhow, to put this back on track, I'd still like the ability to view RAW files without having to load additional software on my machine. I guess this is where the whole OpenRAW format would be nice.
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
I spent the same on my Adobe shit. But Picasa is superior, it's faster, cleaner, and has more functionality for managing photo-to-photo tasks quickly and easily.
Picasa is free, so ya may as well take sometime with it. You'll thank yourself later. It's the only Windows application I miss.
Picasa is free, so ya may as well take sometime with it. You'll thank yourself later. It's the only Windows application I miss.
Photography Nerd
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 21,489
Likes: 11
From: Toronto
Originally Posted by soopa
I spent the same on my Adobe shit. But Picasa is superior, it's faster, cleaner, and has more functionality for managing photo-to-photo tasks quickly and easily.
Picasa is free, so ya may as well take sometime with it. You'll thank yourself later. It's the only Windows application I miss.
Picasa is free, so ya may as well take sometime with it. You'll thank yourself later. It's the only Windows application I miss.
My photo collection is well over 20GB now so keeping everything organized is important to me. All of my photos are in folders like this:
Year
|-Event1
..|-RAW Photos
..|-Edited Photos
..|-Highlights
|-Event2
..|-RAW Photos
..|-Edited Photos
..|-Highlights
.etc
For some reason, Picasa seems to lump all the subfolders into the same group as the parent folder which makes browsing a nightmare. There may be a way to fix that but I haven't found it yet.
I recommended Picasa to several friends and family members and they couldn't be happier. The interface makes it very easy for them to edit and print the photos they want and the email feature is really easy to use. It's one of the best free software packages I've ever encountered for sure.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 907
Likes: 1
From: TEXAS
Tiger echoes in Windows Vista - first look
ehh I think this is relevant to the topic at hand:
Originally Posted by Macworld
Tiger echoes in Windows Vista - first look
By Yardena Arar, Jonny Evans
Microsoft has released its first Beta 1 code of Windows Vista (formerly called Longhorn), the next version of Windows, schedule to ship next year.
The pre-production code is available as a download to 10,000 technical beta testers, most of them from the enterprise information technology and developer community.
Another half-million or so members of the Microsoft Developer Network and Microsoft TechNet (a support group for IT professionals who use Microsoft products) will soon have access to Beta 1, but without the support available to the official testers.
Beta 1 will not be available to the general public, at least in part because it lacks many of the user-oriented features Windows Vista will have when it ships in the second half of 2006, Microsoft officials say. "The whole canvas is not complete," says Greg Sullivan, group product manager in the Windows client division. "We've painted less than half the picture here."
Mac watchers may note that much of what is promised in Longhorn is already available in some form within Mac OS X. In a sense, Microsoft’s focuses within its forthcoming OS confirm that Apple has been on the right system development track within its Mac OS X releases.
What's Not There
The Beta 1 OS lacks significant features, including a new version of Windows Media Player and support for tablet and Media Center PCs, Sullivan said. But Beta 1 does mark the debut of several technologies that Microsoft has been discussing at various developer and customer events over the past few years.
Brad Goldberg, Windows client general manager, told reporters and analysts at a recent pre-Beta 1 workshop that Microsoft's design goals for Windows Vista fell into three major categories: instilling a "new level of confidence in your PC" by improving security, privacy, performance, reliability, and ease of deployment; bringing clarity to the organization and use of information; and "seamlessly connecting you to people and devices."
Of the three, improving user confidence was at the top of the list at the pre-beta workshop. "We have to nail the fundamentals first," says Windows client director Austin Wilson. Microsoft is determined to avoid "the patch management nightmare" and to seal off vulnerabilities "so that things like Blaster don't happen in the future," he adds.
Graphics improved
Microsoft’s Avalon display engine makes for more detailed icons, document thumbnails; and on PC’s with modern display drivers that support Longhorn's graphics, users get transparent window frames.
Mac watchers may remark that many of these features have been available within Mac OS X for years.
Like Spotlight, every window has a small search field to the right of the address bar, and there's a search window at the bottom of the Start menu. Most of these search fields are context-sensitive.
As before, Windows Explorer shows a user’s folder system; but in addition to holding the folders, it comes populated with a number of virtual folders that let users peruse documents by file metadata - information gathered by the file system - regardless of their actual location. For example, opening a virtual folder called Authors lets you check out all documents by specific authors, as identified in the file metadata. In another virtual folder, you can peruse documents according to keywords that you assign to files.
User Account Protection
The OS adds a new type of user account, called a Limited Account, that provides fewer privileges than an administrative account but more privileges than a Windows XP guest account. People logged in as Limited users will be able to perform routine functions such as installing a new printer, but won't be permitted to install new applications or perform other types of tasks that malware tries to perform.
Internet Explorer 7 integrates an RSS feed reader and tabbed browsing. It uses some of the technology behind User Account Protection for a protected mode designed to prevent drive-by spyware installation. Limited users can browse only in protected mode, but IT pros can set system policy to make protected mode the default for all users, including those logged in with administrative privileges. In protected mode, "the only thing [IE 7] will be able to do is write to temporary Internet files and the [browser] history," Wilson says.
Microsoft's goal is to move most Windows Vista users off administrator accounts. User Account Protection is turned off by default in Beta 1, but it can be turned on via the Start menu; it will be on by default in Beta 2.
Tiger echoes
Other fundamentals in Windows Vista will include faster and more secure startup, both during boot-up and when returning to active status from standby mode; improved user-mode (as opposed to kernel mode-based) driver design so that "a printer driver that crashes isn't going to crash the OS as well"; and an antiphishing filter that will identify suspect sites based on their behaviour.
Windows Vista uses image-based installation, so most of the OS is installed via a very large file as opposed to many small files. For consumers, this may not matter much, but it should simplify massive deployments by IT professionals, who can easily customize the image file by dragging and dropping in new files. Other IT-oriented features include an improved event log that permits administrators to specify tasks (such as notifying an IT staffer) to perform when certain types of problems occur.
The OS will have a new restart manager "that we think will reduce reboots by 50 per cent," Wilson says. Windows Vista will also have new tools for diagnosing and dealing with problems such as crashes of specific Windows services, hardware failures, networking issues, slow performance, and resource exhaustion. For example, if a hard disk failure seems imminent, Vista will urge you to back up your data.
Overall, Microsoft hopes that its work on fundamentals will reduce the cost of owning and managing Windows by 25 per cent, Goldberg said.
The general public may have a chance to test-drive the OS, but probably not before the Beta 2 release - and Microsoft's Sullivan said that it was as yet impossible even to guess at a date for the second beta. However, Microsoft still plans to ship Windows Vista in the second half of 2006. "There are good business reasons for us and our partners to ship in time for the holidays in 2006," Sullivan said.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index...e&NewsID=12201
By Yardena Arar, Jonny Evans
Microsoft has released its first Beta 1 code of Windows Vista (formerly called Longhorn), the next version of Windows, schedule to ship next year.
The pre-production code is available as a download to 10,000 technical beta testers, most of them from the enterprise information technology and developer community.
Another half-million or so members of the Microsoft Developer Network and Microsoft TechNet (a support group for IT professionals who use Microsoft products) will soon have access to Beta 1, but without the support available to the official testers.
Beta 1 will not be available to the general public, at least in part because it lacks many of the user-oriented features Windows Vista will have when it ships in the second half of 2006, Microsoft officials say. "The whole canvas is not complete," says Greg Sullivan, group product manager in the Windows client division. "We've painted less than half the picture here."
Mac watchers may note that much of what is promised in Longhorn is already available in some form within Mac OS X. In a sense, Microsoft’s focuses within its forthcoming OS confirm that Apple has been on the right system development track within its Mac OS X releases.
What's Not There
The Beta 1 OS lacks significant features, including a new version of Windows Media Player and support for tablet and Media Center PCs, Sullivan said. But Beta 1 does mark the debut of several technologies that Microsoft has been discussing at various developer and customer events over the past few years.
Brad Goldberg, Windows client general manager, told reporters and analysts at a recent pre-Beta 1 workshop that Microsoft's design goals for Windows Vista fell into three major categories: instilling a "new level of confidence in your PC" by improving security, privacy, performance, reliability, and ease of deployment; bringing clarity to the organization and use of information; and "seamlessly connecting you to people and devices."
Of the three, improving user confidence was at the top of the list at the pre-beta workshop. "We have to nail the fundamentals first," says Windows client director Austin Wilson. Microsoft is determined to avoid "the patch management nightmare" and to seal off vulnerabilities "so that things like Blaster don't happen in the future," he adds.
Graphics improved
Microsoft’s Avalon display engine makes for more detailed icons, document thumbnails; and on PC’s with modern display drivers that support Longhorn's graphics, users get transparent window frames.
Mac watchers may remark that many of these features have been available within Mac OS X for years.
Like Spotlight, every window has a small search field to the right of the address bar, and there's a search window at the bottom of the Start menu. Most of these search fields are context-sensitive.
As before, Windows Explorer shows a user’s folder system; but in addition to holding the folders, it comes populated with a number of virtual folders that let users peruse documents by file metadata - information gathered by the file system - regardless of their actual location. For example, opening a virtual folder called Authors lets you check out all documents by specific authors, as identified in the file metadata. In another virtual folder, you can peruse documents according to keywords that you assign to files.
User Account Protection
The OS adds a new type of user account, called a Limited Account, that provides fewer privileges than an administrative account but more privileges than a Windows XP guest account. People logged in as Limited users will be able to perform routine functions such as installing a new printer, but won't be permitted to install new applications or perform other types of tasks that malware tries to perform.
Internet Explorer 7 integrates an RSS feed reader and tabbed browsing. It uses some of the technology behind User Account Protection for a protected mode designed to prevent drive-by spyware installation. Limited users can browse only in protected mode, but IT pros can set system policy to make protected mode the default for all users, including those logged in with administrative privileges. In protected mode, "the only thing [IE 7] will be able to do is write to temporary Internet files and the [browser] history," Wilson says.
Microsoft's goal is to move most Windows Vista users off administrator accounts. User Account Protection is turned off by default in Beta 1, but it can be turned on via the Start menu; it will be on by default in Beta 2.
Tiger echoes
Other fundamentals in Windows Vista will include faster and more secure startup, both during boot-up and when returning to active status from standby mode; improved user-mode (as opposed to kernel mode-based) driver design so that "a printer driver that crashes isn't going to crash the OS as well"; and an antiphishing filter that will identify suspect sites based on their behaviour.
Windows Vista uses image-based installation, so most of the OS is installed via a very large file as opposed to many small files. For consumers, this may not matter much, but it should simplify massive deployments by IT professionals, who can easily customize the image file by dragging and dropping in new files. Other IT-oriented features include an improved event log that permits administrators to specify tasks (such as notifying an IT staffer) to perform when certain types of problems occur.
The OS will have a new restart manager "that we think will reduce reboots by 50 per cent," Wilson says. Windows Vista will also have new tools for diagnosing and dealing with problems such as crashes of specific Windows services, hardware failures, networking issues, slow performance, and resource exhaustion. For example, if a hard disk failure seems imminent, Vista will urge you to back up your data.
Overall, Microsoft hopes that its work on fundamentals will reduce the cost of owning and managing Windows by 25 per cent, Goldberg said.
The general public may have a chance to test-drive the OS, but probably not before the Beta 2 release - and Microsoft's Sullivan said that it was as yet impossible even to guess at a date for the second beta. However, Microsoft still plans to ship Windows Vista in the second half of 2006. "There are good business reasons for us and our partners to ship in time for the holidays in 2006," Sullivan said.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index...e&NewsID=12201
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 25,967
Likes: 2,685
From: Jersey
So far, besides a new theme, the only things I see in Beta 1 is:
IE 7.
Fancy Search
Some kind of "network presentation" thing. I haven't figured out if that can work over the Internet or just the LAN yet. It does support networkable projectors.
It contains a feature (that you have to find and enable) that will have the system prompt you before you make changes that require admin permission (cough, OS X)
It took over an hour to install on my P4 test machine with 512MB and EIDE drive.
It chews up 280MB before you even launch anything.
It seems as fast as XP and hasn't crashed yet.
It did not detect my machines sound/modem and some other "Unknown Device". It did detect the NIC. The machine is a Sony Vaio PCV-RX951
I just put Office 2k3 on it. That went fine.
Default Administrator password is still :blank:
IE 7.
Fancy Search
Some kind of "network presentation" thing. I haven't figured out if that can work over the Internet or just the LAN yet. It does support networkable projectors.
It contains a feature (that you have to find and enable) that will have the system prompt you before you make changes that require admin permission (cough, OS X)
It took over an hour to install on my P4 test machine with 512MB and EIDE drive.
It chews up 280MB before you even launch anything.
It seems as fast as XP and hasn't crashed yet.
It did not detect my machines sound/modem and some other "Unknown Device". It did detect the NIC. The machine is a Sony Vaio PCV-RX951
I just put Office 2k3 on it. That went fine.
Default Administrator password is still :blank:
Last edited by doopstr; Jul 28, 2005 at 03:20 PM.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 907
Likes: 1
From: TEXAS
I figured it'd eat up much more resources than XP. Windows is bloated. Again * points to legacy support *
However, in MS defense, since it is beta it may have more debugging code that may consume memory. The official release may not be as bloated.
The password prompt is a great feature. Similar to the reasoning behind requiring a manager's key for a cash register pertaining to certain circumstances in a retail store.
However, in MS defense, since it is beta it may have more debugging code that may consume memory. The official release may not be as bloated.
The password prompt is a great feature. Similar to the reasoning behind requiring a manager's key for a cash register pertaining to certain circumstances in a retail store.
Senior Moderator
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 45,641
Likes: 2,335
From: Better Neighborhood, Arizona
There are a bunch of services running in the background in Longhorn and XP x64 that you can kill to reduce RAM consumption. I've reduced mine from 175 megs or so down to 120. Longhorn should see similar benefits.
Example: If you're running a desktop, you almost certainly dont need wireless internet, so kill that service.
Example: If you're running a desktop, you almost certainly dont need wireless internet, so kill that service.
Moderator
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 64,104
Likes: 3,358
From: Not Las Vegas (SF Bay Area)
well i think macs dont have to install drivers or configure anything cause they're all pretty much have all the same hardware right? where as for PCs you can like slap together random parts from different companies to build a computer 
The Creator
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 37,950
Likes: 8
From: Albany, NY
Originally Posted by Mizouse
well i think macs dont have to install drivers or configure anything cause they're all pretty much have all the same hardware right? where as for PCs you can like slap together random parts to build a computer
but yes, what you say is primarily the reason for easy configuration and compatibility from mac to mac. and largely the benefit of paying a little bit more for quality
S2000 Owner
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 1,459
Likes: 0
From: Orlando, Fl, USA
Mine took 35 minutes to install. It detected my wireless network card and thats about all. The laptop is pretty new though. IBM T43. It did detect my video card but I can't get it to go higher than 800 x 600. The native driver sucks. (I bugged it with MS ) I'm sure by the tiime they finish it should detect everything. One dissapointment that I have is the native wireless drivers still don't support LEAP. I thought I read somewhere that they were gonna include it. Oh well. I was gonna install on my x64 machine tonight but I ran out of DVD's to burn. I may run to the store later though
) I'm sure by the tiime they finish it should detect everything. One dissapointment that I have is the native wireless drivers still don't support LEAP. I thought I read somewhere that they were gonna include it. Oh well. I was gonna install on my x64 machine tonight but I ran out of DVD's to burn. I may run to the store later though
Banned
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 4,698
Likes: 3
From: Northwest/burbs, IL
Windows Vista install shots:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...ll_gallery.asp
More Windows Vista shots:
More on Windows Vista:
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/...a_beta1_01.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...ll_gallery.asp
More Windows Vista shots:
More on Windows Vista:
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/...a_beta1_01.asp