Is Windows Vista Living Up to the Dream?
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 10.11.2007
November 8 is the official release to manufacturing date of Microsoft's latest operating system.
A year ago Jim Allchin, the former Co-President, Platform and Services Division, who divorced from Microsoft on the same day Vista hit the shelves, being replaced by Steven Sinofsky with the role of Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, as the head of the Windows project, announced the Vista RTM saying just: "It's time!" This of course is a mere prefiguration of "the Wow is now" slogan designed to push the operating system to general consumers. At that time Windows Vista was running on in excess of 60,000 machines over in Redmond and on a few million computers worldwide thanks to the testing milestone releases. According to statistics from Net Applications, Vista has a share of just 0.11% of the operating system market. Microsoft's five year journey from Windows XP in 2001 had finally delivered Vista.
"And just what is this so-called RTM? It’s the major milestone where we can confidently say that Microsoft is done with Windows Vista and will be handing it off to our industry partners: PC makers, ISVs and IHVs. They in turn will continue to ramp-up in earnest now that the target is locked -- for example, by refining hardware drivers -- in order to complete the cycle and make Windows Vista available via retail channels on 30 January 2007. On that date Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system will be available to customers around the world", revealed at the time Nick White, Product Manager at Microsoft working on the Windows Vista launch team.
Reduced Piracy Mode
Just days after the Vista code went gold, the first pirated versions of the operating system began emerging. Microsoft has high hopes for Vista in its constant face-off with Windows pirates. The operating system featured Volume Activation 2.0, and a revamped activation infrastructure intimately connected with the Windows Genuine Advantage antipiracy mechanism. But the Redmond company's mitigations were taken down and Vista suffered the same faith as its predecessor Windows XP. One of the most notable releases that accompanied the operating system's RTM was Vista BillGates pirate edition. Still, Microsoft's official position is that the WGA mechanism in combination with the Reduced Functionality Mode triggered into pirated copies of the operating system had worked wonders. At an apex of the piracy phenomenon focused on Vista, Alex Kochis, Senior Product Manager for Windows Genuine Advantage, promised an update to tackle the 'timer crack' or '2099 crack', a workaround designed to bypass the operating system's activation mechanism, extending the grace period until 2099.
Did You Get Your Trigger Finger Ready?
Windows Vista is synonymous with the exclusive availability of DirectX 10. Microsoft did evolve the graphics infrastructure of its latest operating system in comparison with XP, but did nothing to backport DirectX 10. Before the business launch of the platform, at the end of November, the company was introducing the first games tailored on Vista: Halo 2 and Shadowrun. Both titles were designed to take full advantage of the advances in the DirectX suite of multimedia application programming interfaces. DirectX 10 in Vista is one of the most criticized Microsoft moves with the development of its Windows client. The company has been under a barrage of fire from both the gaming industry and community for succeeding to narrow down the the main platform for games down to a niche and for forcing upgrades to its latest operating system. Criticism only grew in intensity with a variety of compatibility issues between graphics hardware and the new operating system. A year after RTM, Halo 2 and Shadowrun did not prove the start of a consistent trend, and Windows XP with DirectX 9.x is still the main gaming platform worldwide. Meanwhile Microsoft is focusing increasingly on the delivery of DirectX 10.1 together with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next year.
The First Viruses for Vista
Characterizing Vista at one point, Jim Allchin stated that the operating system was neither foolproof nor perfect. And security company Sophos came to support this view by revealing that Vista could still fall victim to legacy malware. W32/Stratio-Zip, W32/Netsky-P and W32/MyDoom-O were enumerated among the pieces of malware capable of compromising Vista. "There has been much speculation about whether Vista would render existing malware extinct, and the news is now in - it won't," commented Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos at that time. "While Microsoft should be commended for the huge security improvements it has made in Vista, running separate security software is still essential to eliminate the risk of infection. On top of this, cyber criminals will already be looking at creating Vista-specific malware. Users need to think carefully about whether their current solution is going to offer sufficient protection against such emerging threats, given that some vendors continue to experience problems adapting their software for the Vista operating environment."
source:
news.softpedia.com
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Comments(26)
vista is much slower than xp. my pc has 4 gb ddr2 ram, 2 xeon 3.4 ghz processors,
(single core), geforce ddr 3 500 mb video card, and xp i guarantee will outperform it
anyday any program. i am very sorry i upgraded to vista. its very much like windows me.
well at the office i am running a 2.4 celeron piece of crap pc with 1gb ram and vista
ultimate sp1 beta and it runs way better then when i still had xp pro on it. vista may be
different and things i may not like as mush as xp but as a whole i will not go back to xp
again..
my dual core 3.4 ghz, 2 gigs ram run like crazy
lier !
after 2 weeks testing vista, i brought back my lapyop to replace it withe a xp laptop...
vista? oh no! not yet, maybe windows7... but vista is a piece op cap like windows me. i
hated that one also...
microsoft can advertise like an mad monkey, but when something
is bad, it is bad. you can not change the quality with advertisement... long live xp and
linux...
wake-up!
vista ain't no dream!
it's a nightmare!
hi,
i installed windows vista ultimate on my precision workstation which previously
ran xp pro. xp pro is probably the best or one of the best versions of windows os ever. in
contrast on the same hardware vista took ages to install, infact the install was so slow i
genuinely thought it had hung half way through. anyway 1hr & 15mins later i had vista
working but it was dog slow and many of the very nice features from xp had either gone, or
been renamed or changed. i.e. the usual trick from microsoft which is like re-arranging
the desk chairs on the titanic. some of the remaining xp features have been relocated x3
or x4 menu layers down so you have to dig deep to find them. nop!! vista is massive slow
and nothing but ms bloatware i have zero incentive to upgrade.
finally i nearly
fell off my chair the first time i saw the vista gui because it looks just like an apple
mac os x rip off.
i'm sticking with xp pro until there is a really good
worthwhile incentive to change. moral of the story, if it ain't broke dont try to fix it.
ir
(computer veteran)
windows vista is running so slow on my machine x64, 8gb ram, quad core. xp runs much
faster but i've now settled with ubuntu x64 bits version. for the first time it feels as
if i'm in control of my pc and not microsoft. i'm fully converted and not looking back !
oh, let all of us say "wow"
"woooooooowwww!"
ok, perfect....
now back to xp for our everyday needs and reliable os.
fuck, u ppl must be retarded. tweak vista and it is very reliable.you get a at least
30-40% improvement. there is nothing wrong with vista. i have tweaked mine and its running
faster than xp. don't forget you ppl were saying the same shit about xp when it came
out...and claimed 98se was better. vista runs even better with a clean install with
hotfixes and updates integrated. use vlite to make your own trimmed down version.
i am running vista on a p4 with 1.5 gigs of memory and nvidia 68gt. despite the age of my
processor it runs very well. i did a little tweaking and turned off some of the features.
the os needs at least 2 gigs of memory so if everyone who is bashing it has tested it with
that much memory then maybe their comments might be different.
have not had one problem with vista ultimate 32 after 1 year, was running dual boot with
xp for a while until xp pro decided to go schizo on me, now it's just vista and all is
fine. that being said i don't do any bus-apps with it just a home pc, internet(p0rn)lol!,
games. i have e6750 c2d oc'ed to 3.2, 2gbs ram, 8800gts 640 oc'ed.
i is got widnow 95 and eet runs many fast oke? i are want diretcsx 10 on windwis 95
now!!11 fack fack fack
bug ridden, overbloated, spyware!
i loved the look of vista (vlite)and was determined to get it working well enough so that
i could stop dual booting ,and eventually uninstall xp .
i have now uninstalled
vista, but will give it another try when sp1 is released .
i've been living a nightmare since i bought my laptop :(
anyway my brother will get
xp on it as soon as possible :)
i had it on again for a few days there....1.6ghz athlon xp 2000+ 1.5gb ram and a 128mb
graphics card. i put on the most simplest vista cersion....home basic and it sturglled now
im back on mce after 2 days
wow, finally have vista working very good. moved 4.16 gb in 1m22s.. smooth, and clean.
this is what rtm should have been..bets my xp corp pro all to hell, in every test..
just another public beta like windows me was. vista is pretty but thats about it. still
get virus, still get trojans spyware. lions and tiger and bears. tried out the latest sp1
floating around. seen some inprovements to performance but in the end. rebooting, blue
screens and freezing up etc. if this sp1 is any indication to how the final sp1 will be
then its back to xp and i'll give sp3 a whirl. i'll wait till vista x64 sp2 comes out.
maybe then will vista 80% stable. two or three games meant for vista isnt worth the
headaches. hey vista sounds like my xbox 360. rebooting, blue screens and freezing up
etc. hmmmmmmmm...........
vista is shit
i been dreaming about a stable, reliable and fast vista pc since the beta's and it's
still just a dream.
it wouldn't be a dream after all if it was unrealistic
if you dream about a stable, reliable and fast system, get ride of vista and use leopard
os x!
for anyone who wants the best operating system in the world, use leopard. you all can
start using a hacked version on your x86/64 for one week and i am sure you never want to
go back to vista anymore. later you all want to buy a real mac!!!
sorry vista lovers but that the reallity. get a life, use leopard!!!
i'm gonna return my newly purchased laptop.
cause although it's more powerfull
than my home computer, it's also slower and gives many trouble running my programs!
the diference between the 2 is that my home computer runs on xp and my newly bought laptop
runs on vista which came pre-installed!
vista is absolute crap..... and for all the techies who can manipulate the pre installs
that make it work, who cares! the majority of users want a device that does what it says
on the can in the most efficient way possible. you dont buy a hammer and then expect to
have to remold it in a crucible so its usable. bitter and dissapointed it is a crap
development.
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Vista Reality
By X on 11.11.2007 - 01:11