I Just Installed Vista RC1

[Asher]

A lot of the updates are underpinning system technologies that needed updating.

For instance, Vista has:

• A completely rewritten audio subsystem (allows for higher performance, more precision, per-application sound settings, etc)
  
• A completely rewritten network subsystem
  
• A completely rewritten printing subsystem
  A completely rewritten display/graphics subsystem
  
• A completely rewritten games (DirectX) subsystem
  
• Integrated peer to peer networking support
  
• A completely new programming API, formerly called WinFX and now called .NET Framework 3.0 -- more secure, more consistent, more features, and faster....
  
• A completely new windows shell (file grouping/stacking, shadow folders [revert its entire contents to any arbitrary point in the past]), etc)
  
• A much improved filesystem
  
• A much improve search system
  
• New apps including Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Meeting Space, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, Windows DVD Maker, etc
  
• Internet Explorer runs in a new low-privilege process for security enhancements
  
• Windows Resource Protection: protects against damaging configuration changes in real-time that should thwart most Spyware/Malware style apps
  
• Windows Firewall now supports outbound and inbound filtering, not just inbound like on XP
  
• Session 0 isolation: Before all apps from users ran in "Session 0", the same as the system, which caused security problems. Now users and apps exist in a different session with less privileges.
  
• Address space layout randomization: Feature that dramatically reduces the amount of buffer overflow attack that can occur (AFAIK, the only other OS with this is OpenBSD)
  
• System called Code Integrity ensures that system files have not been tampered with
  
• User Account Control: Prevents applications from making system-altering changes unless they have the Administrator password (can also be disabled)
  
• Mandatory Integrity Control: Enforces application isolation (for security purposes)
  
• DirectX 10 (which is a massive update, only available on Vista): FAR less CPU overhead in games
  
• Brand new driver models -- now a crash in your video or sound card driver won't take the system down.
  
• New color management functionality (particularly useful for photographers and media people)
  
• Improved memory manager and processes scheduler.
  
• Deadlock Detection Technology: Detects and resolves most deadlocks in the kernel (very cool technology): prevents many hangs/crashes
  
• Significantly reduced process creation overhead
  
• New bootloader
  
• New Kernel Transaction Manager: lets processes do atomic transactions on resources
  
• Dynamic System Address Space: allocates virtual memory and kernel pages on demand now
  
• Heap layout has been redesigned for much faster 64-bit performance
  
• Memory manager no longer has Windows XP's 64KB read-ahead cache limitation, should significantly improve file I/O
  
• "SuperFetch" caches frequently-used applications and documents in memory
  
• "ReadyBoost": Can use flash memory (USB drive, SD card, etc) to cache frequently used data instead of on the harddrive for improved performance

And lots more. more comprehensive list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature..._Windows_Vista

[Asher]

MacUsers.com editorial on Vista: "Windows Vista doesn't suck"

http://www.macuser.com/windows/ihnatko_windows_vista_doesnt_s.php

With an eye on the calendar and the knowledge that in just a few days, otherwise peaceful men and women were going to be lacing up their golf shoes and preparing to step on the knees and necks of anybody who stands between them and the purchase of the new Tickle Me Elmo, I sat down with every intention of writing a nice, holiday-themed column for you folks.

I swear to God. A column filled with cozy yuletide carols and the scent of cinnamon and apples and the sights of Victorian-era people - not the scabby, greasy, smoky actual Victorians, mind you, but the way-better American version of Victorian England. The overall effect that I wanted to evoke could only be exceeded by ranks of gingerbread men organized into ruthlessly-efficient militas, fanning out through the city from street to street and house to house, peppering the baffled and terrified citizenry with chestnuts and holly leaves and mistletoe until they all beg for the sweet, sweet escape that only death can provide.

But how could my head and my heart have filled with such cheery things under these circumstances? Instead of visions of sugar plums, I’ve had thoughts of miserable stinking rat-bastards dancing through my head all month.

Folks, last month Microsoft has sent me the final (for now) release candidate of Windows Vista, due to be released to general users in January. And they couldn’t have deposited a more offensive thing into my stocking:

It doesn’t suck.

How could Microsoft have betrayed me like this?

Vista is actually a fairly decent OS.

…

(sigh.)

Say that you were expecting something bigger, after five years of development time. Sneer about the needless mass-confusion that a half dozen different Vista editions will create, and go ahead and complain that it’s overpriced.

(No, really, say these things out loud; I’ll wait.)

See? You agree with me on this: reasonable, rational complaints are absolutely no damned fun at all. But I guess it is our lot in life to be denied even these simple pleasures. Microsoft’s hearts are so spiteful, so black and cold, that they’ve even robbed the Mac community of their favorite smirk: “Microsoft is the only company that would have its users turn their computers off by pushing a button marked ‘Start’.”

The button in question is now labeled with a glossy Windows logo.

Miserable. Stinking. Rat-bastards!

I’ve been using Vista full-time (as my full-time Windows installation, I mean) for the past few weeks, getting ready to write a few articles and columns about it. And the biggest insult, the worst kick in the most sensitive area with the heaviest boot of them all, is the fact that when I finish a few hours of Windows Vista work and then turn back to my Macs…

No, I can’t type this. My fingers twitch and protest and it keeps coming out all jshduuwi-ey.

Wait, I’m writing this in a coffee shop. Let me dictate it to a barista and have her to do the actual typing:

Vista has a few features that I wish I could use on my Macs.

And my God have mercy on my soul. But it’s true. “Start your photocopiers,” Apple’s Mac OS X banners once urged Microsoft. Well, Steve, make sure there’s plenty of toner on hand because Vista offers a few choice opportunities to exercise the sincerest form of flattery:

New windows “bounce” a little when they first appear, as though they’ve been dropped onto your desktop.. I like that; it’s a subtle little visual cue that announces a change to your desktop’s state without being a distraction.

The application switcher is precisely what I’ve always wanted to have. First off, Windows XP’s basic mechanism was already superior to the Mac’s: the feature’s designers understand that 97 times out of 100 (yes, I checked; no, you can’t see the numbers), the user isn’t technically interested in switching between applications. Usually, you actually want to move between windows; to move from a Word document to a specific browser window to check some info and then straight back again.

So when you Alt-Tab out of a certain app, Vista doesn’t toss up a panel containing icons for your seven currently-running apps. Instead, you get thumbnails of every open window.

And just like a window that you’ve minimized into the Dock, they’re live thumbnails. If you tab with the Windows key held down, Vista goes one better: the screen fills with a 3-D fanned-out stack of windows that you can leaf through one by one, tab-tab-tab, clearly reading the contents of each, which lets you harpoon right into the document window you want.

Vista is big on previews of things and stacks of things. In the File Explorer (which still isn’t nearly as handy as the Finder, praise God) document icons are actually live previews… and instead of a static folder icon, it’s an icon with preview icons of real documents spilling out of it. You only get two or three of ‘em, o’course, representing the two or three files most recently added to the folder. But finally! The Icon view is actually useful again! One glance and you immediately know that the folder you want is “2006 Projects - 8D8HH - Prelims” instead of “2006 Projects - 7DD7ES - Comps.”

The most bitter tonic of them all: Just look at what they’ve done with voice features!

When it comes to voice input and output, Apple’s features send an obvious message: “There were a bunch of government and university purchase contracts that demanded that our OS contain voice-input features, so we assigned an intern work on it. It took her from Tuesday afternoon straight through Wednesday lunch.”

Vista contains voice-recognition features that are actually meant to be used. I can’t put it any simpler than this: if there’s a button or a control or a menu that you can see, you can just speak its label and it’s as good as pressed; ditto for the keys on your keyboard. Any text that you can say, Vista can type for you. Any button that isn’t labeled (a “play” button that’s marked with a picture of a triangle, say) can be specified and pressed virtually. And thanks to a simple but very clever onscreen grid system that will be familiar to any fan of the computer that Deckard uses in the movie “Blade Runner,” you can even move and click the freaking mouse via voice.

Unlike the Mac OS. Vista’s voice recognition isn’t designed simply to deliver basic access to people with limited mobility in their hands and arms. Vista speech recognition is ambitious enough to provide a whole new mechanism of user interaction that everybody will want to use on a regular basis

If Steve Jobs demoed this during a keynote, my friends, seats would be left quite rapturously wet.

The Vista sidebar actually makes Widgets useful.

I was pretty excited about Widgets when they first appeared in Mac OS X, but that was before I spent months and months using them. Rather, not using them. Here you have dozens of handy, little informational apps that you can’t see until you deliberately warp into an entirely different environment. And then you have to wait a few seconds while the Widgets populate themselves.

What’s the point? If I’m going to have to hit a function key to find out what the word “Propinquity” means, I’m just going to tab over to my browser and type the word into Google Dictionary instead.

Vista’s sidebar devotes a whole strip on the side of your screen to Widgets (Vista calls ‘em Gadgets). It’s mixed right into the usual desktop experience; if you click a checkbox, the Sidebar will always hover above all other desktop items.

I can’t give Microsoft credit for Vista’s sidebar though: they stole that idea from me. A long time ago, I insisted that the time was long-past to have a permanent sidebar…a sort of “second screen” that windows couldn’t overlap into, dedicated to the sort of content that you’re always glancing at. Instant messages, headers from new email, headlines from news sites, your system status…that sort of stuff. I even created a working mockup of the idea for a Macworld Expo keynote address.

Apple totally ignored me. Only Microsoft had the courage and the courtesy to exploit me and my genius and become Thomas Edison to my Nicola Tesla. Well, who cares: it makes Widgets useful and relevant. I have a custom-designed “status board” that keeps the information I want on top of everything else I’m doing, and updates it all regularly.

Microsoft stole another idea of mine: a couple of years ago, when Windows XP Media Center Edition really started to shine, I urged the company to wire this into every copy of Windows that they ship. It’s spectacularly valuable: an entire second user interface dedicated solely to personal media.

Apple’s own Front Row app only slaps at this sort of functionality. More and more, desktops and laptops are nudging closer to the ideal of the computer as home appliance. It’s the jukebox and the photo album; thanks to apps like Handbrake, it’s also the movie library. Computers need to have a simple, video-component sort of interface that any lump who’s sprawled himself on a sofa can operate with a simple five-button remote.

Front Row looks like another one of those unfunded weekend projects. Media Center looks like the work of a company that has made home media a real priority. It doesn’t simply do slideshows: you can get home from your big bus trip to Branson, stick your memory card into your PC, and everything will get slurped straight into your photo library. It doesn’t just show off your home movies: Media Center includes a robust PVR. Sure, watch TV or check out recorded programs. Search for Altman movies. Media Center will show you what’s on TV right now, and movies that are going to be airing in the next couple of weeks. Would you like to record them? Oh, and here are links to where you can purchase any Altman movie you want online. Sounds good?

It’s a fantastic system and it was a shame that the only folks who got to use it were people who’d bought Media Center PCs, specially-equipped with IR sensors and a TV tuner card. It’s a huge boon to anybody who enjoys photos, music and video, which means it’s a huge boon to everybody. And it’ll ship with every copy of Vista.

(Well, again, Microsoft’s publishing way too many editions of Vista. But it’s included in Every Copy Of The Version Everybody Will Be Buying.)

A moment ago, I needed to double-check the spelling of Nikola Tesla. I didn’t even bother tabbing into a Safari window. My Vista notebook was up and running, with voice-commands active. I just asked Vista to look up “Tesla” in the Wikipedia and a second or two later, I was looking at the page…all without having to take my hands off my PowerBook.

I wish I could do that on a Mac; it’s way better in Vista. And every time I think that, I need to run into the bathroom and take a scalding-hot shower using using a straw brush, scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing until I feel clean once again.

Still, let’s try to see the silver lining in all this: see, when the New York Yankees defeat a charity team composed of survivors of a recent airline catastrophe or a cholera epidemic, they can’t gloat about it. They would anyway, because the Yankees are all colossal jerks… but the point is that they shouldn’t. Of course they beat ‘em; they’re the Yankees, and their shortstop is wearing one of those halos screwed into his skull.

So it’s probably in our best interests that Windows is now a lot more competitive. We get to retain our arrogant swagger without needing to feel as though we’ve beaten up a squad of Make-A-Wish kids.

[Jack_www]

bump

[Victor Galis]

So the feeling I get from reading this is that a lot of cool, but unnecessary stuff will be in which will slow down my system while gaming and thus really defeat the main purpose of my desktop.

I vaguely think my current laptop will refuse to run Vista for graphics card reasons.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wow... Macheads praising Vista. I think the end of days is coming

That voice command thing looks REALLY cool.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
So the feeling I get from reading this is that a lot of cool, but unnecessary stuff will be in which will slow down my system while gaming and thus really defeat the main purpose of my desktop.

Actually, it's more responsive and will result in better gaming performance.

[Jack_www]

The laptop that I install Vista on has a bad wifi card, so I have to send it in to get repaired. But once I get it back I am going to try out the voice commands.

[Victor Galis]

Will the voice command thing interfere with voice chat?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well I'm sure you can't do them both at the same time (but you can probably disable voice command when voice chatting)

[Asher]

Originally posted by Victor Galis
Will the voice command thing interfere with voice chat?

I hope I can get it to work a la Star Trek...:

"Computer...define "owned""
**chirp chirp**
(digitized female voice): "Owned: see 'Steve Jobs'"

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Asher


I hope I can get it to work a la Star Trek...:

"Computer...define "owned""
**chirp chirp**
(digitized female voice): "Owned: see 'Steve Jobs'"

that would be cool.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Originally posted by Asher
Address space layout randomization: Feature that dramatically reduces the amount of buffer overflow attack that can occur (AFAIK, the only other OS with this is OpenBSD)

Actually, Linux has included some of execshield in mainline since 2.6.12, and PaX, which does ASLR among other things, was first released back in 2000 (and is still updated and developed).

'tis cool stuff, though, the rest of all that. It's not a free software OS so I won't be running it on my own computer, but it's cool .

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala


Actually, Linux has included some of execshield in mainline since 2.6.12, and PaX, which does ASLR among other things, was first released back in 2000 (and is still updated and developed).

'tis cool stuff, though, the rest of all that. It's not a free software OS so I won't be running it on my own computer, but it's cool .

Well if you are a student at a school that Microsoft gives their software away (like me) you can get a free copy. That is how I got my copy of Vista.

[Asher]

Or if you or or your company is an MSDN subscriber.

Vista's been in use in our office for about 6 months now, mainly because our company is developing applications that use Vista technologies that are VERY cool. Again, watch the Jan 16th Ballmer keynote speech...the Elite Models app.

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Asher
Or if you or or your company is an MSDN subscriber.

Vista's been in use in our office for about 6 months now, mainly because our company is developing applications that use Vista technologies that are VERY cool. Again, watch the Jan 16th Ballmer keynote speech...the Elite Models app.

Where can you watch that? I want to learn more about Vista, for school and my work. I also want to learn more about the WPF.