Visual Tour: 20 Things You Won't Like About Windows Vista

Computerworld ^ | June 01, 2006 | Scot Finnie

[Swordmaker]

The same thing happened with Windows XP. When Beta 2 arrived, I found myself torn between what was new and good about the operating system, and what was new and bad.

Significant negatives back in 2001 included product activation (which doesn't affect Microsoft volume licensing customers), changes to the network-configuration user interface and the way XP interacted with other versions of Windows on small networks. Was Windows XP truly better than Windows 2000? It was a toss-up in many ways. In the end, I went with the improved app compatibility and user interface improvements of XP. But it wasn't by much.

Well, Microsoft just upped the ante on internal conflict with the release of Vista Beta 2. It boils down to this: The software giant is favoring security and IT controls over end-user productivity. Don't get me wrong, security and IT manageability are very good things. But some of the people actually using the Beta 2 Vista software describe their experience as akin to that of a rat caught in a maze.

[BJungNan]

It is scary how accurately you have described the situation. It is as if you are at my computer and have been in our office. I'll get the list of fonts also. Much appreciate the reply.

[BJungNan]

I do have one additional question on this subject of fonts. I took the same file, the one that the Mac had a ton of trouble with, over to a PC computer. It opened the ad without any trouble, no font warnings, no blown fonts. It opened and dealth with the file flawlessly.

Why did the PC handle it and not the Mac? (Not trying to be a pain in the neck here. Truly want to get this sorted out. Again, much appreciate your help).

[Terpfen]

Speaking of which, have you heard Microsoft's statement about WDDM 2.0? Apparently we all need brand-new video cards to run it properly.

[Echo Talon]

I share your view. Vista might actually be usable at SP1 rather than having to wait for SP2.

I hope so, and I just read some reports from taiwan that new motherboards are coming out with a compatible with Vista logo...

[Echo Talon]

OS X beta wasn't five years in the making, and it wasn't simply an upgrade to OS 9, it was a re-write.

It's simply indicative of Microsoft always shooting at a moving target. Vista is a clear attempt to copy and catch-up to OS X, and this article is showing how it doesn't succeed.

Vista was a complete rewrite also and not a upgrade of XP, its not a copy of OSX although some of the visual styles my be similar but so is linux, only so many different ways you can make a desktop look.

[antiRepublicrat]

Speaking of which, have you heard Microsoft's statement about WDDM 2.0? Apparently we all need brand-new video cards to run it properly.

Yep, you buy the hottest graphics card today and find out it's junk to run Vista on after SP1 or SP2 (whenever they introduce WDDM 2.0). At least OS X just required OpenGL graphics cards that support ARB_fragment_program (Radeon 9600/GeForce FX or newer). There a couple rare high-end things that cards today don't support, but in those cases OS X degrades gracefully to using the CPU.

[antiRepublicrat]

Vista was a complete rewrite also

Not quite, although I believe the audio, video and networking are new. It's still based on Windows 2003, and there's still a lot of 2003 under the hood, even if it is wrapped.

ts not a copy of OSX although some of the visual styles my be similar

It's not just the visual styles. They're trying to accelerate it like OS X does, they're doing search like OS X does. It's various usability bits, like Expose and live icons. Have you seen the video where an MS rep is describing Vista's new features? The video you see is not a Vista beta -- it's OS X.

[Echo Talon]

you're right it does have some elements of win2003, but most of the code is new, just a month or so when the sky was falling over at MS about vista they said how many lines of code would have to be rewritten(cant remember what it was but it was a stupid high number)...

[Echo Talon]

vista TO RUN AERO(which is not necessary, and is just eye candy), needs a DX9 compliant video card, 128mb video ram and a couple other qualifiers that arent hard to meet here are some of ATI offerings...

***********
The following products support Windows Vista™:
ATI Store
ATI Upgrade Advisor
Desktop
ATI Radeon® X1900 Series
ATI Radeon® X1800 Series
ATI Radeon® X1600 Series
ATI Radeon® X1300 Series
ATI Radeon® X850 Series
ATI Radeon® X800 Series
ATI Radeon® X700 Series
ATI Radeon® X600 Series
ATI Radeon® X550 Series
ATI Radeon® X300 Series
ATI Radeon® 9800 Series
ATI Radeon® 9700 Series
ATI Radeon® 9600 Series
ATI Radeon® 9550 Series
ATI Radeon® 9500 Series

Multimedia
ATI All-in-Wonder® X1900 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® X1800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® 2006 Edition
ATI All-in-Wonder® X800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® X600 Series
ATI Theater™ 550 PRO
ATI TV Wonder™ Elite
ATI All-in-Wonder® 9800 Series
ATI All-in-Wonder® 9600 Series

Chipset
ATI CrossFire™ Xpress 3200
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150
ATI Radeon® Xpress 200
ATI CrossFire™ Xpress 1600
ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M

Mobile
ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1800 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1600 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1400 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1300 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X800 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X700 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X600 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X300 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9800 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9700 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9600 Series
ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9500 Series
ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V5200
ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V5000
ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V3200
ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V3100

Workstation
ATI FireGL™ V7350
ATI FireGL™ V7300
ATI FireGL™ V7100
ATI FireGL™ V5100
ATI FireGL™ V5000
ATI FireGL™ V3200
ATI FireGL™ V3100E
ATI FireMV™ 2200 PCIE
ATI FireMV™ 2400 PCIE

[Echo Talon]

NVIDIA desktop GPUs
"Windows Vista Ready:"

GeForce 7900 GPUs
GeForce 7800 GPUs
GeForce 7600 GPUs
GeForce 7300 GPUs
GeForce 6800 GPUs
GeForce 6600 GPUs
GeForce 6500 GPUs
GeForce 6200 GPUs
GeForce 6100/6150 GPUs
GeForce FX 5900 GPUs
GeForce FX 5700 GPUs
GeForce FX 5600 GPUs
GeForce FX 5500 GPUs
GeForce FX 5200 GPUs
GeForce PCX GPUs

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 280 GPUs

NVIDIA notebook GPUs
"Windows Vista Ready:"

GeForce Go 7900 GPUs
GeForce Go 7800 GPUs
GeForce Go 7600 GPUs
GeForce Go 7400 GPUs
GeForce Go 7300 GPUs
GeForce Go 7200 GPUs
GeForce Go 6800 GPUs
GeForce Go 6600 GPUs
GeForce Go 6400 GPUs
GeForce Go 6200 GPUs
GeForce Go 6100/6150 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5700 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5650 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5600 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5200 GPUs
GeForce FX Go5100 GPUs

NVIDIA Quadro NVS 300M GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M GPUs

NVIDIA workstation GPUs
"Windows Vista Ready:"

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4400 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 SDI GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000G GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 600/700 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 540 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500/540/550/560 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 330/350 GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M GPUs
NVIDIA Quadro FX 350M GPUs

[Echo Talon]

ms link

[Echo Talon]

ahhh you have to get an expensive video card to run vista and Aero!

eVGA Geforce 6200 128MB Video Card - Retail $39.99

[Echo Talon]

GIGABYTE Geforce 6200 128MB 64-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Low Profile Video Card - Retail $52.99

[antiRepublicrat]

vista TO RUN AERO(which is not necessary, and is just eye candy), needs a DX9 compliant video card, 128mb video ram and a couple other qualifiers that arent hard to meet here are some of ATI offerings...

That's for WDDM 1.0, which Vista will ship with. WDDM 1.0 apparently has some problems with scheduling resources on the GPU, tends to hog it all, locking everything else out. That will supposedly be fixed in WDDM 2.0.

No card exists yet that can run WDDM 2.0, which will be in a later version of Vista, SP1 or SP2 maybe. ATI and nVidia are aware of the plans, but it means that $500 video card you get later this year to run Vista all pretty will probably be no good for Vista later next year.

Microsoft expects hardware manufacturers to overcome its shortcomings. Apple wrote their OS to take advantage of what was in the latest video cards. And as I said, OS X degrades gracefully, trying to use SIMD for the effects, and if that isn't available, plain old processor power. OS X doesn't just say "Sorry, you need to blow another $500 to have cool effects."

[Terpfen]

You are ignorant of the discussion you have just butted in on. We're talking about WDDM 2.0/2.1, not Aero requirements. And Microsoft itself says that new video cards--with technology that is only now being incorporated to the very latest cards from ATi and Nvidia--will handle WDDM 2.0/2.1.

"The gotcha is that improving GPU task scheduling will require new hardware, he said. The overhauled device driver model, WDDM 2.0, will only run on a new, yet-to-be-released generation of GPUs. NVIDIA and ATI are already aware of Microsoft’s plans and are working on new hardware."

Read. Cure yourself of your ignorance.

[Terpfen]

but most of the code is new

No, it's not. The original plan was to rewrite most of the code. That has since been scaled back to rewriting only what is absolutely necessary. To Microsoft's credit, that includes things like the shell (no more IE system integration!), the network stack, and a few other bits. To Microsoft's detriment, however, it means Vista is basically a prettier, upgraded Win2003. With six variants.

[Echo Talon]

My video card over a year old runs vista beta just fine. AIW X800XT

[Terpfen]

Vista Beta does not have WDDM 2.0/2.1.

Please read the linked article.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I read a book a long time ago called "In the beginning was the command line."

[Echo Talon]

However, it means that what is a Windows Vista logo-compliant machine today may not be able to optimally run future iterations of Windows incorporating WDDM 2.0.

Microsoft is also looking at a further revision of the standard, WDDM 2.1, which will run on the same hardware as 2.0 but offer even finer-grained multitasking on the GPU.

So you want MS to stop designing new features? All those cards I listed will work, they will just not be able to use NEW standards and why should they?