Windows Vista: Microsoft's Terminator

[asian1]

The official name of the latest version of MS Windows 64 bit: Windows Vista

Is this name derived from "Terminator"?
("Hasta La Vista, Baby")

From Reuters:

Microsoft Corp. said on Friday it named the next version of its operating system "Windows Vista" as it prepares to release a trial version of the flagship software that already runs on nine out of 10 personal computers worldwide.
Windows Vista, formerly known by its code-name Longhorn, is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2006, five years after Windows XP, the longest time lag between releases of its Windows operating system.

[Dan]

Uhh, just call it DRM!

[Hyperspeed]

It's about time they slowed down their releases - look at the confusion and disgust at Windows ME!

It still confuses me the Windoes ME vs 2000 vs XP vs NT thing...

Why don't they have one reliable bit of software that can handle home and network environments!?

Each one of their new operating systems has tablet edition, home edition, student edition, professional edition etc. it's about time Microsoft's competitors stopped whining like sick dogs and fought back with a 'Firefox' for the operating system world.

[blobrana]

Hum,
i believe the name `vista` is derived from microsofts blurry vision of their desktop OS.

[Hyperspeed]

Maybe it's a mis-print and it's gonna be called Windows:VISA. You'll need a hefty Credit Card to buy it and you'll need to use Microsoft Passport just to open your e-mails.

:-D

I still can't believe Apple are ditching PowerPC for Pentiums...   just when things were looking up and Microsoft starts using Mac development kits for XBox-360... Apple goes and starts using Intel chips!

Idiots!

[Samuar]

Either way, its a very poor operating system "designed" for the (l)user classes.


I get the feeling my Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz with 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD won't be enough for it; in the same way people laughably install XP on Pentium IIs.

[mr_a500]

Great, Microsoft poisons another word forever.

Vista was a word that had great feelings for me because of Vista, the Amiga 3D landscape program - an amazingly great piece of software. Now, it will stand for an amazing piece of sh...

[Waccoon]

It's about time they slowed down their releases - look at the confusion and disgust at Windows ME!

And to think, Apple made a big deal out of the fact they release a "new" version of MacOS X every year (and make you pay for updates), while XP is just XP year after year and all updates are free.  :-D

Why don't they have one reliable bit of software that can handle home and network environments!?

Windows networking is the worst I have ever seen.  It's virutally impossible to set up properly and the new XP networking "wizards" are a hell of a lot more confusing than the old control panels in Win2K.  This is my biggest beef with Windows, at least from a non-programmer's viewpoint.

I still can't believe Apple are ditching PowerPC for Pentiums... just when things were looking up and Microsoft starts using Mac development kits for XBox-360... Apple goes and starts using Intel chips!

Idiots!

What's the big deal?  It's still a Mac.

Besides, Apple didn't have much choice.  I'll leave it to some rare, non-prejudiced Mac expert to dish out the details.

I get the feeling my Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz with 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD won't be enough for it; in the same way people laughably install XP on Pentium IIs.

With the eye candy turned off, XP on a Celeron 400 isn't really that bad.

Now, Mandrake Linux or WinME on said hardware is an entirely different story!  :-)

[PPC]

Hyperspeed wrote:
Maybe it's a mis-print and it's gonna be called Windows:VISA. You'll need a hefty Credit Card to buy it and you'll need to use Microsoft Passport just to open your e-mails.

LOL! i totally agree on this  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :-D

[bloodline]

Waccoon wrote:

I still can't believe Apple are ditching PowerPC for Pentiums... just when things were looking up and Microsoft starts using Mac development kits for XBox-360... Apple goes and starts using Intel chips!

Idiots!

What's the big deal?  It's still a Mac.

Besides, Apple didn't have much choice.  I'll leave it to some rare, non-prejudiced Mac expert to dish out the details.

I'll do it Waccon :-)

Ok, lets get the facts straight, things are NOT looking up for the PPC. The PPC has found it's place as an embedded chip, it's placement in the future games consoles only re-enforces that position. In the PS3, it's little more than a controler (remember the 68000 in the Atari Jaguar?), in the XBox360 it is used to provide a small core multiprocessing platform which M$ can hold some IP control over.

In both machines the tight integration of the mid-power CPU with the extremely powerful GFX chips are the key to their performance,

For the Dektop/Laptop (ie general purpose computing platform), IBM would have to plough massive funds into the PPC 970 development... It's getting harder and harder to ramp the speed without the chips getting so hot that they NEED liquid cooling... and given that the future of general purpose computing is almost certainly in the mobile arena (ie Laptops)- or at least Apple think so- someone would need to fund development of cool high performance PPC chips... Apple can't aford to do it, IBM don't need to do it... The PPC is no longer an option for Apple...

Intel on the other hand have a very powerful chip that runs very cool and uses very litle power... the Pentium-M, which IMHO is the best Mobile chip available at the moment. The Intel roadmap shows that in two years the Pentium-M will be a dual core 64bit chip in the high 2Ghz region.

What choice did Apple have?

Ok, right now the Freescale 7447A (or the "G4" in Apple laptop parlance) is just about able to struggle along with the Pentium-M... but again Freescale don't have the money to take it to a dual core, 64bit multi Ghz Chip... it will develop, but at the same slow rate that has crippled the line.



This post was written and posted on a PowerBook G4

[Hammer]

Samuar wrote:
Either way, its a very poor operating system "designed" for the (l)user classes.

I get the feeling my Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz with 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD won't be enough for it; in the same way people laughably install XP on Pentium IIs.

One may need Intel Pentium IV with EMT64 support (16 register GPR and 16 XMM model) and DX9 GPU** (64MB minimum). Intel has licensed PowerVR Series 5(DX9) for their next base level.
   

[Hammer]

the Pentium-M, which IMHO is the best Mobile chip available at the moment.

Note that AMD's Turion 64 already rivals Intel's Dothan.
Refer to
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=51&threadid=1635962&STARTPAGE=2&enterthread=y
 
Unlike Dothan, AMD Turion 64 has support for SSE3 and X64 ISA.  

[bloodline]

Hammer wrote:

the Pentium-M, which IMHO is the best Mobile chip available at the moment.

Note that AMD's Turion 64 already rivals Intel's Dothan.
Refer to
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=51&threadid=1635962&STARTPAGE=2&enterthread=y
 
Unlike Dothan, AMD Turion 64 has support for SSE3 and X64 ISA.  

It's good to see AMD getting back on track :-) I hate having to say intel have a good product ;-)

[Legerdemain]

Actually I installed Windows XP on my old 350MHz Compaq Presario back in the days... optimized it a bit, ran it with only 192MB of RAM and not only did I have a startup at only 7 seconds (after the BIOS was finished until everything had loaded up and was ready to use) but it ran really fast otherwise aswell. Sure, it did some swapping when using heavy applications, but I was rather impressed, really.

Today I consider XP being complete {bleep}e with really lousy networking capabilites (it is even incompatible with other XP systems at times not to mention how it sometimes changes ones configuration making the local network stop working). Oh well.

[Hyperspeed]

What about Transmeta? Wasn't it their main objective to produce an energy efficient CPU for portable devices?

I seem to remember when Gateway were talking about the MMC box that the Transmeta `Crusoe' CPU was extremely powerful and could process different machine code. I've seen this CPU on Sony Vaio laptops (I think with the widescreens) so why Apple are going for Pentiums is beyond me. The Transmeta CPU was supposed to sense when power wasn't being used and almost completely switched itself off, surviving on a little trickle of power for hours worth of mobile work.

Where's SUN, DEC, Toshiba, NEC, Motorolla, Hitachi, Panasonic?

Apple are just flying the stars & stripes and are going to isolate their own diehards...

As for Windows XP, what exactly can it do with 200MB+ that AmigaOS3.9 can't do with 32MB or less?