Windows Vista: Microsoft's Terminator

[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.

[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!

[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?

[Hyperspeed]

If Windows XP is good in low memory situations and the mark of a good OS is one that fills up all the memory it can eat...  why then does Windows XP require 128MB just to boot and still uses virtual memory?

The mark of a good OS to me is one that does what you tell it, when you tell it. Surely even with memory protection a Windows machine is susceptible to memory leaks/fragmentation? Surely virtual memory reduces the lifespan of the magnetic medium?

I'm not arguing that Wordworth 7 can compete effectively with the latest Microsoft Word, but if things are become more compact, more portable, then surely such a resource hungry piece of software should become dinosaur? After all, it's the lean bipedals that inherited the Earth, not the gigantic diplodocus that ate tonnes of leaves and had a brain the size of a walnut!

As for slow Transmeta Crusoe, I saw a 1GHz model and Sony obviously approved of it for it to be in the flagship Vaio laptops! And wasn't it well reported that the Dual-G5 Macs were outperforming even the highest rated Pentium machines? Apple ran an advert proclaiming the PowerPC G5 Mac to be the most powerful computer in the world! Isn't RISC producing much less heat than a comparable speed CISC chip?

:-)

[Hyperspeed]

I'm not trying to say AmigaOS is better, Windows has had time to catch up now. What I am saying is AmigaOS is more efficient.

It's like German vs Italian, Mercedes Smartcar vs Ferrari.

One is fast and pretty, the other is small, stumpy and generally resource efficient!

And you should be programming for AmigaOS 4 young man! To the dunce's corner with you!

[Hyperspeed]

For criticising the Amiga's memory management on it's 20th birthday you're going to laugh all the way to the dungeon!

GUARDS!

:-D

[Hyperspeed]

A robot running on Windows would probably be a bit like ED-209 from the Robocop films - huge, powerful but show it a flight of stairs and it would go arse-over-heels. Then shoot the person controlling it.

:-o

What is Weirdami anyway, a shoehorn with eyes? :-P

[Hyperspeed]

There's 3 Robosapien now: A humanoid, a dinosaur and an odd thing that jumps about like a flea.

I like the dinosaur, it has a cheesy grin. At £80 GBP (e140?) though they're still ripoffs of the Sony Aibo robo-dogs at £1,000 (e1.700?).

They're even selling robot vacuum cleaners in the Argos catalogue for £200 (e340) but they look rubbish compared to the Dyson DC15 `The Ball'.

Also, UK TV's Blue Peter show has come a long way from "sticky backed plastic" as the last time I turned on BBC1 they had the Honda Asimo robot in the studio. At about the size of a 5yr old it was taking voice commands from the presenter, refusing commands from the co-presenter, dancing, climbing up and down stairs, waving and talking (though at £5m GBP / e8,5m you'd expect it to!).

:-D

Thinking PDA/Robots though, wouldn't an Amiga laptop be kickin' if it was like the `Calculus' from Robocop 3!

;-)