Rants Tagged with “Vista”
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In this news.com article, they explore a problem I wondered about when I first saw Avalon two years ago. I am hoping that MS will make this better during optimization. I had heard that the Avalon team was hoping that battery life and mobile GPU's wouild be better when Avalon shipped. Not surprisingly, the battery life of laptops is essentially the same as it was two years ago (IMHO), though Mobile GPU's may be better.
What do you think?
I have built a test-vista machine to do some WinFX stuff on and it got me wondering...why do I need to run the WinFX runtime installation on Vista? Isn't this supposed to be pre-installed? Aren't some built-in Vista apps already using WinFX? I am so confused. Anyone know?
After fighting everyone else to download the Beta 2, I got Vista Beta 2 installed on my tablet pc last night. My impressions so far:
- Installation was as easy as XP, and possibly faster.
- Most of my devices were detected and drivers installed by default (unlike the MSNBC writer's bad experience with this). Of note, my audio driver, tablet screen (e.g. Pen) and modem drivers didn't install. But the audio and modem drivers installed soon after the system contacted Windows Update. Gateway doesn't yet have a certified digitizer driver so its not Vista fault in my opinion.
- It seems at least as fast as XP, though I have it on an underpowered video card, so I don't have aero glass working.
On the whole I am very happy with the experience so far (and will probaby make it my main OS in the coming weeks). In addition I have some cheers and jeers so far:
Cheers
- The sidebar is definitely faster than in previous versions. I turned it off, but I like it nonetheless.
- The lack of flyout menus on the start-bar is great. I love the new menu.
Jeers
- Changing the size/location of desktop icons isn't working like i'd like it to.
- The new IE7 Save dialog is confusing on how to make some folder the default.
I will give a more in-depth review after I have used it for a week or so (I have a WinFX article coming up so I'll have to use it as my main machine for a few days).
Not really, but this is my favorite from the list:
"Vista Boot Straight Into World of Warcraft and Never Be Seen Again Edition"
Longhorn finally has a real name: Windows Vista. Huh? Can't we just go back and call it Windows 2006? XP was wierd enough, but now the marketing people have invaded the campus' core. They announced the new name with the marketing tagline:
"Clear, Confident, Connected: Bringing clarity to your world."
Get used to it. We got used to XP, we'll get used to it. But I am going to try and call it Windows 2006 until someone slaps me down.
I concur with this blogger. I don't get what will be in Longhorn. I really like Avalon and Indigo presents a great platform for SOA, but they are pre-Longhorn. And anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about WinFS...
Speaking of Cairo, I hope WinFS was dumped because they needed more time to get the API right (the last few builds were horribly difficult to understand) and not just because SQL Server dropped key features (row-level security and FileStream datatypes).
This week is expected to be the OS X (Tiger) vs. Longhorn week. With Steve Jobs taking the covers off the newest incarnation of OS X, he'll be trying to besmirch Longhorn at every turn. This newsweek article is probably only the first of many on the subject.
I am still impressed that the Microsoft spin machine hasn't been able to get WinFS out of the press's minds. They still beat up on them for dropping WinFS. I am hoping that Microsoft sees fit to include WinFS in a future version. My opinion is that they can't ship WinFS until SQL Server (the underlying DB engine that had powered WinFS) has row-level security. Building something akin to NT File Permissions over SQL Server is just too much overhead.
Even though I'd love to poke Microsoft about how Tiger will have something akin to WinFS, it doesn't really. Tiger's new feature is to allow metadata on files to help out search. This is not WinFS. While WinFS was to have supported additional metadata, it went a lot further than that. It was going to be an object-based file system with full support for relationships between objects in the file system. That's a lot bigger than just metadata support.
My only hope is that the continued bad press about lack of WinFS will push Microsoft to accellerate WinFS to earlier than the rumored 2010. I have heard whispers that the WinFS team is still working on the product, but when it will see the public eye is anybody's guess.
I am perhaps most disgruntled about Apple's new metadata/search functionality which mirrors some of the importance of WinFS. As Joe Wilcox stated:
"Apple also is in a position to exploit Microsoft missteps. Tiger will feature metadata search capabilities as part of the file system. Microsoft touted such capabilities with WinFS, but that file system now won't ship with Longhorn, if ever." (emphasis added, ed.)
I hope MSN Desktop search isn't Microsoft's answer to real metadata in the Post-Longhorn timeframe.
I've had the WinHEC build of Longhorn for a while now and I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised. It seems that Longhorn is really coming along. I am very focused on WinFS programming, so I have not had too much time to dig into other interesting topics like Avalon (though Chris Sells loves the data binding) and Indigo.
The biggest change that has effected me is the lack of VS.NET. Because of very different development schedules, there is not a version of VS.NET that works with this release of Longhorn. At first I was a bit daunted...I have become so dependent on the tools. I haven't compiled from the command-line in quite a while. Luckily, MSBuild came to the rescue. After having been using NAnt, I was unsure what the big deal with MSBuild was and why it mattered. I am now a big fan. Instead of having to learn their XML syntax, I was delighted to find out that it will build based on a csproj file. This helped me out a lot, because I know how to write those files like the back of my hand (mostly from hacking csproj's to fix annoying problems like licx files remaining after you remove a reference).
Once I could build, I started digging into WinFS, I am suprised by the sheer scope of change in this version. I do expect it to calm down in later builds and I know it is *really* early. What has surprised me is the pace of development by the WinFS team. Whole interfaces have changed drasticly and concepts (chielfly relationships) seem to be redesigned completely. Truth be known, I am not sure it is for the better yet; much of the interfaces for navigating relationships seem much more heavy handed and complicated...but I have faith they'll get it right before it is all over.
Lastly, though I would never expect it from an early OS, the startup/shutdown time in this version is vastly improved from the PDC bits. Since I am dual booting to Longhorn, this really helps me switch back and forth quickly.
While editing Ian Griffiths new WinFX article for ONDotnet.com, he showed me how wrong I am. I've been complaining about the hit on battery life that Longhorn will have since it will use the GPU (Video Card). Of course, Ian correctly mentioned that the high power/heat 3D computation is not needed for Longhorn, but the 2D rendering is. This eleviates all of my concerns about power and Longhorn. I am happy to be wrong...
