Crosswords1 min ago
laptop or desk pc?
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i posted a question about buying a laptop or a desk pc, which the replies were helpful, but is windows vista the devil in disguise or is it better than people think it is?
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I work in the computer industry and followed the Vista development cycle.
The problem Microsoft had with Windows was that it was basically built on products that were many years old (parts of DOS, of Windows 95/98/ME, and of Windows NT).
Although they changed the external look of the product with every release some of the internals of the product were very old, and changing them was a major job.
Of course one important thing with any new release of Windows is that old software and hardware still had to work on any new release of Windows.
But the problem is that if you start changing the internals of Windows all sorts of old products would stop working, so it was a bit of a dilema.
So about 6 years ago (after XP came out) they decided to bite the bullet and redesign whole chunks of the internals of windows.
At the begining of the development cycle Microsoft had big plans to replace whole sections of Windows, but projects like this are a massive undertaking and take take hundreds of developers thousands of man hours to write millions of lines of code.
As the development took longer and longer they changed their minds and decided that certain parts of Windows would now NOT be changed.
This was very disruptive and demoralising for the developers and Vista became a bit of a dity word.
After about 6 years of development the Microsoft management had decided they had had enough and told the developer they had to ship the code.
But the code was not ready, still had loads of bugs, and still needed more development work.
But they released it anyway.
More....
The problem Microsoft had with Windows was that it was basically built on products that were many years old (parts of DOS, of Windows 95/98/ME, and of Windows NT).
Although they changed the external look of the product with every release some of the internals of the product were very old, and changing them was a major job.
Of course one important thing with any new release of Windows is that old software and hardware still had to work on any new release of Windows.
But the problem is that if you start changing the internals of Windows all sorts of old products would stop working, so it was a bit of a dilema.
So about 6 years ago (after XP came out) they decided to bite the bullet and redesign whole chunks of the internals of windows.
At the begining of the development cycle Microsoft had big plans to replace whole sections of Windows, but projects like this are a massive undertaking and take take hundreds of developers thousands of man hours to write millions of lines of code.
As the development took longer and longer they changed their minds and decided that certain parts of Windows would now NOT be changed.
This was very disruptive and demoralising for the developers and Vista became a bit of a dity word.
After about 6 years of development the Microsoft management had decided they had had enough and told the developer they had to ship the code.
But the code was not ready, still had loads of bugs, and still needed more development work.
But they released it anyway.
More....
So they released Vista when, to be honest, it was not ready.
People found old programs that worked under XP did not work under Vista.
People found that old hardware like Printers and so on did not have drivers for Vista so they did not work.
People found that if they tried to upgrade from XP to Vista they got all sorts of problems (crashes, devices not working and so on).
People found that if they DID manage to upgrade to Vista (or bought it on a new PC) it ran VERY slowly. So people had to buy more memory or a faster processor.
Since the release Vista has had a lot of bad press.
No doubt Microsoft have developers everywhere fixing bugs and finishing off the code.
My guess is they will release a Vista Service Pack 1 at some point, and then refresh the code, so anyone who buys it from then on will get the refreshed version.
Gradually software companies are releasing versions of their software that runs under Vista (or providing an update that makes it work on Vista).
But their are still many hardware devices that DONT have Vista drivers and probably never will have.
My advice:
I think anyone running XP should NOT think about upgrading to Vista. It is a lot of hassle, may not work, and you have no way of going back without a complete re-install of Windows XP.
A new machine is more difficult.
Getting a new machine with XP on it is getting more difficult, so you may HAVE to go with Vista.
But you may find that some of your old software and hardware may not work, so you may have extra expense buying a new printer for example.
If you can wait till Microsoft release a Service Pack 1 for Vista that would be a good time to buy. Wait till the PC or laptop you want to buy has a Version of Vista on it that INCLUDES Service Pack 1.
People found old programs that worked under XP did not work under Vista.
People found that old hardware like Printers and so on did not have drivers for Vista so they did not work.
People found that if they tried to upgrade from XP to Vista they got all sorts of problems (crashes, devices not working and so on).
People found that if they DID manage to upgrade to Vista (or bought it on a new PC) it ran VERY slowly. So people had to buy more memory or a faster processor.
Since the release Vista has had a lot of bad press.
No doubt Microsoft have developers everywhere fixing bugs and finishing off the code.
My guess is they will release a Vista Service Pack 1 at some point, and then refresh the code, so anyone who buys it from then on will get the refreshed version.
Gradually software companies are releasing versions of their software that runs under Vista (or providing an update that makes it work on Vista).
But their are still many hardware devices that DONT have Vista drivers and probably never will have.
My advice:
I think anyone running XP should NOT think about upgrading to Vista. It is a lot of hassle, may not work, and you have no way of going back without a complete re-install of Windows XP.
A new machine is more difficult.
Getting a new machine with XP on it is getting more difficult, so you may HAVE to go with Vista.
But you may find that some of your old software and hardware may not work, so you may have extra expense buying a new printer for example.
If you can wait till Microsoft release a Service Pack 1 for Vista that would be a good time to buy. Wait till the PC or laptop you want to buy has a Version of Vista on it that INCLUDES Service Pack 1.
Get XP if you can. Vista is the spawn of satan, with more content protection systems than you can imagine.
Even better -- get a Mac or just install Ubuntu.
Desktop or laptop -- another issue. If you want portability and don't mind about not being able to upgrade and paying more, get a laptop. If you like to upgrade parts and will be always using it at the same desk in your house, get a desktop.
Even better -- get a Mac or just install Ubuntu.
Desktop or laptop -- another issue. If you want portability and don't mind about not being able to upgrade and paying more, get a laptop. If you like to upgrade parts and will be always using it at the same desk in your house, get a desktop.
One of the reasons Vista has got itself such a bad rep is that it requires a far more powerful machine to run anywhere near as well as XP yet on the surface doesn't really do anything much different.
One of the reasons for this, apparently, is DRM. Microsoft have written in a whole raft of checks and features that attempt to protect next gen video and audio content. Something few people actually use the PC for.
Third party drivers also have to comply making it a great deal harder to write them. It's quite likely that a lot of old hardware never will get Vista drivers.
New graphics cards have to be designed specially otherwise they'll not be Vista certified and wont allow HD video to be played. If your PC has an SPDIF connection it'll be disabled when you play a BD or HDDVD disk because the SPDIF standard doesn't included any content protection.
Even if you never plan on using Vista you'll find you're spangley new PC has had to be designed with it specifically in mind. Microsoft seems to think the PC is Microsoft and that other OS' don't exist.
So they've crippled their entire operating system and strong armed PC component manufacturers for a 'feature' that doesn't benefit a single end user and that pirates will bypass in a heartbeat anyway.
It's the arrogance and blatant attempt to control everything that normal end users do that ****** me off.
I think Linux and Apple have never had a better opportunity.
One of the reasons for this, apparently, is DRM. Microsoft have written in a whole raft of checks and features that attempt to protect next gen video and audio content. Something few people actually use the PC for.
Third party drivers also have to comply making it a great deal harder to write them. It's quite likely that a lot of old hardware never will get Vista drivers.
New graphics cards have to be designed specially otherwise they'll not be Vista certified and wont allow HD video to be played. If your PC has an SPDIF connection it'll be disabled when you play a BD or HDDVD disk because the SPDIF standard doesn't included any content protection.
Even if you never plan on using Vista you'll find you're spangley new PC has had to be designed with it specifically in mind. Microsoft seems to think the PC is Microsoft and that other OS' don't exist.
So they've crippled their entire operating system and strong armed PC component manufacturers for a 'feature' that doesn't benefit a single end user and that pirates will bypass in a heartbeat anyway.
It's the arrogance and blatant attempt to control everything that normal end users do that ****** me off.
I think Linux and Apple have never had a better opportunity.
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