View Single Post
05-24-2007, 03:57 PM
#16
RaZoR^ is offline RaZoR^
RaZoR^'s Avatar
Status: Member
Join date: Feb 2006
Location:
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 191
iTrader: 1 / 100%
 

RaZoR^ is on a distinguished road

  Old

The way it handles RAM is more of how it handles memory in general. In earlier versions of Windows, the OS would rely a lot on what Microsoft called "Virtual Memory". This is basically space taken from your hard disk to be used as memory for certain parts of the OS and software applications. In Windows Vista, like Linux has been doing for years, the OS prioritises RAM over Virtual Memory (or swap in Linux), for the simple reason that it's a lot faster and much more efficient. Also, people are constantly going for physical memory video editors, you'll set a lot of 4GB and upwards systems. Just remember to buy the 64-bit OS to support more than 3GB for user-level.

Software applications do have a tendency to crash or function differently under ista, because there have been additions and withdrawals to Managed Code and so forth in the OS. What they came up with the end, I'm not sure, but it functions a fair bit different to XP and earlier. You can always try running them in Compatibility mode for XP or similar and see how well that works.

Games don't work on it very well at the moment, simply because 3rd-party driver support is dire. Possibly because Microsoft aren't receiving the hype they wanted from the OS. 6 months after its release high percentages of people didn't even know what Vista is, and those who did didn't feel reluctant to buy it. I can't remember the statistics from the top of my head, but I don't think it's been marketed as well as it could have been.

Microsoft Office won't slow your computer down unless you have a 10GB hard disk, 128MB of DDR 133Mhz RAM and a Celeron processor. That is to say, Microsoft Office will only slow your computer down when you open an Office application such as Microsoft Word. By default, it will slow it down slightly when these aren't open because it adds a couple of Services to start when you logon to the computer; these can easily be set to start-up only when you ask them to.

With regards to asking permission for system-wide changes, again, this has featured in Linux and Mac OS for quite some time, possibly longer in Linux, but they both run off some good 'ol Unix source code, so can't say who got there first. I think, but don't quote me on it, that there is a method of disabling the feature if it is annoying you that much. But having the God account for your computer (Administrator/root) given to you for you to logon with each time you use your computer isn't a good idea. Without this instant ability, the effect of many malicious programs out there such as adware, malware and viruses is dramatically reduced. Perhaps this is why Linux and Mac have a hideously lower number of viruses able to access a user's system, and those that do are mainly just annoyances rather than damaging ones. The number of viruses out for Vista as opposed to XP should be much lower, although it does have a larger user-base than Linux so it might even out a bit more than I think.

As you can probably tell, I only use Windows on certain occasions, usually when I'm asked something Windows-related and I don't have it sitting in front of me to help. I do like the new interface for Vista, and the core of the kernel has been improved very well indeed. I don't think it's remotely near good enough for 5 and a half years worth of development, and they randomly scrapped the project in the middle under codename Longhorn and restarted for multiple reasons. I can't see that many new features in it that you can't download for XP for free, providing DirectX 10 is released for earlier releases of Windows. Just seems to be all bells and whistles to people who like their computer to look nice to me.

I might buy it when the Beta copies run out, or I might just wait until 2009 and Windows "Vienna" should be released if all goes to schedule. But at the moment, Vista needs to get its SP1 on the go (September 2007 hopefully) and some 3rd-party hardware support needs to be generated to get me to use it; it's a little insecure and Microsoft are still running their update schedule, instead of immediately distributing patches for known vulnerabilities. Lets hope the prices fall a bit more by October for me then as well

Oh yeah, and if they are going to concentrate on look and feel, then they could look into taking their concentration off suing people for patents misuse and get to work on some innovative ideas for the GUI. At the moment, XGL under Linux is more capable than it with the ability to have workspaces on a cube, shortcuts to rotate the cube in 6 directions, instant bubble effects (weird but cool), wobble effects when moving windows, adjustable alpha effects on most aspects of the GUI and much much more. I know there are some tools out there for making Vista look good, but then don't measure up yet :P

Edit: Yes, it does defragment in the background, but it's still on a near-scheduled basis. Whereas other OSs ensure that the data is correctly placed in the first place therefore removing the need to check that it is correctly placed later on