I think AERO just sucks and that is the only eye candy feature of Vista. First AERO implements something called a glass effect where windows now have glass title bar, status bar and borders. What that means is that the window is translucent, in that you can kinda see the what's behind the window. The biggest problem with this is, that if you have too many windows open (which is not uncommon for must users), it starts getting really ugly. The second problem is that when you maximize the window you loose the glass effect and your window borders, title bar and status bar turn black which really really looks bad.
All in all I think Vista has a ton of features which make it a better OS. I think developers are simply going to love it for it includes a lot of technologies on top of the .NET framework to make development easy, but when people walk into BestBuy to buy a new PC they not going to find those hidden jewels, the first impression they are going to make is based on what they see. Even if they like what they see, I think they will not like it once they start using it. Those are my feelings, it may so happen that I am totally wrong and Vista will sell like crazy, but this is surely one piece of software where I am not with Microsoft.
Re: Vista sucks!!!
Did you ever hear this before: since you love, you expect higher? hehe.
Let's say, if this is your OS, what would you like to include?
Here are some features I will dream to have:
- Speech recognition (Girish's favorite) - why type if we can talk? (why walk if we can run? this is the slogan of 1996 Olympic, hehe)
- Search (thank God that MS realizes it too!) - who can remember where the files are saved?
- Video conference - ok, ok I know MSN can do videos, but only on one-to-one. What if your family or friends are in diferent cities or different countries? why can't we have multiple videos parties participation? What about the features like in Same Time so to promote teamwork for team members in different cities?
- Secure yet perform - current security is achieved by numerous patches, and watch/monitoring. It protects the OS to certain extent, but meantime the performance suffers due to those extra carry-ons and tasks. If the system is designed with security in mind from ground up, this will be totally different story. MS should take the courage as they did the convertion of Sql Server from 6.5 to 7 to build a brand new secure OS.
- Uitilies - small utilities application, such as to do list, calendar, reminder, etc will be a sweet adds-on for majority of the office people.
So far for today.
- Lilly
May 28, 2006 12:42 AM
Re: Vista sucks!!!
Q. Speech recognition (Girish's favorite) - why type if we can talk?
A. This is built into Vista, infact you can talk to IE and it will open the correct link for you. I still don't think it has reached the level one expects.
Q. Search (thank God that MS realizes it too!) - who can remember where the files are saved?
A. I hear they are planning to search not just your desktop, but also the internet and show you the results, I am sure it will search using MSN, and google for sure is not going to like it. On second thoughts I think it will raise a lot of eyebrows with the justice department, so I think MS won't be that foolish.
Q. Video conference - ok, ok I know MSN can do videos, but only on one-to-one. What if your family or friends are in diferent cities or different countries? why can't we have multiple videos parties participation? What about the features like in Same Time so to promote teamwork for team members in different cities?
A. I don't think they have anything like what you are asking for, but they do have a new feature called Meeting Space. When you are with your friends (or in a business meeting) and each of you have a machine with Vista installed, the OS will automatically detect nearby machines and allow you to create a network, share files, view powerpoint slides, make annotations and so on. You do not need Internet for this and yes you as a user have complete control over whether you want to participate or not. I think this is the second coolest feature I like about Vista. There have been times in the past when I wished there were simpler ways for me to collaborate with another machine without having to go through the entire mess of setting up the IP address and stuff.
Q. Secure yet perform - current security is achieved by numerous patches, and watch/monitoring. It protects the OS to certain extent, but meantime the performance suffers due to those extra carry-ons and tasks. If the system is designed with security in mind from ground up, this will be totally different story. MS should take the courage as they did the convertion of Sql Server from 6.5 to 7 to build a brand new secure OS.
A. I think there are some good steps that MS has taken to make the OS more secure. At least that's what they claim. There are two modes that you system works in. User Mode and Kernel Mode. The core OS runs in kernel mode while all other apps run in user mode. In all OSes before Vista all drivers used to run in kernel mode which meant that any badly written driver would crash the system (the blue screen of death as they call it). Like wise Audio / Video stack lived in the kernel mode. In Vista those have been moved to user mode. IE also runs in it's own protected environment, hence a crash would only crash IE and not the OS. Having said that I am not sure if all this makes the OS really secure.
Q. Uitilies - small utilities application, such as to do list, calendar, reminder, etc will be a sweet adds-on for majority of the office people.
A. Looks like MS heard you :) They have a new incarnation of outlook express called Windows Calendar that does exactly what you want. You can even read blogs and set reminders and stuff just like outlook. They have Windows Photo Gallery that lets you organize your photo albums and make minor editing on photos. Rumors are high that they are copying Apple's Garageband application (you can create your own music using this app, lets small time music enthusiasts play with music) and creating their own (code name monaco) for Vista.
I know by now my friends reading this must be thinking I am siding with MS again, but all that I have written are facts about Vista. My main gripe about Vista has been about the UI and hence I think I should rename the blog title to Vista UI sucks!!!
- Vaibhav Kamath
May 28, 2006 01:03 AM
Re: Vista UI sucks!!!
Just read this:
Ultimate Vista and Office 2007.
Evidentaily, not everyone agrees with you, Vaiby :)). But for that price, I am on your side. Who cares about Vista since I will not buy it anyway. hehe.
Maybe should switch to Linux for a change. Who needs productivity if we can not afford it?
Sorry - I must be in Sunday blue although it's Monday today :-)
- Lilly
May 29, 2006 09:53 PM
