Windows Vista 5342 Screenshots 478
Lhopar writes "Microsoft released a new build of Windows Vista to beta testers. Flexbeta has got some screenshots. Included in this build is an extensive collection of drivers and the exclusive sidebar. Glass is also a feature that we all have come to respect and love, along with the 3D flip. The official version number is 6.0 Version 5342.winmain_idx04.060321-1730. Internet Explorer 7.0 is build Version 7.0.5342.2. Nice features include a new 'Paint' and needed redesigned network center."
Performance rating (Score:5, Interesting)
Something doesn't make sense:
Processor: P4 3.0GHZ 4.3
Memory: 1023mb 5.2
Hard Drive: 179GB free 4.8
Graphics Radeon 9600 4.3
Graphics Mem: 126mb 3.7
Overall Rating: 3
Wouldn't it be reasonable to expect this machine to have a 4?
Or is graphics memory the only meaningful metric?
Re:Microsoft the inovator (Score:2, Interesting)
Vista Screenshots Slashdotted in less than 5 (Score:3, Interesting)
First thoughts (Score:4, Interesting)
- Still uses crappy activation
- In the third [screen]shot down, the windows stacked at a 3-D angle looks horrible. It might amuse little kids for a while though (clippy all over again)
- The updated paint doesn't look that different, and anyone with any serious graphics needs isn't going to use it anyway
- More of those lovely flashy blue setup screens that dumb down the interface (I personally don't like them)
- The performance rating is an interesting idea; it might be useful for people buying games (especially parents)
Disclaimer: I rushed this post a bit, I'm in a hurryRe:Performance rating (Score:2, Interesting)
Vista appears to be no different -- if your "limiting reagent" is the rating amount of video RAM, you cannot produce a total 5.2 score. Nor can you take the average, so you're stuck with 3.7. You also don't have enough to meet the 4 threshold, so you're stuck with less than 4... which turns out to be a 3 on the Vista step-scale.
Not quite what they taught you in chemistry class, but since when has school taught you anything applicable to the real world?
Re:First thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)
Does this feature in Vista show animations / videos when switching through the windows? I find it handy with Exposé since I can monitor several windows at once (for example, progress bars.. or watch a video while monitoring progress in other applications, etc.) With the 3D angle, though, I don't think it will be as handy..
Looks more like a Linux desktop all the time (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems to me Windows is looking more and more like the *nix desktops all the time. I guess this means that Linux really is influencing even Microsoft.
Having played with Xgl a bit, I find it cool, but generally speaking translucent windows are not that useful and often make the contents of the windows harder to read. Looks like MS's take on this is to add blurring to the translucency which actually makes the window contents very readable while still maintaining some transparency. Whether this is going to be a good thing when you have a bunch of windows stacked on top of each other I don't know. But definitely the blurring effect plus the translucency is much better than just the translucency that I can get with Xgl. Of course nothing stops one from doing the bluring in Xgl too. Xgl has all of these capabilities right here now. It will be interesting to see how translucency is finally used. For all its eye-candy, OS X does almost no translucency, except on the dock.
Re:They're at it again. (Score:2, Interesting)
Old habits die hard.
I hardly ever use the search box in Firefox, and just search from the location bar. (In my defense, I set it up so I can type "g " to return the results of a Google search, so that's what I use. It's possible without that I'd use the search box.)
It's called Vista and yet looks like shit? (Score:2, Interesting)
I know people will add all kinds of things to this statement, but the "vista" part of Vista, looks like a sloppy hack job.
I'm a computer artist... I had to say it. It's ugly.
Luminesweeper ;-) (Score:3, Interesting)
Do they have screenies of Solitaire and Minesweeper?
Solitaire has been ditched in favor of Lumines, and both games have been rewritten [pineight.com] using VBA.
Re:Why is this on Slashdot? (Score:2, Interesting)
Erm... is your comment related to the topic at all? Oh wait, this is Slashdot, so it doesn't has to be.
Anyway, most of the criticism around Vista boils down to one point: it is indeed (and looks) like a cool os, and his interface is as good as OS X one (except for the ring on the active textbox, which I hope they will add soon, since it really really helps the user). But, is it worth 300$? Why I should upgrade from my Windows XP to Windows Vista? That's the real point.
Hope you have a good answer
Re:Something constructive for a change... (Score:2, Interesting)
I personally thought that the lack of a menu bar was fairly annoying, just having a "Tools" buttons wasn't really enough. And when the menu bar was enabled, it was in a fairly awkward position (*below* the address bar? What were they thinking?). Maybe I can convince them to include a menu which is accessed by right-clicking on the address bar. Or, I can just put it in myself. Oh, wait, I can't have the sources to IE. Firefox uses up less screen space and has a menu/tab/nav bar. Plus a bookmarks bar, which I don't see in IE7. Plus, it is fully themeable, open-source, etc. The IE team and the Windows team in general just seems to be 4-5 years behind, taking more time to copy features than the original products that they copied from took to come up with them. Tabbed browsing, web standards, RSS feeds, all were in mozilla/netscape/firefox/opera years before IE. Oh well, I guess I will be forced to use Vista in a few more years as it will be the only OS to run Half Life 3, Halo 4. Or, it might be the perfect opportunity to completely migrate to linux or OS X.