Furan - Slashdot User

Windows 7 Taskbar Not So Similar To OS X Dock After All 545

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 22, 2009 @09:19PM from the this-comparison-is-not-like-the-others dept.

cremou brulee writes "Redmond's photocopiers have been unusually busy for the last couple of years, with the result that Windows 7 copies a lots of Mac OS X features. First and foremost among these is the Dock, which has been unceremoniously ripped off in Windows 7's new Taskbar. Or has it? Ars Technica has taken an in-depth look at the history and evolution of the Taskbar, and shows just how MS arrived at the Windows 7 'Superbar.' The differences between the Superbar and the Dock are analyzed in detail. The surprising conclusion? 'Ultimately, the new Taskbar is not Mac-like in any important way, and only the most facile of analyses would claim that it is.'"

Comment Re:Did you turn off Aero? (Score 1) 898

by Furan on Monday December 29, 2008 @05:21PM (#26261721) Attached to: First Look At Windows 7 Beta 1

This is half true.

The window backbuffer in Vista is stored both in system and video memory. And GDI is not hardware accelerated anymore. Note that at this point it makes less and less sense as we are able to do things faster on the cpu, so any hardware acceleration only has the utility of being able to keep the surfaces near the hardware (in video memory).

With Windows 7 and WDDM 1.1, the window backbuffer is almost always in video memory, and some GDI DDIs are once again accelerated to facilitate that locality.

Either way though you're better off with the DWM on than off.

Stardock Tried To Make Star Control, Master of Orion Sequels 125

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 18, 2008 @12:16AM from the brought-to-you-by-frungy-the-sport-of-kings dept.

Gamasutra reports on comments from Stardock CEO Brad Wardell in which he described his efforts to revive two old but popular franchises: Star Control and Master of Orion. Quoting: "'I actually pitched Atari on a whole idea for a true successor to Star Control,' [he said], noting that the game would follow original series developer Toys for Bob's Star Control II rather than the Legend Entertainment-developed Star Control 3 ('We just pretend that never happened,' the CEO says of that release). ... Novato, California-based Toys for Bob has actually floated the idea of making its own Star Control II sequel, with co-creator Paul Reiche III indicating he has tossed potential design ideas around, but with the company now owned by publisher Activision the proposal seems to be stuck in limbo."

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