NationStates Jolt Archive


MS Vista - a sea change in Microsoft?

Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 14:20
Ohhhhh this is hard!

I won't be touching Vista with a 20ft barge pole....

.....
Well, the long wait is nearly over. Microsoft's elephantine parturition has produced an heir. Last week the company distributed 'Release Candidate 1' (RC1) of Vista, the new incarnation of Windows, to about 5 million favoured customers. Think of it as the final beta of the software. Microsoft says it is still on course to deliver a version to corporate customers in November, followed by a consumer release to high-street dealers in January.
Microsoft also released details of US pricing for the new operating system. The 'Home Basic' version will cost $199. 'Home Premium' comes at $239. 'Vista Business' is priced at $299. And 'Vista Ultimate' weighs in at a whopping $399. Security vulnerabilities come free with all versions. (hehe) There is also to be a 'Vista Starter' edition which will be marketed to people in poor countries in a futile attempt to stop them pirating Vista Ultimate and selling it on the streets of Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore for a dollar a pop. ........

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1868642,00.html
Kryozerkia
12-09-2006, 14:24
I've seen it, it's a pretty sexy operating system.

And plus, you can talk to your computer! Every nerd's dream...

Really, you can. It has voice recognition, which is one of the better selling points of the system. It takes the AI a while to learn your voice, but, it catches on quickly... and to think... eventually, we will NEVER have to write another NS General post entry again. We'll be able to dictate it!

NO MORE SPELLING AND GRAMMAR ERRORS!...err...ah... well, maybe a few so long as there are words that the AI won't know at this point...
Philosopy
12-09-2006, 14:27
I don't like the number of versions they're releasing. I hate the fact that they will charge you £100 for something that probably won't work for a year or two and is missing important features.
Deep Kimchi
12-09-2006, 14:33
How can hackers, scattered across the globe, working for no pay, linked only by the net and shared values, apparently outperform the smartest software company on the planet?

Because they are using agile development practices, and Microsoft is still using a variant of the waterfall approach.
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:33
Ohhhhh this is hard!

I won't be touching Vista with a 20ft barge pole....

.....
Well, the long wait is nearly over. Microsoft's elephantine parturition has produced an heir. Last week the company distributed 'Release Candidate 1' (RC1) of Vista, the new incarnation of Windows, to about 5 million favoured customers. Think of it as the final beta of the software. Microsoft says it is still on course to deliver a version to corporate customers in November, followed by a consumer release to high-street dealers in January.
Microsoft also released details of US pricing for the new operating system. The 'Home Basic' version will cost $199. 'Home Premium' comes at $239. 'Vista Business' is priced at $299. And 'Vista Ultimate' weighs in at a whopping $399. Security vulnerabilities come free with all versions. (hehe) There is also to be a 'Vista Starter' edition which will be marketed to people in poor countries in a futile attempt to stop them pirating Vista Ultimate and selling it on the streets of Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore for a dollar a pop. ........

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1868642,00.html

Yeah not finding the benefits of RC1 over B3 here (on a test box right now)
Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 14:35
I've seen it, it's a pretty sexy operating system.

And plus, you can talk to your computer! Every nerd's dream...

Really, you can. It has voice recognition, which is one of the better selling points of the system. It takes the AI a while to learn your voice, but, it catches on quickly... and to think... eventually, we will NEVER have to write another NS General post entry again. We'll be able to dictate it!

NO MORE SPELLING AND GRAMMAR ERRORS!...err...ah... well, maybe a few so long as there are words that the AI won't know at this point...

think you need to watch this .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEd_PtdPQjI
Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 14:37
Yeah not finding the benefits of RC1 over B3 here (on a test box right now)

I think I'm just going to use FreeDos from now on! ;)
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:39
think you need to watch this .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEd_PtdPQjI

Beat me too it

Their voice recognition is not neerly as nice as old school Dragoon softwares
Farnhamia
12-09-2006, 14:43
I've seen it, it's a pretty sexy operating system.

And plus, you can talk to your computer! Every nerd's dream...

Really, you can. It has voice recognition, which is one of the better selling points of the system. It takes the AI a while to learn your voice, but, it catches on quickly... and to think... eventually, we will NEVER have to write another NS General post entry again. We'll be able to dictate it!

NO MORE SPELLING AND GRAMMAR ERRORS!...err...ah... well, maybe a few so long as there are words that the AI won't know at this point...

Oh, great, so now I'll have conference calls on speaker phone all around me, plus the @%$@#^ across the aisle who doesn't shut up all day long AND people talking to their machines! Wonderful. And if the AI does as good a job checking spelling and grammar as Word does now, all that'll change is the kinds of errors we see, not the quantity. Besides, that's just another excuse for lazy-ass people to blow off learning to spell and write correctly. Bah.
Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 14:43
Beat me too it

Their voice recognition is not neerly as nice as old school Dragoon softwares

Been around for yonks as well...what near 10 years ish? IBM product as well....but I still see little real advancement in natural language/unstructured language commands for computing....It will happen though....but not by the time Vista ships....
Philosopy
12-09-2006, 14:44
Oh, great, so now I'll have conference calls on speaker phone all around me, plus the @%$@#^ across the aisle who doesn't shut up all day long AND people talking to their machines! Wonderful. And if the AI does as good a job checking spelling and grammar as Word does now, all that'll change is the kinds of errors we see, not the quantity. Besides, that's just another excuse for lazy-ass people to blow off learning to spell and write correctly. Bah.

Have a sit down and a cup of tea. I think you need it.
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:44
Oh, great, so now I'll have conference calls on speaker phone all around me, plus the @%$@#^ across the aisle who doesn't shut up all day long AND people talking to their machines! Wonderful. And if the AI does as good a job checking spelling and grammar as Word does now, all that'll change is the kinds of errors we see, not the quantity. Besides, that's just another excuse for lazy-ass people to blow off learning to spell and write correctly. Bah.

Agreed ... you know how funny it would sound if I were talking about all the stuff I am doing multy tasking in the office all day long ...
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:46
Been around for yonks as well...what near 10 years ish? IBM product as well....but I still see little real advancement in natural language/unstructured language commands for computing....It will happen though....but not by the time Vista ships....

Agreed ...

Vistas just feels like a rehash without improvement of that old beast of an application

Personaly I dont like voice input to machines ... there has to be a better less intrusive way for me to interface
Khadgar
12-09-2006, 14:48
Agreed ...

Vistas just feels like a rehash without improvement of that old beast of an application

Personaly I dont like voice input to machines ... there has to be a better less intrusive way for me to interface

I'm holding out for direct neural interfaces. Fuck voice recognition.
Farnhamia
12-09-2006, 14:50
Have a sit down and a cup of tea. I think you need it.

Yeah, broke my rule about posting before 8:00 AM ... :rolleyes:

Agreed ... you know how funny it would sound if I were talking about all the stuff I am doing multy tasking in the office all day long ...

I'm reminded of the bit in whichever Star Trek movie was the "save the whales" one where Scotty starts talking to the computer and Sulu hands him the mouse, which Scotty promptly uses as a microphone. "Com-puter..." :D
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:51
I'm holding out for direct neural interfaces. Fuck voice recognition.

I just switched to Dvorak for now
Mac World
12-09-2006, 14:52
I liked Vista when it was called OS X. Seriously... Most of the stuff M$ is implementing in Vista like a DOCK STATION and WIDGETS have already been done in Tiger. Not to mention that Tiger's cheaper than Vista. So I think I'll pass M$.
Khadgar
12-09-2006, 14:52
I just switched to Dvorak for now

I'm entirely too lazy to learn how to type again. Though I suspect it wouldn't actually take long to learn.
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:53
I'm entirely too lazy to learn how to type again. Though I suspect it wouldn't actually take long to learn.

Naw a week or two ... bumped my speed up to like 140 wpm from about 90
Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 14:53
Agreed ...

Vistas just feels like a rehash without improvement of that old beast of an application

Personaly I dont like voice input to machines ... there has to be a better less intrusive way for me to interface

I miss command line

/sad

Voice input is also not my perfered method either...unless its a document I am creating...that would be good but even then I suspect it could be more hassle than its worth...having said that I would give it a go...

Drect neural input....no. That tech is a long long long way off....I'll be dead and buried before it even reaches a test build stage for humans.
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 14:56
I miss command line

/sad

Voice input is also not my perfered method either...unless its a document I am creating...that would be good but even then I suspect it could be more hassle than its worth...having said that I would give it a go...

Drect neural input....no. That tech is a long long long way off....I'll be dead and buried before it even reaches a test build stage for humans.

Why miss it? CLI is still alive and well in the *nix world. Better then all thoes new ubuntu users that couldent ACTUALY do a damn thing if you drew a diagram
Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 15:00
Why miss it? CLI is still alive and well in the *nix world. Better then all thoes new ubuntu users that couldent ACTUALY do a damn thing if you drew a diagram

sadly I live in a Wintel world.

tell you one thing though...if I was CIO of a major multi...I'd drop Wintel faster than you can say Steve Balmer is a Monkeyboi....

Outside of a few specialist apps there is no need....and even those apps can be run *nix hardware anyway.

Maybe my next job (just been told I'm getting an offer) I can do just that as there is a refresh in the pipeline...
Obliquity
12-09-2006, 15:03
I've been enjoying voice recognition for years... on something called Mac OS X... granted there's a limited amount of phrasing, but hey, it works 100% of the time. If I want it to open an app or shut down, it listens... just another reason why vista<tiger (and panther and jaguar for that matter, which are even older)
UpwardThrust
12-09-2006, 15:16
I've been enjoying voice recognition for years... on something called Mac OS X... granted there's a limited amount of phrasing, but hey, it works 100% of the time. If I want it to open an app or shut down, it listens... just another reason why vista<tiger (and panther and jaguar for that matter, which are even older)

Yeah and you have to pay for every update …

I’m sorry I like what mac has done on some level but having to buy every release … fuck that I go to the source that they borrowed from and run FreeBSD directly
Teh_pantless_hero
12-09-2006, 15:18
What's the difference between the versions?
Rubiconic Crossings
12-09-2006, 15:19
why is this a sea change for MS?

Beisde the corp restructuring there is evidently also going to be a change in the way they will build future O/S's.

The irony mentioned at the end of the article must be bittersweet LOL