More VISTA news

[Lazybones]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050910-5298.html



There will be 7, yes 7 versions of VISTA  :shock: . I can wait to support this.



I can see it now, not only will you have to figure out if the user is in classic mode or areo glass mode when walking there through the GUI, you will now have to figure out if the menus and functions are different in that version of VISTA.



I already hate home edition now we will have 7 painful choices to make.



I wonder what featureset / version they are testing in beta right now..



Now for a semi positive note it sounds like the Enterprise version will have a built in virtual PC system which might be nice for doing development work on.

[Shayne]

not only will you have to figure out if the user is in classic mode or areo glass mode when walking there through the GUI

Do you currently ask if they are running in luna mode or classic mode? I dont.



As for the 7 version, i agree, thats insanity.  However 2 of those are not really important (N, Starter), so technically 5 (un?)common versions to work with.  Yikes.



I like the idea of a Home and Pro.  I have never had an issue installing/supporting Home and i think its BY FAR AND AWAY the most FANTASTIC operating system for the TYPICAL mother & father computer.  Its cheap and easy to use.



We shall see.  Im curious to know how many of these will be marketted to the typical home user.



...mmm...windows XP has Home, Pro, N, Starter, Media PC, Tablet, XPx64.  Thats 7.  ...my guess is that N gets replaced with Enterprise.

[Shayne]

Okay...a little more research.



In the Home category: Windows Vista Starter Edition, Windows Vista Home Basic Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition



In the Business category: Windows Vista Small Business Edition, Windows Vista Professional Edition, and Windows Vista Enterprise Edition.



...room for confusion in the Home segment thats for sure.  I do like the idea of a Windows Vista Ultimate Edition though, probably complete with Media PC ability as well as tablet stuff.  Best all around.

[Lazybones]

Actually the support problems come into play in the control panel and in the folder security areas.. The interfaces are VERY inconsistent between classic and XP mode.



Also not limited to Home edition is the way folder security is handled in Work group mode   opposed to Domain mode.. In domain mode it is very easy to see the permissions, in work group mode XP does all sorts of strange things to permissions based on one or two check boxes.. I expect more of these types of problems in VISTA.



As for the classic vs Luna issue, YES even that is a problem.. Since the start menus are vastly different AND key desktop icons can be hidden, some extra time is needed walk users to some admin screens because there is no way to get to the my computer Icon.



For example to get to computer management:



Example 1:

Standard luna. (User finds my computer in the start menu, else go to example 2)

1. Open start menu

2. Right click on my computer and select manage



Example 2.

Pure classic mode with desktop icons (user can't find my computer icon go to example 3)

1. Right click on my computer and select manage



Example 3.

Blank default luna desktop with classic start menu

1. Open start menu

2. Go to Settings

3. Go to Control Panel

4. Now is the control panel in classic or XP mode... describe to user

If classic:

5. go to Administrative Tools

6. click on Computer Management

If XP mode:

5. go to Performance and Maintenance

6. go to Administrative Tools

7. click on Computer Management



And yes there are other ways to get to these items but they all tend to be inconstant depending on the users desktop preferences.



There business editions is too many.. MS products are the worst for this kind of different version crap.. Hell just getting the RIGHT version of visual studio for your developers can be a pain in the ass.



Do you just need Visual Studio .NET, or do you need Pro, or do you need Enterprise Architect.. SO you have an MSDN subscription, what level is it? As you get a Different version of VS included with each level!!!!!

[Shayne]

I suppose i dont do enough support stuff to notice the differances.



From a tech standpoint many versions wouldnt be that great.  From a consumer standpoint choices are good, im looking forward to getting a high end operating system.



Business wise i 100% agree.  Should be maybe 2 versions. A workstation, and a development version (complete with virtual pc, sql express, etc)



Could be worse, you could be supporting 100+ linux distros.  I suppose Mac OSX would be the best, but even then their are significant changes between 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 & 1.4

[Lazybones]

It's the business versions that have me most worried, as I am in charge of support and order said versions for the company.. If there are significant differences between all the versions for application support I am going to end up having to know all of them so that I can support our developers in setting up test environments for clients that could be running any number of these special versions.



Then we get into the who friends and family support thing.. :-#



We will have to see what gets release and how much it is, from the descriptions its going to even be hard for me to choose one based on that info.



And what about 64bit CPU support, will each version support it or will there be yet another version for 64bit users that has its own unique feature set.. Grrrrr.

[Lazybones]

Full feature list break down for all versions:

http://winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions.asp





On the plus side all versions support 64-bit processors (x64).

[Mr. Analog]

Where the hell's my WinFS!

[Lazybones]

Where the hell's my WinFS!

- Will be shipped as a patch to VISTA and XP

- NOT a new file system but an extention that runs on top of normal NTFS. WinFS stands for Windows Future Storage.



See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS for more info.

[Mr. Analog]

Where the hell's my WinFS!

- Will be shipped as a patch to VISTA and XP

- NOT a new file system but an extention that runs on top of normal NTFS. WinFS stands for Windows Future Storage.



See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS for more info.

Bleh I don't want it now *huff*

[Darren Dirt]

Where the hell's my WinFS!

- Will be shipped as a patch to VISTA and XP

- NOT a new file system but an extention that runs on top of normal NTFS. WinFS stands for Windows Future Storage.



See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS for more info.

FS="Future" Storage? Mwaahahahahalolrofl! What, in the same vein as

NT="New" Technology?





PS: Looks like the Wiki entry for WINVI is updated.

[Darren Dirt]

Looks like Gates is officially saying "MXL is teh r0x0rz lol1!!1"



This from the man whose book I own, "The Road Ahead" -- first edition. Before the revised edition changed his words describing the Internet from "it's not what the Information Superhighway will be, so we're staying away and waiting until it matures, etc." into the revisionist-history "Microsoft has always been onboard with the power of the Interweb, and believe it is the dream of countless decades of blah blah..." :?

[Darren Dirt]

Gates speaks to a few thousand hardware developers about new technology...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/24/scitech/pcanswer/main1649558.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/24/scitech/pcanswer/main1649558_page2.shtml

Gates' speech was more of a rallying cry than technical briefing to an audience made up mostly of engineers working on next generation hardware products, gathered in Seattle for four days of technical seminars.


Rallying cry?

Cuzwe'reinawar, see? Gottaflushoutthemevildoers. Hehehe.
[/JonStewart'sBushImpersonationVoice]

[Lazybones]

There are only two features that really interest me in Vista.

- Desktop shadowcopy services.. Great for all of those laptop users who are on the road and have accidents with important files at the last minute.
- Built in imaging.. Sounds great but haven't seen to many details

[Shayne]

Virtual Folders, Cookie Crumb pathing, DirectX powered UI

are 3 that are nifty and usefull for me.