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Original Firsthand look at the latest release of Windows Vista

spikex.net — A firsthand look at the latest build of Windows Vista. Includes screenshots.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 19, 2006

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  • EyeDye, on 10/12/2007, -12/+22Whoever came up with that start menu design, needs a good swift kick to the nuts.
  • everfalling, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11why is it every GUI is going towards the apple type glass button interface? i hate this *****. i'd take my goold old windows 98 appearence over all these damn shiney buttons. not to mention these new looks are just going to get more and more complicated for the computer to process all the time. no low-end computer will beable to run very fast if it keeps having to load the glossy windows before the actual content. not everyone can afford windows products, let alone a nice fast computer to run the damn thing on. dont get me wrong, i love a nice looking interface as much as the next guy, but there's a point where it's just too much, and maybe you could dumb it down a bit and go all simplistic again. a button is a button, a window is a window. i dont need to see through the window, have it warp down to form the icon in the toolbar, or have the image of my mouse reflected off the buttons, i just need to know what's what and where to click. there is such a thing as a balance between form and function you know.
  • Godric, on 10/12/2007, -15/+23You know what? I was wrong. I have to admit Vista looks pretty damn nice.
  • SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Erm, its a review that was posted *yesterday* for the CTP that was released *last month*. Or do you consider anything "old' if it isn't 0-day?
  • strcmp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I don't know why everyone is writing about eye candy when the really important improvement is the dialog that pops up to warn you when you try to run an "administrative task." If you did not do anything to bring up this dialog, you know there is a problem.
  • seravi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Nice point. The reason to your "why" is probably: soccer moms like shiny stuff.

    For me, I like simplicity too. Just that, after a while, I find myself longer for some eye candy. Then maybe one day opt down for simplicity again ... and so the cycle continues....
  • ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9All users will upgrade? that seems like quite a vast generalization when a large amount of people still run w2k.

    Vista required 64 bit and will not support a lot of DVD drives ( http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28653 )

    Remember when XP came out people did say the same things as they are saying now, except in 2000 2GB and 128MB of Ram was normal for the average new home user computer. 64 bit cuts out most laptops that werent made mid last year and on.
  • quamb, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12don't understand how you could see it as looking 'nice'?

    to be honest- it looks really ugly to my eyes. messy and inconsistent - and hardly any more simple or beginner-friendly then xp.

    whats with how the title of a window has a white blur thing behind the text- ugh! what are ms thinking? maybe one day they'll eventually hire a good designer or two.
  • SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Digg is a popularity contest. There is no biased moderation like on /., so products that are actually popular with the real population make it to the first page.

    If you're a Linux geek, you're going to get drowned out because a lot of people are actually happy with Windows.
  • antiintel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8What good are you going to be?

    ~A
  • DavidLightman, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12So they still haven't worked out how to anti-alias type properly then? Sheesh.
  • danielphin, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9finally some 1:1 sized screenshots
  • MiamiGuy, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13Very nice article. I do think Vista is definitely more about Eye Candy than performance. Looks like once Vista starts replacing XP, people are really going to have to spend more on a good video card and a lot of ram. I think the whole glass look is nice but overall it is too dark for me. I would get tired of it, although I see you can change the colors of the theme. I wonder how much this will cost.
  • h2d2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@SuperSloth:

    Not to be anything, but the strongest "fanboy" lobby on digg is not MS, but Apple.
  • flammon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Absolutely. I'm sure a side by side comparison will be showing up soon. The only difference will be that GNOME/KDE/Mac will have had the feature for a while now. It must be flattering for the GNOME/KDE/Mac guys but at the same time, upsetting, knowing that Microsoft will take all the credit. Well, at least I know and I'll continue telling the world where those innovations came from.

    One thing is for sure. It is evident now that we are approaching the tipping point because Microsoft is now implementing visual features that have existed for years in the FOSS camp. That's a first.
  • smartpatrol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5People like their GUI to look pretty. Most people wouldn't upgrade to Vista if it looked exactly the same. Besides, if you have an older computer or just don't like the new look, you can always use Classic mode instead of Aero Glass.

    I think the vast majority of Vista's consumers will buy it pre-installed on a new computer, rather than as an upgrade, so they should be able to handle Aero Glass with no problem. The ones upgrading their current computers are probably tech-savvy enough to know whether or not they can handle all the eye candy.

    I don't see what the big deal is. I personally think the new look is nice! At least you have the freedom to choose how much eye candy you want. Like DEVO says: use your freedom of choice.
  • mikm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Apple re-uses ideas as well.
  • ACalcutt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4yes
  • theone3, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9They've got the best on the market by far. Quartz's font smudging sucks, plain and simple. The text looks crisp and clean.
  • ever, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Hmm. I ran a beta of Vista on an Athlon XP3200+, 1024mb and a Radeon 9600 XT and it's actually faster than the XP Pro SP2 that I'm using now, even though I've tweaked the XP settings quite a bit to make it run faster.

    So before you've even tried the OS (AND keep in mind betas tend to be slower than the retail releases), don't go stating everyone needs a faster computer.
  • deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Vista definitely isn't a complete overhaul. It has some significant new API's and some kernel improvements but probably 90% of the user land stuff is just an upgrade on XP.
  • mlingojones, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Taking money... and ideas....

    What I'm wondering is, everyone made a huge fuss about Apple stealing Dashboard from KDE, so why nothing about those "desktop gadgets"?
  • macewan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I looks to be a mixture of KDE & OSX. Even though I'm critical of Microsoft in general I would expect a company with all their resources to come up with something more original. Given more time maybe that will copy Nat's Dashboard concept also...

    loved this comment:

    "A couple of notes: Sorry about the first couple screenshots, I know they’re a bit off. But what can I say, I was using Microsoft Paint, and obviously they haven’t improved that in Vista."
  • ThugEsquire, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This is by far my biggest complaint. They need to go through every single icon and remake each one that isn't up to snuff.
  • xioner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3it seems to be getting better with each build...
    but that new start menu design is still a bit worrisome.
  • megaloid, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7It looks like they have been taking notes from the GNOME and KDE projects. I think I'll save my money and stick with the rustic charm of GNOME.
  • SyDIGG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well ...you can turn off the transparent glass effect with window borders. kudos
  • kankerfist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Looks like they worried more about the OS than the prettiness of the icons for some reason.
  • diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Windows Vista looks beautiful. I can't wait to see it when its final version.
  • smartpatrol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"when stupid software upgrades are defended by saying 'if we didn't have this stupid upgrade no one would by the product' that says three things to me"

    Why is more eye candy a "stupid upgrade"? People want their possessions to look nice. There's nothing wrong with that. Many people spend large amounts of time in front of their computers and take pleasure in the experience of it. Given the role that computers play in our lives, it's only natural that you'd want your experience to be pleasing to the eye. And like I said, you can always turn it off if you don't want it.

    "1. the consumer is an idiot
    2. marketing is counting on that"

    I agree with this.

    "I do not buy ***** because it is shiny, not anything over 100 dollars anyway. Shiny helps, but I aint that shallow. Sorry marketing departments!"

    The new graphical upgrade isn't the only improvement they're making with Vista. If all MS was selling were a shinier version of XP for 100 bucks then your point would be valid.
  • fordistumley, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6What amazing innovation; a 'sidebar' with desktop 'gadgets' that perform simple tasks and can be downloaded right from Microsoft's website! I can't believe a company like Apple wouldn't have included such an amazing concept in their OS when they released Tiger. . .
  • MarkJ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Can you turn off ALL the eye-candy like you can with XP? That is all I care about...
  • Th3_anOmoLy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I looks to be a mixture of KDE & OSX. Even though I'm critical of Microsoft in general I would expect a company with all their resources to come up with something more original."

    I just wonder how much more optimized/user friendly things like KDE&OSX can get. Perhaps Microsoft has stoped trying to reinvent the wheel and just used what worked. It will be interesting to see what kind of new features they've put in this new OS, and how they did on them.
  • pab89, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I don't understand how the new 3D Alt-Tab is an advance on the old one. Take Mac OS X for example, using Expose you can see all the windows and their content at once. With Vista, you still can't see all the windows or, more importantly, their content at one time. How can I distinguish between two browser windows if I can't see the content?
  • ACalcutt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3you can change the settings so the windows arn't transparent...its the "Intensity" setting

    also you can uncheck "Enable transparent glass".....

    you could also go back to classic view
  • SpikeX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And don't forget Yahoo Widgets.
  • FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It takes awhile to make new icons, especially nice looking ones, and getting them into Windows probably isn't on the top of their to-do list. :-)
  • optimusfx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I was impressed until I saw a legacy 16-color icon.
  • hijinks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1randall is so so angry
  • mikm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's not wasting CPU cycles. It's using your graphics card + DirectX. Any if you don't want it, you can always turn it off.
  • SuperSloth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4@thinkbox: AFAIK, Vista will be sold on a DVD that includes both the x86 and x64 binaries. And do you honestly think that any DVD drive from 1998-2000 is going to be in a PC that could even boot Vista anyways? Those are 1x dedicated DVD drives....

    In any case, I don't plan on buying Vista until I have to (meaning I require it for a given program). I want to avoid any Trusted Computing platform as long as I possibly can. Hopefully I'll be able to move to some FOSS OS before I'm forced to go to Vista, though.

    In any case, I won't get it until after SP1 is released. Anybody remember the bugs in Win2k Gold and WinXP Gold?
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Good job Microsoft, you made WMP11 look just like iTunes...
  • RTCA, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I waited until XP was out for 3 years before moving from Win98. Tweaked it for 1. Now it runs flawlessly. Vista will have to wait until at least 2010 and a new computer for me to switch again.
  • kris2pe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I always hear this from MS, of how Vista will b amazing, many development on the way! At first I was really excited finally my pc will look just as good as a Mac! But now a days all I see is the GUI & quite frankly I'm kinda sick to my stomach seeing it. Back on the Longhorn days you MS bragging on the 3d capabilities of Longhorn like wobbling windows effect "Weee!!!"& now on vista the only 3d I'm getting is expose effect & the gui...god where do I start? Its like XP w/ a transparent bar!
    I don't know b4 I wasn't a Mac fan but ever since my brother bought a 15 inch Power Book! I'm a believer!!! I mean it aint got nothin on XP or Vista that's 4 sure! Fast, secure & efficient w/ battery life. So if you wanna impressed me w/ tranparent gui's then pretty soon I might change my OS & hardware 2 Mac!
  • superalamar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2every time microsoft moves a button or a feature or a control panel setting or changes a name of a feature i want to just kill a bunny with a steak knife....but yes, it does look much better, still, I've screamed at ugly ppl and really nice looking people....
  • superalamar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2the interesting thing about this update is that a huge part of it is a collection of features that other people are already offering for the current operating system, most times for free. security and a better interface (completely re-researched and rebuilt) should have been the main focus, looking at this I don't think they were. marketing has had a big influence. I see a very nice looking but still funadmentally broken GUI offering a group of updates you can already get for free for an OS I already own and use and know how to use. For my money this pony needs more tricks. Seriously, I'd rather just reskin XP to look somewhat like this and get on with my day.
  • itguru, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Did anyone notice that there wasn't an add/remove programs icon in the control panel? I guess Microsoft thinks that once we install something we would never think of removing it. I did notice that they had a program icon but it looked like the link was broken...hmm another bug I'm sure the patch will be released a few months after Vista is on the market.
  • zacwhite, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Glad to hear that IE 7 "will include support for phishing".
  • electromatic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2scrolling down that page made me feel like i was going back to the future or something. i'm glad windows users will have an improved OS but i've been using most of those features in OS X for...years (?) now. i guess this has been commented to death before but it just surprises me...the lack of "new."
  • eambabo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0So, I'm sure that this has been posted before and everyone just loves when a Mac guy talks about Microsoft, buuuuuttttt...
    I would just like to point out that this "transparent window" feature and a lot of the other stuff that MS is hawking this time around have been available in OSX for a year or so...
    Yet, this isn't to point out how smart Apple is, rather it's to point out that they really need to get their ***** together when it comes to games and other software because it's obvious that even Microsoft likes what they do, but yet not that many people really buy it...
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