Class action lawsuit.
This'll be interesting to watch. A lot of companies use that sort of shady marketing (ever looked at the required specs on a PC game box?).
Is it ok to market a device claiming it'll run your product knowing that it will, only it'll run it poorly and with many features stripped out? Is it ok to market several products (each version of Vista), each with it's own features and requirements, as one?
More love for Vista
Really? Mine's constantly popping up with the message that it's seeing my 360. I just don't use Media Center on my Vista box so I've never run through the setup. I'd almost bet you have a firewall setting somewhere stopping it on your Vista box.TheCatt wrote:I hate Vista. I cannot get it to see my XBox 360, which my XP MCE machine could see fine.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
Sure, I get all those pretty messages too, it just cant see it when it tries to do the actual configuration.Vince wrote:Really? Mine's constantly popping up with the message that it's seeing my 360. I just don't use Media Center on my Vista box so I've never run through the setup. I'd almost bet you have a firewall setting somewhere stopping it on your Vista box.TheCatt wrote:I hate Vista. I cannot get it to see my XBox 360, which my XP MCE machine could see fine.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Ah... don't know then. Use my old MCE box as a dedicated media machine, so I've never gone through the actual config in Vista.TheCatt wrote:Sure, I get all those pretty messages too, it just cant see it when it tries to do the actual configuration.Vince wrote:Really? Mine's constantly popping up with the message that it's seeing my 360. I just don't use Media Center on my Vista box so I've never run through the setup. I'd almost bet you have a firewall setting somewhere stopping it on your Vista box.TheCatt wrote:I hate Vista. I cannot get it to see my XBox 360, which my XP MCE machine could see fine.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
So, Vista Ultimate is the only version that should have ever been released. VHP is a crippled piece of shit, that in no way replicates the feature set that XP MCE offered to the user.
Of course, Microsoft is a business, and wants money. Unlike Apple, they have a significant corporate presence, and therefore benefits by segmenting their customers into those that are more and less price sensitive. Thus, we end up with this versions bullshit, instead of the Apple-like all features in the OS package (which I find strongly preferable).
The good news is that they aren't really trying too hard to keep people from pirating the software, so people who want Vista can get it, instead of the crippled POS versions. (Especially the "enthusiast" crowd which would probably end up in Apple/*nix worlds if not for games).
Vista Ultimate install was the simplest OS install I have ever had in my life. I put in the DVD, selected the partition (did a delete to remove the old OS), and that was it. 30 minutes later the OS is completely up and running. Of course, it needed about 50 software patches, so that took another hour, but, unlike XP, it was just 1 reboot after all those patches, and no more patches were needed.
Dynamic disk configuration was easy, and I was able to setup my RAID 0 2x1TB quickly. Driver installation was relatively painless, and more devices were automatically discovered and installed than in prior OSes. I did explicit driver installs on some important items (video card, RAID 5 card, network, and bluetooth) just to make sure they were the latest and greatest.
A lot of things are in a different place, just like each OS. Most things are the same as XP, but every once in a while you'll try to find some configuration option, and it won't be where you think it should be. I believe the grouping is more logical, but to those of us with a lot of XP history, it's just not where you learned it should be.
The GUI is shiny and pretty, but I don't really care.
I like the Explorer navigation, now that I have finally gotten used to it. It has a horizontal array of drop-downs that represent the folder hierarchy in which you are in. If you want to change folders, just select the appropriate level of the hierarchy and a list drops down for you to select. This takes up a lot less space than XP, and it's nice to see something take up LESS UI space rather than more as seems to be the trend.
XBox 360 streaming performance is MUCH better than with XP, even with no network change. The UI is much pretty for media center, and more things are integrated. The navigation is better, and setting up media center is a little more elegant than it was in XP. Vista seems like it was designed to work with streaming, whereas XP MCE felt like extenders were just bolted on as an afterthought.
Shadow copies are built in to the OS. (This would have helped Thib earlier with his file overwrite), and I'm excited to finally have that feature enabled (Although, Mac's Time Capsule software is much better from a user perspective).
Overall, I am a small fan of Vista. I have not tried any gaming, cuz, quite frankly, I'm not much of a gamer; So I cannot comment on that aspect. That being said, only Ultimate is worth owning, and all other versions are piles of shits.
Of course, Microsoft is a business, and wants money. Unlike Apple, they have a significant corporate presence, and therefore benefits by segmenting their customers into those that are more and less price sensitive. Thus, we end up with this versions bullshit, instead of the Apple-like all features in the OS package (which I find strongly preferable).
The good news is that they aren't really trying too hard to keep people from pirating the software, so people who want Vista can get it, instead of the crippled POS versions. (Especially the "enthusiast" crowd which would probably end up in Apple/*nix worlds if not for games).
Vista Ultimate install was the simplest OS install I have ever had in my life. I put in the DVD, selected the partition (did a delete to remove the old OS), and that was it. 30 minutes later the OS is completely up and running. Of course, it needed about 50 software patches, so that took another hour, but, unlike XP, it was just 1 reboot after all those patches, and no more patches were needed.
Dynamic disk configuration was easy, and I was able to setup my RAID 0 2x1TB quickly. Driver installation was relatively painless, and more devices were automatically discovered and installed than in prior OSes. I did explicit driver installs on some important items (video card, RAID 5 card, network, and bluetooth) just to make sure they were the latest and greatest.
A lot of things are in a different place, just like each OS. Most things are the same as XP, but every once in a while you'll try to find some configuration option, and it won't be where you think it should be. I believe the grouping is more logical, but to those of us with a lot of XP history, it's just not where you learned it should be.
The GUI is shiny and pretty, but I don't really care.
I like the Explorer navigation, now that I have finally gotten used to it. It has a horizontal array of drop-downs that represent the folder hierarchy in which you are in. If you want to change folders, just select the appropriate level of the hierarchy and a list drops down for you to select. This takes up a lot less space than XP, and it's nice to see something take up LESS UI space rather than more as seems to be the trend.
XBox 360 streaming performance is MUCH better than with XP, even with no network change. The UI is much pretty for media center, and more things are integrated. The navigation is better, and setting up media center is a little more elegant than it was in XP. Vista seems like it was designed to work with streaming, whereas XP MCE felt like extenders were just bolted on as an afterthought.
Shadow copies are built in to the OS. (This would have helped Thib earlier with his file overwrite), and I'm excited to finally have that feature enabled (Although, Mac's Time Capsule software is much better from a user perspective).
Overall, I am a small fan of Vista. I have not tried any gaming, cuz, quite frankly, I'm not much of a gamer; So I cannot comment on that aspect. That being said, only Ultimate is worth owning, and all other versions are piles of shits.
It's not me, it's someone else.
If you're just doing media (no dynamic disks, no need for remote desktop, etc) then yeah, I would recommend it. It's a soft recommendation though. If you're talking $95 for the upgrade, it may not be worth it, it's not really much better functionality wise. Just... less rough around the edges. Better UI, prettier pictures, snappier presentation, etc.
If you were streaming to an XBox 360, I'd say HELL YEAH upgrade. It's so much better it's not even funny.
The one thing I've yet to do is music, cuz the files are still transferring over. But the overall navigation is better, just not sure how much better playlists, etc are.
If you were streaming to an XBox 360, I'd say HELL YEAH upgrade. It's so much better it's not even funny.
The one thing I've yet to do is music, cuz the files are still transferring over. But the overall navigation is better, just not sure how much better playlists, etc are.
It's not me, it's someone else.
I'll do some tests next time I'm recording and let you know if it's much different than MCE. Of course, my Vista machine is brand new, with much better hardware, so whatever issues may not happen any more.
In general though, I just found the XBox 360 was a little choppy (specially jumping forward and back during video), and it's like using the machine itself now. Above mentioned HW changes may help though
In general though, I just found the XBox 360 was a little choppy (specially jumping forward and back during video), and it's like using the machine itself now. Above mentioned HW changes may help though
It's not me, it's someone else.
Two things I like about Vista:
1) The sound mixer is per application. So you can control the volume and mute-state of each app. Want windows sounds muted, but your browser playing? Want your browser sound reduced, but windows media center at normal volume? All doable.
2) Explorer. I like the new navigation, and the new integration with the title, the new views, and the ability to filter based on various columns names quick and easily.
1) The sound mixer is per application. So you can control the volume and mute-state of each app. Want windows sounds muted, but your browser playing? Want your browser sound reduced, but windows media center at normal volume? All doable.
2) Explorer. I like the new navigation, and the new integration with the title, the new views, and the ability to filter based on various columns names quick and easily.
It's not me, it's someone else.
I really liked that, too. Funny, but I just stumbled on it. Seen others talk about how they liked it and wondered why MS wasn't giving that function a little more play.TheCatt wrote:1) The sound mixer is per application. So you can control the volume and mute-state of each app. Want windows sounds muted, but your browser playing? Want your browser sound reduced, but windows media center at normal volume? All doable.
Not that it's a big programming achievement or anything, but it's one of the really cool and handy things in it.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
Cos my left nut is smarter than Microsoft's managers.Vince wrote:Seen others talk about how they liked it and wondered why MS wasn't giving that function a little more play.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Senior microsoft execs knew there were problems prior to launch...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008....=slogin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008....=slogin
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
I would love to know how many members of the Vista team in the know actually switched to Vista within a month or two of release.GORDON wrote:Senior microsoft execs knew there were problems prior to launch...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008....=slogin
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Dell employees still aren't using Vista. What more do you need to know about it?
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
XP still outselling Vista
http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm
http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."