CNET has a video online that shows Microsoft’s Windows Vista beta 2 release, including Widgets, er… “Gadgets,” Spotlight, er… “Search,” Exposé, er… “some sort of Aqua, er… Aero Glass ‘parade’ effect, annoying, intrusive, and constantly-in-your-face “User Account Protection” dialog boxes, and how Microsoft has automated the task of finding a device driver on a Windows Vista system. Be still our hearts.
See Microsoft’s Windows Vista beta 2 release in action here.
MacDailyNews Take: What we can’t figure out is why it’s taking Microsoft so long to ship this unimpressive warmed-over version of Windows XP. They’re probably waiting to see what’s revealed at WWDC like the rest of us.
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
Related articles:
Report: Microsoft Windows Vista could drive users even more nuts than usual – May 16, 2006
Yankee Group: Windows Vista to alienate business with disruptive security features – May 09, 2006
Mossberg: Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard will allow Windows Vista to run on Macs – April 27, 2006
Windows Vista to be Microsoft’s last operating system? – April 21, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft collapsing under its own weight, Gates has driven Windows Vista into the ground – April 20, 2006
Microsoft employees call for heads to roll over continual Vista slips – March 27, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Albatross, er Vista could slip even more – March 27, 2006
Microsoft Vista fumble could lead to score for Apple Mac; Mac OS X Leopard may beat Vista to market – March 23, 2006
What’s the difference between Mac OS X and Vista? Microsoft employees are excited about Mac OS X – March 22, 2006
Microsoft delays Windows Vista again – this time until January 2007 – March 21, 2006
Thurrott: Microsoft going to get eaten alive over Windows Vista’s resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – March 09, 2006
Episode 2 of Microsoft Windows Vista, Bill Gates CES keynote video spoof now online – January 07, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista, Bill Gates keynote video spoof debuts online – January 06, 2006
NY Times’ Pogue on Gates’ CES demo: Most of Vista features unadulterated ripoffs from Apple Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Analyst: Windows Vista may still impress many consumers because they have not seen Apple’s Mac OS X – January 05, 2006
Microsoft’s Gates shows Windows Vista photo, search features; plans to fight Apple’s iPod dominance – January 05, 2006
Gates: ‘People tend to get overfocused on one of our competitors’ – January 05, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista compared to Apple Mac OS X – December 05, 2005
Gartner: Ignore Microsoft Windows Vista until 2008 (why not just get Apple Mac OS X Tiger today?) – November 12, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Vista strives to deliver what Apple’s Mac OS X already offers – October 10, 2005
Thurrott: Microsoft’s Windows Vista Beta 1 vs. Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger – August 29, 2005
Apple to unleash Leopard on Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn; Mac OS X 10.5 due late 2006 – early 2007 – June 07, 2005
Thurrott: many of Windows Vista’s upcoming features appeared first in Apple’s Mac OS X – September 26, 2005
Microsoft’s Ballmer: It’s true, some of Windows Vista’s features are ‘kissing cousins’ to Mac OS X – September 19, 2005
Microsoft suffers from malaise, key defections, Windows Vista struggles, lack of towels – September 16, 2005
Microsoft’s Bill Gates’ prediction of Apple iPod market share decline fails to materialize – September 18, 2005
PC World: Microsoft innovation – an oxymoron – September 15, 2005
Microsoft debuts Dashboard Widgets, er, ‘Microsoft Gadgets’ – September 13, 2005
Microsoft appropriates Apple’s ‘brushed metal’ look for Office 12 for Windows – September 13, 2005
Apple to unleash Leopard on Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn; Mac OS X 10.5 due late 2006 – early 2007 – June 07, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 2005
Bill Gates jokes about Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ and calls Apple ‘the super-small market share guy’ – May 03, 2005
Thurrott: ‘Longhorn is in complete disarray and in danger of collapsing under its own weight’ – April 27, 2005
Windows czar Allchin says Apple copying Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn ‘has the makings of a train wreck’ – April 26, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn demos ‘unimpressive, fall short of graphical excellence found today in Mac OS X’ – April 26, 2005
Microsoft employees leaving due to (and blogging about) malaise smothering company – April 25, 2005
eWEEK Editor Coursey: Longhorn so far ‘looks shockingly like a Macintosh’ – April 25, 2005
Due in late 2006, many of Windows Longhorn’s features have been in Mac OS X since 2001 – April 25, 2005
Microsoft’s new mantra: ‘It Just Works’ ripped straight from Apple’s ‘Switch’ campaign – April 22, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Microsoft’s Longhorn: ‘They are shamelessly copying us’ – April 21, 2005
Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn will bear more than just a passing resemblance to Apple’s Mac OS X – April 15, 2005
The Age: ‘Apple’s Mac OS X at least a generation ahead of Windows XP, iMac G5 clearly the best’ – December 15, 2004
Silicon Valley: Apple CEO Steve Jobs previews ‘Longhorn’ – June 29, 2004
Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Mac OS X Tiger ‘is going to drive the copycats crazy – June 28, 2004
Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs previews Mac OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ to ship in the first half of 2005 – June 28, 2004
Apple takes dead aim at Microsoft, ‘Longhorn’ with WWDC Mac OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ ads – June 28, 2004
PC Magazine: Microsoft ‘Longhorn’ preview shows ‘an Apple look’ – May 06, 2004
Microsoft concerned that Longhorn’s look and feel will be copied if revealed too soon – August 25, 2003
Windows ‘Longhorn’ to add translucent windows that ripple and shrink by 2005 – May 19, 2003
Apple leads; Wintel follows as usual – November 11, 2002
“vista has a new search function, look ill call up microsoft word…oh, it called up wordpad” lol – i prefer expose to having to scroll through the windows in aero.
This just gets more and more sad.
That new help (where it takes you through how to do something step by step) is great. I remember when Apple used that way back in OS 8 or 9! Microsoft innovates again!
Why don’t Microsoft just give up on this Vista crap, and fix XP.
If 6-year old XP, with all its security problems, still gets a 90% share of all new computers sold today, then you MUST understand that Vista will be regarded by Joe Windows Sufferer as the greatest thing since slice bread. Apple better sell all the hardware it can over the next 12 months because its going to get ugly after that.
Vista. Because you don’t know any better, and you wouldn’t care it you did.
I bet the guy in the video knows Vito of the Soprano’s if you know what i mean.
Oh and Vista blows chunks.
It still looks and feels like Windows. Now with lots of layered This and That with no thought-out purpose other than “Keeping up the the Jobses.”
area glass looks terrible when you have sto scroll thru the windows, unlike expose where you just click on the window you want… yep, I agree Andy.
As MDN put’s it. It’s a backwards upside down copy of OSX.
Piece of crap.
LOL…
I thought the “Parade” effect of open applications was kind of cool looking..
In unrelated news, Microsoft announced that it will begin testing its new “hypervisor” virtualization software by the end of the year. Let’s see if the rumors that OS X Leopard will include a hypervisor pan out at WWDC. This story caught my eye because the code name for Microsoft’s virtualization tools is “Viridian”. I sincerely hope that no one here will accuse me of working to further Redmond’s cause. Maybe I should sue. Anybody have the phone numbers of the sharks who included Jason Tomczak in the iPod nano class action against his wishes? I’d like to sic them on Gates and Ballmer just for the hell of it.
it does make me sick when you see the blatent copying that micosoft continues to take from apple.
the interface ques, the widgets, the search concepts.
the only thing is that apple will continue to innovate and microsoft will continue to copy.
people are going to get so sick of being interupted by all those pop ups to verify access that people are going to turn them off. and again well see the viruses infiltrate the system.
And if its so secure, why do microsoft need to have a proprietary subscription-based security software implemented to protect their own customers?
Man, that’s hilarious. With everything that popped up, all I could think was, ‘Hey, I’ve had that in OSX for ages, where it’s done better. Huh.’
Seriously, I cannot think of anything at this time that would make me consider using a Windows PC again.
Why would I want all kinds of miscellaneous ‘gadgets’ cluttering up my desktop?
That’s the great thing about Dashboard…I can make them appear and disappear anytime I want…otherwise I’d have this huge Weather Radar taking up half my desktop.
well, that was 5 minutes of my life totally wasted.
Gee, I am soo frigging UNDERhwhelmed!
The fact is that VIsta will catch MS up to Apple, or get close to it. Mainstream consumers will eat it up, and if MS can get the viruses under control, then the OS war will be essentially over, and MS will have won. That’s why it is super important right now for Apple to gain as much marketshare as they can over this Christmas.
sorry macwizards, but windows owenrs are going to see vista and say “wow!” and (who needs and apple).
leopard needs to leapfrog way, way, way ahead if it is going to bring windows users over to the mac (and keep current mac owners from defecting to new vista.)
How can someone actually giva a review of Vista with a straight face?
mw: approach – Vista is about to approach a new level of absurdity
how many times did the cnet reporter say “cool”…?
not good news for apple.
snipe all you want, but the average window´s person is going to be impressed with apple-like eye candy. wonder how many new iLife-type apps microsoft has been secretly working on that they will include?
Amazing the number of PC trolls who feel the need to frequent Mac websites and make lame comments on the boards. They must feel insecure or something.
When I show Windows users OS X Widgets, the response I get from some is, “…Oh I’ve heard VISTA will be able to do that…”. The implication being that they’ll just wait for Windows to do it and then everything will be ok again.
Poor folks.
Sony will create its own OS that will incorporate… Oh no! – the doctors want to talk to me again again. No more posting tonight…
Being that this BETA of Vista will have a larger install base than OS X which has been out for years, one must wonder who the real success story is.
Heehehhahahayukyukyuk
This is Windows for the NEXT FIVE YEARS??!!??!!???
Remember, if you want all of the Vista goodies (I can’t believe I said Vista & Goodies in the same sentence) You have to buy an expensive computer.
A $300 Dell will not do Vista justice.
Those cheap, Windows buying bastards will not like Vista Lite.
I have no idea why the cnet editor seemed to be impressed by the so-called new features of vista. They may be new and even novel from the very narrow Windows point of view, but they are nothing new at all and more importantly one can use these features right away either free of charge or with the existing non-premium hardware. For instance, go get “gadgets” from konfabulator, google desktop, and even the very cool active program selector from “topdesk”. None of these existing features requires new hardware to run. I feel so sad about Microsoft as they are either so blind and deaf of what others really have advanced, or so stupid to fool those who were even more stupid than they are. What a waste of capital it is for just copying what others have done.
The only thing I thought cool that they did not show was the Windows Meeting Space – mentioned in the earlier review.
Whoever said that Apple was going to have a harder time AFTER vista comes out is dead wrong. This should make it clear to everyone that microsoft at its best is still horrible.
Do not expect too much from Leopard. The fact is that Apple only had slightly over a year to develop it and couldn’t find anyone to copy from. However, since Apple releases OSs more frequently than Microsoft, I would expect the following release of Mac OS X to take once again a significant lead over Vista and keep it for another four years.
As a recent Switcher I think I am in a good position to comment…
I am so pleased I ditched M$. OS X has been a revelation. It just works! It works so well I am hardly aware of it leaving me to concentrate on doing work.
Before I switched I had every intention of using bootcamp and installing windows…er..well I’ve knocked that idea on its head. I can hardly bring myself to boot my windows desktop. Its just so facking ugly.
Vista just looks like a shit copy of OS X. I shall not be buying Vista at all. No, instead I’ll be ditching my windows boxes and replacing them with Intel PowerMac replacements as soon as they are released.
Vista shall not find a place in my home.
did anyone else stop watching after the “expose” feature? it will never be as quick as expose because…ta da!…expose doesn’t give you a list with a set order to scroll through. even if you can go backwards and forwards in it, there will always be a “hardest” window to reach, which happens to be the (number of windows)/2 window away from your current one.
god damnit microsoft, you can’t even copy what has become such a mundane and required feature to mac users.
ugly, ugly, ugly
If I were responsible for controlling the standard operating environment of any sized organisation I would steer clear of Vista permanently (hard because CEO’s like to one-up each other) for the following reasons (and why a Mac is a viable move):
• replacing all laptops and desktops to get sufficient RAM and VRAM is very expensive and disruptive
• training staff in the new interface
• providing staff with the Admin password (sure it stops viruses, but what happens when a legitimate app is refused a password – does it quit or freeze?). Plus you will get into the habit and enter the password automatically, even for viruses!
• stopping staff downloading widget viruses
• there is NO WAY you will stop using anti-virus/spam/pop-up/firewall software
• many old apps are bound to break and never be updated
• I don’t want more to learn
• the help system shows you how to perform the 5-step tasks rather than doing the 5-step task for you
• it does NOTHING to aid the productivity of a staff member over what they currently have
I estimate it will sell well to consumers only, but will NEVER be installed on > 50% of corporate PCs and that Win 2000 & XP will be the last corporate OS (until they move to MacOS!) ever.
Why are Macs a better alternative?
• they are reliable (cost is secondary to corporations)
• they can be rebuilt to a MacOS SOE and then personalised more quickly
• they can run XP (the last corporate OS) and if it dies it is very easy to rebuild
• they are cool for the CEO’s 17″ laptop, and it looks REALLY cool if you take your customers through your office full of iMacs
• All the great Mac software
I’d rather use Expose or even Command-Tab to select the app/window I need — that “area glass” or whatever it was looks weak.
Computer gurus and those who do “Windows training” are going to make a mint as folks have to unlearn old habits. As well as the Dells and HPs of the world when people have to go out and buy brand new computers that can support Vista when Micro$oft discontinues XP support within the next two years. (My dad-in-law is still dealing with upgrading to XP, as M$ is no longer supporting Win2K.)
Call this operating system Olestra — like the fake fat, it may act as good as OS X, but after a while, you end up with cramps and an urge to run for the bathroom…I’ll stick with the Real Thing, thank you very much…
MW=middle; “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you…”
Just like XP, icons appear to have been designed by a Japanese anime studio.
This is an MS version of OS X beta.
So what is new and what is cool? Nothing. We have seen this all before in a much more elegant piece of software. It was called whatever Apple named their first iteration of OS X!!!
MS providing you with yesterday’s OS today.
macromancer: “Amazing the number of PC trolls who feel the need to frequent Mac websites and make lame comments on the boards. They must feel insecure or something.”
amazing the number of mac trolls who feel the need to call names to anyone who says something that is not ass-kissing positive about apple or not dumptruck trashing windows. they must feel insecure or something.
macromancer.
this will be a closed casket funeral, go AAPL
Some of the PC trolls’ comments make sense and they are correct. The great unwashed PC masses will see Vista and be unaware of OS X (yes, they are that close-minded) and think Vista is the greatest since sliced bread.
Once markets are mature and established nothing but an outside 3rd force (govt. intervention, new market changing technology) can alter them. Microsoft has 95% of the market; Apple 3%.
It will be nearly the same 5 years from now.
Hey there, billy, you got a stutter?
BTW, full translucent windows make me physically ill.
Why CNET didn’t do that with Mac OS X ? Why did they avoid saying “pretty cool” to Mac OS X ?
Man – I gotta have it – right now!!!
My MacBook Pro will look so cool running Vista.
Apple needs to advertise OS X with the same commitment they advertise iPods with.
They need to have comparisons showing what 10.4 can do NOW with what Vista will do LATER. They need to show you can get those same features on a $500 Mac mini instead of having to buy a souped up $1000 plus PC box.
Those new PC vs Mac ads may be cute, but if they really want market share, Apple needs to be more aggressive.
We know how much more advanced OS X is, but we also know that the Windows lemmings are going to eat Vista up and pretend it’s the best thing since the wheel.
Wouldn’t it be funny if someone wrote a virus for Vista and its only purpose was to continually trigger the protection pop-up warning every 2 or 3 seconds until you wiped the HD? Well, that would be funny to me, at least.
LMFAO!!!!! IT SHOWS YOU HOW TO LOOK FOR DRIVERS
duuuuuuude… it’s 2006, and you still have to do that YOURSELF.. SWEEET!!!!
30 years later.. BETTER GRAPHICS.. sweet!
UAP.. well, if i wasn’t considering switching to Windows, I sure am now…
lmfao!!!! if MS learned ONE THING from the Internet Revolution…
PEOPLE LOVE POP-UPS
Why not just give Vista away for free and have ads built right into UAP?!
There’s always going to be people who won’t switch and will stick with Windows, and this will be the next big thing for them even as its ripped to shreds with viruses, exploits and other fun stuff.
Still, there are many (like me) who will stick to Apple’s OS, because we have seen “Vista” when it was called OS X.
Even if Vista causes people to go out and upgrade hardware and software, Apple is in much better shape than it has been in a while (esp. mid to late 90’s).
That’s some high comedy right there. Vista really does show Msoft’s difficulty in grasping user interface concepts. You know, like two clicks is actually better than four. Tough stuff like that. You know, tricky subtle hard to understand nuanced type human nature subtleties that lurk beneath the surface. Years of training and all that.
Oh, and when was the last time you heard a reviewer of OSX say, “…and this is going to be a problem for a while.”? ROFLMHO
CNET is a bunch of Microsoft whores
they bend over to kiss their asses
‘Why CNET didn’t do that with Mac OS X ? Why did they avoid saying “pretty cool” to Mac OS X ?’
—
Simple – It’s because CNET takes back handers from M$.
They are biased towards their M$ masters.
Same as PC world Magazine, who compared beta Vista against OSX.
Gues who won – Vista, aparently because of all the software that will work on it – TOTAL BULLSHIT AND BIASED.
Yea, I agree with Mike… I was gonna comment on the need to search for drivers too… how amusing. And pop-ups? My, my, this will annoy users so much. But will they defect to Apple? Ha, that’s the $64K question.
If anything, this is another repeat of history… no doubt all the Windows users will be lovin’ it, and say how great things are (just like they did with Win 95), and Mac users will be left with the (up to) 10% market they’ve pretty much always had.
Split Enz were wrong. History DOES repeat.
All Vista looks to me is like XP but with a re-designed gui.
Nothing new and nothing innovative.
The stacking windows thing just wont work – compare it to Exposé and you will soon realise why Apple patented Exposé so thorughly.
What happens when you have 30 of 40 windows open???
Are you gonna scroll through EVRY BLOODY window to get to the one you want?
Nope.
I can see most windows users turning off that function.
ha ha OS X is toast. those aero glass effects kick ass. sayonara, apple.LOL
MMMMMM that is some mighty fine lipstick on that pig!!!
And as far as that marching parade of windows goes, doesn’t the apple button+ tab button do pretty much the same thing on a mac?
Is it just me or are windows videos always jerky and unresponsive. Quicktime is always smooth and I can drag the slider around reliably. Even after playing the cnet movie and expecting it to be cached it would not play smoothly.
Worth watching to see the search fail to find word. On my Mac searching for Word finds 3278 files, MS Word is 3rd on the list
kind:app word
puts it second and
kind:app “word”
puts it first
i wouldnt’ expect this board to be familiar with ‘drivers’ since there are only about 6 hardware devices for OSX and 20,000 for windows. so yeah, they have to be updated and searched for.
76 days until the preview of Leopard!
(Thank you Countdown widget!)
preview screen on the task bar – might help a little, but I don’t see how that is much faster than just opening the window and looking at it. Maybe if the Window switcher showed a preview of the window, you wouldn’t need the preview screen. Or, how about just use expose and see all the windows at once. Oh wait, they have Parade….
Parade – you can’t even see the whole window. How is it any different than the app switcher? It takes just as long, but you get to see a little bit more of the window. Given the choice between the two, it wouldn’t make any difference which one I used. Expose is at least a different way of switching apps/windows – you see them all at once and choose the one you want.
full screen transparent windows – Can you say unbelievably annoying. I was using GeekBind a while ago (still do occasionally) to make windows transparent, but it makes everything so hard to see, particularly when you get more than one window in a stack.
Tutorial show me how to – Don’t show me, just do it. I want my device to show up, I don’t want to learn how to set it up myself. Do it for me.
I’m going to feel incredibly sorry for anyone I see actually using that interface. If I ever have to use a Windows machine, I am going straight back to the Classic Windows 2000 interface.
Big friggin’ deal!
I have a new Macbook coming tomorrow! Windows SUCKS!
Windows free for 6 years and loving it!
The only thing I liked was the transparent/translucent windows. Which, I’m sure there’s a Mac equivalent already (WindowShade?). There rest was a blatant kype of OSX.
Where’s Ampar’s take? You always make me laugh…and then pee a little.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”red face” style=”border:0;” />
Reason why this is a video??? Live presentations are way way way too risky.
Bill Gates: “MS latest OS Vista! – Copied, er I mean imitated, no no, evolved from…… gentlemen excuse me for a while, thanks”
30 minutes later……
Bill Gates: Ladies & Gentleman, MS Latest OS Vista. Our most ORIGINAL & Innovative OS ever. Setting a standard for other OS to follow………”.
—————————————-
Mecrow$oft – Always inspired by Apple
—————————————–
Bill: ” Hay monkey boy, did I get it right this time?”
Monkey Boy: ” Perfect, you should continue to brain wash 90% of the people that we are the one who came out with these ideas first.”
Monkey Boy: ” One thing you have forgotten to do, that is to jump and scream around on stage like me.”
————————————–
Vista – Photocopied from Tiger
————————————————
getting full 3d/translucent effects via yer video card in the OS UI
Mac OS X 10.3
starts you up and gets you running on all the devices you want
Mac OS 9
gadgets
those guys that came up with the Java applets/Mac OS X 10.4
All apps in a tree structure
Mac OS X 10.0
Type in a word, and the OS pulls up the app
Mac OS X 10.4
Aeroglass application switching effect
Mac OS X 10.3
Preview app windows in a small preview
Mac OS X 10.0
OS takes you around the computer and shows you how to do something by moving the mouse for you
Mac OS 8
User account protection
Mac OS X 10.0
A lot of PC users will go ga-ga over this. So let them. Who cares? As long as I’m using OS X and having a blast, what do I care if losers continue to use Windows?
The fact is, people ARE switching. We can’t help it if the bumblef***s like my mother-in-law who has no idea why when she types in google, a porn site comes up, can’t understand the reasons to. And the ultra Gates geeks who love to endlessly tinker with BIOS settings, or whatever the hell those idiots mess with, let them ooh and ahh over their Vista. It doesn’t change the fact that Apple IS continuing to make computers, continuing to make OS X, and making nice bank doing it. As long as some people keep switching, we keep buying, then we’re all good.
“Once markets are mature and established nothing but an outside 3rd force (govt. intervention, new market changing technology) can alter them. Microsoft has 95% of the market; Apple 3%.
It will be nearly the same 5 years from now.”
What do you guys keep comparing OS % of sales. Apple is a hardware company and makes over 90 % from hardware sales.
Applel is the third largest PC hardware vendor in the US. Only behind Dell and HP. All under 20% of the market. Apple market share is growing every quarter, Dell and Apple are the only profitable hardware vendors.
BTW almost 20% of web users are from a Apple. Opps your 3% is only worldwide OS purchases per year.
what a joke. Its like a rip off of OSX
The only reason it doesn’t look like the crappy Windows is cause they copied Mac.
I feel like I wanna be the kid in class that stands up and says, “That’s no fair! He cheated off my idea!”
This was expected by all Mac users. Come on! Since Apple created the first personal computer, Microsoft has played copycat. That is what Microsoft does best! Period! I don’t think anyone, including I, would expect anything less from such an “ordinary company.” 2004 was the year I decided to do something different and I stopped using Windows and began using Mac OS X. The rest is history. I am sure Windows users did not like hearing CNET compare there new Dull Boxes to Macs. But the truth sometimes hurts.
That area windows thing looks cool, but it probably isn’t as easy to use as expose’. Windows people will love it.
Viruses will plague Vista.
I remember when Microsoft first put up it’s Vista site showcasing all these “new” features, I had a good laugh showing my girlfriend “hey look at this..oh wait OSX has that but better, hey what about this “amazing”…oh wait OSX again” showing her as I went along. Normally she gets sick of my computer talk, but even she had a good laugh at this, while we were both surprised that it was such a blatant ripoff. (well, actually sadly, I wasn’t all that surprised). Now I’m sure my PC loving broher will be blown away by Vista, and he’ll tell me all about it, so I’ll have to show him my sarcastic A-B as well. It really is hilarious when you make the comparison visually.
“and keep current mac owners from defecting to new vista.”
What do you take us for — brain-dead zombies?!!!??
If this brief public revelation of Vista was intended to highlight the most innovative, most important, or most awe inspiring features of Vista then all I can say is that Microsoft has exhausted half a decade and hundreds of thousands of hours to achieve little of significant originality or functionality. Microsoft’s mimicking of 10.4 seems stodgy and awkward without introducing any improved function or utility. Even the vaunted security features of Vista are criticized by its most loyal fans as being both inconvenient and obtrusive. I suspect that not only will Vista not be made significantly more secure, but it will be more frustrating to use and diminish individual productivity. Beta Vista is a mere shadow of the mythical cryptid Longhorn and any comparisons to OS X are shamelessly dishonest and deceitful. In spite of Microsoft’s faltering steps forward in OS development I believe that Microsoft’s advertising campaign for Vista will be a well-funded exercise of hype and hyperbole.
Watching Windows boot-up. There’s 5 minutes of my life I won’t get back.
It was like watching grass grow. Come to think of it, wasn’t that grass growing on the Windows desktop?
Oops! That was suppose to be posted in the other Windows story.
There goes another two minutes.
Whilst I agree with many of the comments above, the fact remains that Vista is sufficiently similar to MacOS – at least in terms of eye candy and user interface tricks – to stem what ever tide of Switchers that exist.
“What happens when you have 30 of 40 windows open???”
It will CRASH unless they fix some major issues. I was listening to a podcast on Monday and a developer was discussing some serious issues that MS still has to iron out of the system. First, 32 bit processors have a 4GB address space limit (2 to the 32nd power). This developer was saying that was true, but you have to do some work arounds to get the full 4GB in Windows. Windows XP 32-bit is limited to a total of 4 GB, which is equally divided between Kernel and application usage. He stated that Vista is a MEMORY HOG (no surprise there). He also mentioned that when you boot into XP now it only uses approx 3,000 handles (this is with nothing running – just booting into a fresh install of XP). Vista on the other hand boots with 15,000 handles. Why do I mention that? Well, when you get to about 25,000 handles Windows starts to get flakey (even more so than it already is). So, open a Web browser with a couple of tabs open, have your virus and spyware software running, IM, and a couple of windows and you quickly approach that theoretical limit of 25,000 (it can go higher, but 25,000 is approximately the point). All 32-bit Win boxes out there are in for a serious struggle running Vista – get a BIG HD because you are going to need that virtual memory!
He also discussed this in light of Apples soon to be released OS 10.5 and said that if MS doesn’t deliver, it’s going to really give Apple a boost. Anyway you can listen to the podcast –
HERE
Episode 42 – Tech Segment. Interesting stuff. They mention the MacBook briefly and the Creative suit against Apple as well………….
Love the minimized tab on the close-up for the start menu … Just after the Open Apps Parade and before the Preview Open Apps.
Symantec Sues Micr …
How’d that get there?!
BTW: fast forward that podcast to 25:00….the begining stuff is irrelevant
re: No koolaid here
Get off these forums SCUM.
Go back to your crappy OS and virus’s – you are not welcome.
And by your comments, you are just another self opinionated windows using sheep who has never even seen Mac OS X – let alone used it.
Goodluck with your crappy and bug ridden Vista when it EVENTUALLY comes out on 20 years time.
One last thing to get you thinking… Did you know that Apple is developing a virtual interface/OS too?
I bet you didnt..
My MacBook is on its way, and later this year I will get myself an iMac.
Vista? Don’t care about it. I’ve had enough about PC crap. Sure, graphically Vista looks sweet. Those Aero Glass effects look übercool, but what are they for? I can already scroll thru my open apps in 2D with Alt+Tab in Windows since Win95, so what’s the big deal? Another cool-looking but meaningless resource hog from Microsoft.
The Aero Glass effects were the only thing that made me raise my eyebrows while watching that CNET clip, and even that means nothing as I said above. Lame, MS, lame.
Salesguy to potential computer buyer:
“Hey Windows Vista now looks like the Mac operating system and the mac uses the same processor as this windows….so why go apple?”
Laugh and point all you want, but Apple lost the OS war, shiny buttons and all.
And no, I don’t care why.
Real World:
Yes, many PC users may swallow the Vista spiel being hawked by unscrupulous salesmen with a biased perception or rudimentary understanding of OS X. This proves that many PC users are ignorant consumers serenely disconnected from reality with no capacity for objective and comparative analysis, stoic individuals simply resigned to using another Microsoft product, or essentially timid and insecure people fearful of making the switch.
Too Bad:
Your brazen self-confidence and self-described ignorance illustrates the fact that you and your compadres in Redmond have no real plan to maintain your lead in the OS war. If you rely exclusively on your biased interpretation history to justify your future success, you have no competitive spirit, no capacity for innovation, and no motivation to achieve excellence. See you on the flip side.
If you’d get out of your parent’s cellar, you’d realize that most corporations don’t really care about iLife.
In the real world where businesses use software to make money, Apple is not even close in competing with Office 2007, Active Directory, Sharepoint, Exchange Server, Live Communications Server, etc.
But I’m sooo glad you can one-click red eye out of your photos. LOL.
RE: Too Bad
Laugh and point all you want, but Apple lost the OS war, shiny buttons and all.
And no, I don’t care why.
—-
The ‘OS war’ as you put it is history and totally irrelevent in today’s world.
What IS relevent si what is happening now!
Looking at today and the future – Apple has won, Microsoft has lost.
Due to M$’s shear size and inefficient business culture and structure they cannot produce good enough products, fast enough or even innovate at all to compete.
Look at the current situation:
– Google: ripping M$ to bits in the search war.
– Antivirus companies: Doing eveything they can to stop microsoft release Vista
– Apple: Destroying M$ in the media, entertainment, personal computer, music and pro-consumer and business, server markets.
– Sony/Nintendo: Killing M$ in the games console market
– Vista: Ironically, M$s deathblow will come from themselves. Longhorn/Vista is just crap to be honest. They hasve no idea what they are doing, costs are skyrocketing, developers are being sacked, management have no direction, increasing technical problems that none of their programers can solve, stock price and shareholder confidence at an all time low.
The fact of truth is that even with MS’s massive empire they cannot cope with all these assaults on all these fronts.
They are being torn to shreds… and have started to even lose money just by supporting all these business ventures that are not making any money whatsoever.
The “Welcome Center” cracked me up. When you start Vista, you are “welcomed” with a screen full of things to configure. The internet. Your printer.
Or, in other words, all the things that just work automagically when you start a Mac.
Incredible.
“Where’s Ampar’s take? You always make me laugh…and then pee a little.”
LOL! Thanks, Billy Bob! Nice to have a fan!
“and then pee a little”
Kind of like when George Foreman, the senior citizen pugilist, gets punched in the stomach. You know he probably pees a little.
– paraphrase from Margaret Smith
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/margaret_smith.html
Too bad,
Stay on subject, you twit, we’re discussing operating systems. Please explain how this piece of shite Vista will make money for anyone except Microsoft. It appears that all Microsoft could manage after 5 years of “work” is another meager imitation of OS X plus the added embarrassment of limited security and a dysfunctional interface. Not only is Vista a pathetic embarrassment it also requires users to substantially beef up their PC’s just to run an inferior OS.
Microsoft has update-itis. Really, Microsofts pinacle was 2000, for both Windows and Office. XP was slightly better than 2000, and 2003 Professional would have been a nice alternative, but c’est la vie. XP also introduced enormous overhead that takes a reasonably competent person to prune out.
I’m going to chok-up Vista as the second great OS failure since Windows ME, and wait for the Windows-whatever that will be based on Singularity.
Didn’t even think about that, Jamie — when I got my new Intel iMac, I was prompted to hook up my previous Mac, and everything was transferred seamlessly; settings, applications, the works. And when I hooked up my laser printer to the Airport Base Station, I didn’t have to do a thing; it found the printer and started working almost immediately with both the iMac and the iBook.
Apple = plug and play
Micro$oft = plug and pray
If Vista is to have even a chance of success, it’s gotta have more cowbell!
That “parade” effect is actually called Flip 3D. “Aero Glass” is the overall name for Vista’s transparency effects (which are overkill, by the way).
While Vista may appear to the casual observer to have “caught up”, I’m sure Apple has a trump card or two up its sleeve with Leopard. And it’ll take MS another 6-7 years to catch up to that.
That said, the only way OS X will ever gain significant market share is if it’s licensed out. And that may still happen if selling Macs is no longer profitable for Apple.
the nice thing for us techies to know is that M$ hasnt really advertised Vista at all- meaning the vast majority of consumers are still unaware of this so-called “improvement” to XP.
Enter Apple.
Preview/Release(?) Leopard, do some solid advertising (EVERYWHERE!) and then when M$ starts their Vista advertising, consumers will think it looks like that OS X thing being advertised for (5-7+ months [depending on when Vista decides to get its scrawny ass released]).
Then perhaps, just perhaps, the consumers will think M$ is copying Apple (and finally be right for once).
I’ve been switched for over 1 year and I know more about Apple than I ever did know, or wanted to know about M$. Thanks to Apple’s dedication to their products, their innovation, and their superiority.
MW: I believe we might just see a slight shift in the future.
Just tested Vista Beta 2 on my work VAIO.
LOL.
1) Apple has absolutely nothing to worry about. What a bunch of crap. When you see the O.S. installing/starting up, you realize just how much this is really the same old XP with some lipstick on it. Just as unintuitive as before. The interface is a definite improvement over what it was, but still clunky and overwrought. The OS itself is still just as intrusive with messages, etc. And forget about the security alerts–they turn the whole screen dark and interrupt what you’re doing every 10 seconds–basically, every time you run pretty much ANY program.
2) For a beta 2, this still seems VERY ROUGH. Many features still don’t work properly or aren’t fully implemented. That’s not to mention the lack of drivers–I was running a newer machine by a pretty big OEM and I couldn’t get SOUND to work.
MW: leave. Microsoft should just leave the OS business altogether.
i couldn’t agree more that windows is an operating system with lots of achilles heels. and yes they copy apple to death. and the mac is a faster and more secure / stable environment.
but i really have to ask if this post was written by
(a) a child
(b) an idiot
(c) a psychopath who irrationally hates pc’s and all pc users whether or not their computer works or if they are ok people
(d) someone who needs to find something else to occupy their mind
anyway, here is the post………..
A lot of PC users will go ga-ga over this. So let them. Who cares? As long as I’m using OS X and having a blast, what do I care if losers continue to use Windows?
<<The fact is, people ARE switching. We can’t help it if the bumblef***s like my mother-in-law who has no idea why when she types in google, a porn site comes up, can’t understand the reasons to. And the ultra Gates geeks who love to endlessly tinker with BIOS settings, or whatever the hell those idiots mess with, let them ooh and ahh over their Vista. It doesn’t change the fact that Apple IS continuing to make computers, continuing to make OS X, and making nice bank doing it. As long as some people keep switching, we keep buying, then we’re all good.>>
please try and be a better ambassador for the mac. at the moment you are doing apple and its users no favours!!!