"Vista Changes Everything"

OneST8 · 10-25-06, 05:07 PM

Marswipp · 10-26-06, 11:48 AM

If that's true... Microsoft Corporation wants people to spend tens of thousands (of USD)for a single PC... (People are already spending thousands on brand-name PCs. Like Dell and HP)

OneST8 · 10-26-06, 07:10 PM

Actually, since Microsoft joined forces with Intel, they've wanted you to purchase a new computer every two years or at the very least, once per Windows release.

It is in their best interest to beef up their OS with each release and thusly increasing the hardware requirement threshold. If you were to take a look at the historical trend, it'd look something like this:

Quote:

* Win 3.x - 8086, 286, 386, 486
* Win 95 - 486 (dx), Pentium, k5
* Win 98 - Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, k5, k6
* Win 2k - Pentium II, Pentium III, k6, k7
* Win XP - Pentium III, Pentium IV, k7, k8

Basically, the previous "big proc on the street" becomes the bare minimum requirements and the new "big proc street" becomes the "optimal build target" for the next incarnation of Windows.

Now, we must take into consideration that as newer hardware comes out, the older stuff gets cheaper; fast. Through some creative use of PR Spin Microsoft have turned this cheaper-hardware fact to their benefit (aka: PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT) by releasing their OS on the heels of the next latest-n-greatest processor. They're trying to ensure that when the next volly of processors come out to market that their OS will run "great" on it, thus lending credibility behind the new proc purchase and as their OS installation ages and everyone else has upgraded to the next version of windows they want you to go out and purchase a whole new machine. All-in-all, I typically see people purchasing more than one license of windows even though the end-user doesn't always give Microsoft their money directly.

Microsoft's monopoly is almost invisible to it's end-users. It's the hardware manufacturers and competing operating system companies that know and have to live with the truth of the Microsoft exclusivity contracts and bully-business tactics.

While I'm ranting here... have you ever heard MS advertise "no retraining necessary" while trying to sell their latest version? I find myself trying so darn hard to hold back a massive fit of laughter when I hear that. Every time my family has had their Windows upgraded, I've had to go and show them how to do the same things they've always done differently in the previous version. Network settings, WiFi setup, troubleshooting, drive maintenance, basically any administrative function _always_ gets repositioned somehow and in some way within their complex maze of property dialogs and tucked-away menus. Seemingly to make things "easier" for the layman but sadly all it does is cause the layman endless hours of frustration. This in turn fuels the service and certification industry that's formed around Microsoft's OS.

Much like the anti-virus industry, Microsoft has actively imposed minor-to-moderate retraining requirements for every version of their OS. The only exception I would say to all this would be their transition from Win95 to Win98. Most of the dialog settings were left where they were in Win95 and most of the critical bugs with Win95 were corrected. There was minimal bloat added to Win98 and this was right around the time MS started really working with Intel on a fairly close basis. WinME is testiment to that artificial bloating for proc + license sales.

Funny, that brings me to yet another rant... why the heck does everyone have to pay Microsoft to fix their own software flaws?

Found a problem in Office? Guess what! For the low-low price of your first born child, you can upgrade to the latest version of Office where that problem has been fixed.

Ok, I'm going to shut up now before I start foaming at the mouth again. or wait... want to here about a funny experience I had? Great! I'm glad you're so interested...

When I was working at a big computer refurbishing company; I used to do Test&Audit, RMAs and laptop repairs. The team I worked with consisted of about 10 people and there was well more work than we could handle. The management recognized this and decided to hire some certified profressionals. This is when I was confronted with the saddest demonstration of MCSE expertise ever. I asked one of the new guys (knowing they're certified people who according to my boss "certifiably know more than me") to replace a processor and hard drive in a standard Compaq desktop machine. The person said with a wonderful smile on their face "Sure! Not a problem!", took the machine, new hard drive, new proc and went to their workstation. Twenty minutes later the guy comes up to me, holding the motherboard in one hand (which he unmounted from the case for some strange reason) and the replacement processor in the other hand. He then proceeded to ask me with that same pleasant smile on his face... "is this the processor? and where am I supposed to plug it in? I don't see any socket pins on it or a place for it on the motherboard". It was a pentium II processor which if you've ever seen one looks like some wacky nintendo cartridge. I was flabbergasted. I could not believe this MCSE getting paid double what I was getting paid could not figure out how to replace a Pentium II proc. I just sorta stood there and then kindly demonstrated to him what went where, how and why. I never yelled at him nor did I make him feel stupid. Feeling rather sorry for him, I tried my best to educate him over the next few days before I'd quit working there. Ok, actually, I purposely got myself fired but that's a different story though probably far more entertaining.

Yeah, this reply got too big. Oh well, submitting anyways! :P

hawklen · 10-26-06, 11:52 PM

*stands up and cheers and applauds OneSTB's reply* hear hear! I tried Vista RC1, while it looks pretty, has a GUI and some features, that Mac OSX and linux had years ago, its nothing worth buying. They changed it so alot of your old programs won't work. nwn will not run under vista. It does run slower than XP. Personally, I think they should of copied apple, and implimented an unix like OS. Anyways, I just woke up, and while trying to wake up, say this post. I'll stop now.

ZeroVega · 10-28-06, 05:43 AM

This begs the question, with these new Dell Duo-Core processor thingies... can you install two platforms on your PC? Say, Windows for playing games (cause they run everything) and Linux for... umm... everything else?

OneST8 · 10-28-06, 07:16 AM

Quote:

ZeroVega - 10/28/2006 10:43 AM

This begs the question, with these new Dell Duo-Core processor thingies... can you install two platforms on your PC? Say, Windows for playing games (cause they run everything) and Linux for... umm... everything else?

A dual-core processor is simply two processors fitted on the same die. Essentially you get all the benefits of a dual-processor machine while having only one physical unit taking up socket space.

You can dual boot any machine with Windows and Linux.

Personally, I use Linux and run windows inside of a VMWare instance. This has the lovely benefit of being able to take a snapshot of the entire OS setup et al and at any time, fire that up. So, let's say for instance, something goes wrong and I get a virus on my WinXP install... five minutes later and I'm back to pre-virus install. Being that I only use Windows for things like browsing sites in IE to test page layout etc and for playing online poker... this works out rather well for me.

As for running both natively and at the same time... not going to happen unless you've got IBM's mainframes running with their nice hardware level virtualization layer.

Niles09 · 10-28-06, 08:17 AM

Microsoft are pure evil

Marswipp · 10-28-06, 08:33 AM

Yea... Microsoft is evil. It has basically shoved the other OSs underground.

hawklen · 10-28-06, 10:04 AM

Well, MacOSX revived apple. Its a solid OS.

OneST8 · 10-30-06, 03:07 PM

Microsoft Vista EULA Analysis

hawklen · 10-30-06, 03:35 PM

@_@

Thats horrible. I read the whole thing, more and more shocked. *shakes a fist at M$*

Tanman · 10-30-06, 03:49 PM

While I do agree with a lot of the things that you are discussing about Vista, MCSE does not focus on *teaching* you how to replace motherboards and hard drives. What it teaches you is how to manage Windows OS Exchange, ISA Server and MS Office, The example that you give focuses on hardware.

Granted, MCSE certified folks should have additonal experience in setting up hardware, but it doesn;t mean just because they have an MCSE that they know about hardware at all.

Quote:

OneST8 - 10/27/2006 5:10 PM

When I was working at a big computer refurbishing company; I used to do Test&Audit, RMAs and laptop repairs. The team I worked with consisted of about 10 people and there was well more work than we could handle. The management recognized this and decided to hire some certified profressionals. This is when I was confronted with the saddest demonstration of MCSE expertise ever. I asked one of the new guys (knowing they're certified people who according to my boss "certifiably know more than me") to replace a processor and hard drive in a standard Compaq desktop machine. The person said with a wonderful smile on their face "Sure! Not a problem!", took the machine, new hard drive, new proc and went to their workstation. Twenty minutes later the guy comes up to me, holding the motherboard in one hand (which he unmounted from the case for some strange reason) and the replacement processor in the other hand. He then proceeded to ask me with that same pleasant smile on his face... "is this the processor? and where am I supposed to plug it in? I don't see any socket pins on it or a place for it on the motherboard". It was a pentium II processor which if you've ever seen one looks like some wacky nintendo cartridge. I was flabbergasted. I could not believe this MCSE getting paid double what I was getting paid could not figure out how to replace a Pentium II proc. I just sorta stood there and then kindly demonstrated to him what went where, how and why. I never yelled at him nor did I make him feel stupid. Feeling rather sorry for him, I tried my best to educate him over the next few days before I'd quit working there. Ok, actually, I purposely got myself fired but that's a different story though probably far more entertaining.

Yeah, this reply got too big. Oh well, submitting anyways! :P

darkwulf365 · 10-30-06, 03:51 PM

*Shakes head and wonders how much hex editing he'll have to do to make Vista Starter turn into Ultimate just like NT 4.0 Server and Workstation*

And the MCSE is...I'll just say I have no love for it, and leave it at that.

hawklen · 10-30-06, 03:52 PM

95% of MSCE people are idiots imho.

Anyone working in computers, I think, should have working knowledge of hardware, like how to change a card or processor.

LoRD-oF-AEoNS · 10-31-06, 06:46 AM

Vista is worse than anime....And that's pretty bad.

lunchboxkilla · 12-04-06, 02:51 AM

Quote:

LoRD-oF-AEoNS - 10/31/2006 11:46 AM

Vista is worse than anime....And that's pretty bad.

Excuse me?

worse than anime?

If your watching ths trash they have on TV then yes....

Broden one's horizon grasshopper

pejsaboy · 12-04-06, 03:38 PM

What, they have anime on TV now? I thought that was all american made wannabe anime? *grins* Anyhow, back toward topic... I've hated microsoft/windows basically since the first time I heard about Unix/Linux and what it has to offer. I would have dumped windows altogether a long time ago, but I always start running into problems when I try to get NWN installed *and* working, or trying to get some other piece of hardware going that is widely supported *frowns* I can promise right now though, that I will not own or use VISTA. Even if that means sticking with XP or 2000 indefinitely because I never get a grasp on Linux.

Ravemore · 12-12-06, 11:45 AM

Quote:

pejsaboy - 12/4/2006 5:38 PM I can promise right now though, that I will not own or use VISTA. Even if that means sticking with XP or 2000 indefinitely because I never get a grasp on Linux.

I guess that scraps what I got you and Lou for the gift exchange....