Here's for the Microsoft fanatics:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

I've already got it, and Ican tell you that it's a hell of a lot more responsive than XP. Highly recommended.

I figured you would.  I almost made the post for 'normangerman' instead of 'Windows enthusiasts' but decided it would probably be pointless.

If you get time to explore it real good, have you figured out what things aren't backwards compatible?  Office Documents readability for example.  

Does it have a new filesystem yet?  Can it read ext3 or other such filesystems?  I'm guessing features like that wouldn't be until the final release.

I'm sure they're bragging about better security.  They'de have to be freakin idiots if it isn't put together really well in that respect.  I'm sort of hoping it sees a bad virus within the first month after commercial release.  

This is, I think, a very critical realease for Microsoft and if it sees half the problems previous Windows have then it could be the beginning of the end of their virtual monopoly.

MD you're the man! Thanks for the heads up. Downloading now..

Your welcome.

Looks like this is more the page I should have posted because it links into that and other related things of interest.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx

It goes eventually to here for example http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx?showIntro=n

I hate Windows... they're going to kill my MSN messenger compatibility... I just know it.

Quoted from normangerman

I've already got it, and Ican tell you that it's a hell of a lot more responsive than XP. Highly recommended.

Are you kidding me   If you have XP it's no real use! The current GUI (which was only planned to be in the beta before being completely revised) is shocking. The "new features" list just keeps getting shorter and the release date keeps getting further away. Two of the better components in it IE7 and WMP11 are available for download if you run XP, WMP looks better on XP without the translucent look of Vista as well.

Vista's constant delays are also pushing back office 2007 which looks and works brilliantly.

Wait for Windows Vienna (NT7). For Microsoft history nerds I mean buffs until mid 2001 XP was codenamed Whistler and the next major release codenamed Blackcomb (a lot of skiers at MS HQ). In between these two releases their was a minor release planned codenamed Longhorn, now known as Vista.

Ballmer even said after the release of XP something along the lines of "The really cool stuff is still one or two releases away."

how many of you downloaded the new vista i wonder

i did,and wish i had'nt- oh it looks great and works fine- but alas nothing else i have seemed to - including my  new wireless modem-printer-etc -you name it it doesnt work so we had to do a clean start- what a job that was-i wish someone would inform people that these thing happen-

but then when vista does comes out i will be first in line i guess.at our local shop-so please microsoft
get the drivers right -

I've got it, and my TV Tuner doesn't work in Media Center or with the supplied application, which is annoying.

But other than that it's top-notch.

It's not Microsoft that makes drivers and it's a really fair bet that not much that is autodected on install is anything they did but was in the interest of the hardware venders to allow inclusion of.  They just need to build something that runs various basic setups in will encounter and let people know how to build drivers for the product they want to sell.  A beta release is likely not to have many drivers and it could be embarassing for both a hardware company and for Microsoft to have drivers bundled in the OS that turn out to have conflicts on many systems.  Maybe the next pre-release will have more, but beta software should always be used with the notion that things may very well break and in many cases that things will break.

Quoted from june

how many of you downloaded the new vista i wonder

i did,and wish i had'nt- oh it looks great and works fine- but alas nothing else i have seemed to - including my  new wireless modem-printer-etc -you name it it doesnt work so we had to do a clean start- what a job that was-i wish someone would inform people that these thing happen-

but then when vista does comes out i will be first in line i guess.at our local shop-so please microsoft
get the drivers right -

Ummmm how can I put this nicely? I can't it looks sh!t and works worse

Put two windows side by side and ask the average computer user to tell you which one is active? Overlay multiple windows, WHAT A MESS.

For thos who still have any interest in the (lack of)features list the new file system WinFS which was going to be a piller of the OS, but then became so minor it could be shipped at a later date now is gone altogether????
MS MAY AS WELL CHARGE $$$$$$ FOR AN EMPTY BOX! I really can't understand how the office team have done such a great job with 2007 and the Windows team have done pretty much SFA except make a big service pack  

PS meandean you didn't upgrade your primary system did you?

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3614936

No, I don't even run windows except that my wife does on her laptop.  I have XP on a partition on this computer but it's crashed and I'de rather use the space for something else than bother fixing something I almost never use.

I posted the link for... because I felt like being the first to post it even though I don't use it  
I started downloading the 64 bit so a friend of mine could try out some software for his work on it instead of buying xp64 but it ate up too much of my connection and was going to continue for too long.

There's also a link to the currently best community supported and possibly the easiest to use (after additional automated setup of commercial but free softwares) Linux OS in my signature if anyones interested in that as well.  It will get shipped to you for free if you can't be bothered downloading so if one is bored and has an extra hard drive or lots of free space for another partition...

wow i see someone downloaded the office 2007-
i bet thats great-
has to be for the price they charge for it.not game to try after the vista problem i had.
i just hope bigpond gets the new drivers out in time or we wont be on line-
laugh

just a thought
we all need on average $1000 to update next year--between windows and office we will be lucky if thats enough
no wonder bill gates is retiring-

Office 2007 works great, I've been using it since November last year, Beta 1 TR was the first glimps of the polished new interface for Word, Excel, Power Point & Outlook. I use Word & Outlook a great deal at Work and they are probably as stable as the 2003 releases. Looks great,works great and is ready to ship on time, but the braniacs at MSHQ are holding it back so it releases alongside Vista.

Free tech support for all wait for Windows Vienna..... though given the cowpat that is Vista it may be 10 years before it arrives

On a Vista related note IE7 is now in beta 3 for XP and server 2k3, it's starting to look less like they've just thrown the interface together in the dark  

Sorry, Windows lovers, I have some negative news for you.

Some screenshots from WWDC 06.

Microsoft's next operating system - Vista, just look remarkably similar to Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", released on 29th April 2005 (that's more than one year ago)

The default layout:


One of Tiger's main feature Spotlight vs Microsoft's Instant Search. Located in different corner.


IE7 RSS' layout looks just identical to Safari RSS. Even the layout.

(based on shipping version of Mac OS X "Tiger" and beta version of Windows Vista.)

A GUI is just a GUI.  I can make my Linux look pretty much like either of those and have had an annoying instant search tool installed at one point.  I dindn't like the search because it replaced the normal search so a large number of new files weren't found right away from it because it indexes really slow in the background and then also when the computer is idle.  Anyhow, it wasn't impressive enough to go find an alternative or a workaround.

It would be silly to say that people don't copy each other when it comes to features that might be liked... it's easy enough afterall to learn quickly how to move from one desktop environment, and even OS, to another without to much pain.

Edit:  If I wanted to, I could put a search thingy onto a panel that's shoots out of the side of the screen, halfway up, and into view to um... 27/56ths of the way accross when it's clicked on. Muahahahahhahaha muauayayayahahahahahahah, mauauahahahahahahahahahaah lol.  Sorry, got carried away  

Edit again:  Um... the defense I guess because if people are still using Windows today despite all other good sense....

Who cares. Windows Vista will be out soon, it'll be bought by hundreds of millions of people like me, they will use it, enjoy it, and everyone will be happy.

Apple's OS and Micrsoft's OS look the same..... In other shocking news their is very little difference between driving a new Commodore to a new Falcon


Still haven't found a reason to upgrade to Vista

News from Australian IT. ( http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20291440^15306,00.html )

Windows Vista Ultimate will be very very expensive, at US$399 a copy (that's about AU$524), according to Amazon.com's pre-order price and is scheduled to be released on 30th January 2007.

It' even more expensive to but Windows Vista from the good neighbour of the States. $C499 (about US$100 more than the US price).

In contrary, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is merely US$129 (AU$199).

Just a gentle reminder, don't steal Mac OS X!

thats the cost per Month of my phonecalls!

I'm getting Home Premium, which is almost as good as Ultimate for only $AU250 for the upgrade

Quoted from ALLEYCAT

thats the cost per Month of my phonecalls!

You might need to consider getting a cap plan for your mobile and use VOIP for your landline.

No need for a mobile - work gives me one

VOIP - why? so I have to sit at the computer to talk to someone and cannot be sitting outside next to the pool or in the lounge room - NO THANKS - it might me fine for some but not this cat...

Maybe you should all consider sticking with XP. Unless you want/ need to run Media Centre their is little to no point in upgrading XP to Vista. Two of the better features in Vista, Media Player 11 abd Internet Explorer 7 have been ported to XP and pre-releases can be downlowded now

Quoted from ALLEYCAT

VOIP - why? so I have to sit at the computer to talk to someone and cannot be sitting outside next to the pool or in the lounge room - NO THANKS - it might me fine for some but not this cat...

If you have ADSL2, you might be able to use VOIP with a special modem, instead of through computer (such as Skype).

BTW, I've never used Skype or VOIP, except iChat AV.

From details leaked in Canada, prices have been converted to USD

Full Package:
Vista Ultimate $450
Vista Business $341
Vista Home Premium $269
Vista Home Basic $233

Upgrade Package
Vista Ultimate Upgrade $269
Vista Business Upgrade $224
Vista Home Premium Upgrade $179
Vista Home Basic Upgrade $116

I'm going for Home Premium, should be about $AU350.

Jury is most definatly still out on Vista, while RC1 adds much, MUCH more stability I'm still not sure about the interface and the amount of changes, If I want to changemy baackground and screen saver I have to go to 2 different windows, give me a break!

If I did buy I'd go for Business since I require Remote Desktop and down the track if I wanted to use Media Centre I'd upgrade the product key

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6110958.stm

For you enthusiasts.

For the New York Times, David Pogue reviews Windows Vista, trying to prove in his video that "Microsoft did not steal ideas from Mac OS X."

Watch the video

(recorded)

Quoted from antony

(recorded)

Huh?

Wired reported that there are six serious flaws discovered in Windows Vista, a month before Vista officially available to consumers.

Flaws Are Detected in Microsoft’s Vista (The New York Times)

Quoted Text

The browser flaw is particularly troubling because it potentially means that Web users could become infected with malicious software simply by visiting a booby-trapped site. That would make it possible for an attacker to inject rogue software into the Vista-based computer, according to executives at Determina, a company based in Redwood City, Calif., that sells software intended to protect against operating system and other vulnerabilities.

Hope that Microsoft can fix them before it's officially released to consumers.

(recorded)

This has me thinking a little more, and what it keeps coming down to is that people don't care.  They have to download various spyware tools, Windows computers can be infected within seconds of being setup and especially the install disk that I paid for since it's SP1 but that's just too bad for me, the viruses are of course more targeted at Windows but a very large part of that has been really stupid things on the part of Microsoft and even today they keep doing dumb things and it's in the persuit of having a extra insignificant feature or in trying to implement a "Windows compatible/ other software incompatible" world.

People don't care though, not now.  At some point they will.  My wife runs Windows and it's a real pain in my a** to get the Spyware off of it, remove viruses, and make sure they're gone for good.  I find that if a Windows computer hasn't had a virus or spyware then it's because the owner hasn't looked hard enough.  It ridiculous, a virus might kill enough of an antivirus program that it runs but reports a clean system, then the virus kills off an online scan so that it can't be completed, and it takes hours to read up to find out what's happening, how to fix it, rescan, then another hour at least to remove other crap.  It's really annoying.  I suppose it would be less annoying if I were just doing maintenence on my own system.

Anyhow, it doesn't matter.  People are comfortable with Windows and the company's tactics aren't changing much from the looks of it, when it comes to this.  At some point though, especially as other OS's become more learned and easy to use as a result... especially since fear of something new is perhaps the bigger obstical than the time invested, people will feel more comfortable moving away from one particular OS and wheather Microsoft will have all that code ready, to cater to new expectations, or not should be a worry for them if it's not something that's already done and just being developed upstream.  They of course have the benefit of, after being instamental in the closed source and non cooperative attitude of industry players, having gotten away with stealing significant open source code (shittin on the little guy) in the advancement of the company.

I think it really doesn't matter that Microsoft Vista has security flaws.  It happens anyway though.  There was a security fix to the Linux kernel I'm running recently, and when reading about it I found that the kernels effected went all the way back to at least 18 months ago.  That's a pretty long time for an open security hole.  I didn't read the specific details about how serious it was.  Linux servers being more prevalent than Windows and the real competition to Windows there though, they get hit as well and it can't be minimised or ignored.  I think today that, well I'm guessing, that running a hardened Linux server that's doing nothing but running Virtual machines of whatever OS, minimises problems immensly.  

What a ramble

Yeah so... I think I meant to say this:

"People don't care right now if Vista has pre-release flaws.  It will be interesting to see though, if Microsoft is hurt by the time Vista becomes the norm or if it will be an issue for people when the Windows OS that comes after Vista rolls out."

Any, ANY computer system can be broken into. As the well and true market leader MS is attacked one hell of a lot more. If you find a way to break into Mac OS 10.4.32.103948 all your going to get is one big nerd beating!

In other news something for Vista that actually looks interesting
http://www.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?AID=140736&c=1

Most people dealing with Unix like systems and Windows would disagree with that.  Windows has been built for the desktop user at the expense of having features that have been easily abused.  Even administrative tools have been easily abused.

The fact is that a person running Linux has the opportunity to understand their OS and how it's handling things very specifically and with Windows you're much more in the dark, yet the OS that is so secretive needs to have an antivirus application installed and that the one that anyone can research heavily can be set up to almost self monitor...

Nerd beating?  Get real dude, or go watch another episode of Battlestar Galactica... whatever it is you do in your little world.

Quoted from MeanDean

Nerd beating?  Get real dude, or go watch another episode of Battlestar Galactica... whatever it is you do in your little world.

I might do that, but at the moment I'm at the office. WHICH IS A SOFTWARE COMPANY.

In the meantime why don't you go frak yourself!

Be nice now.

Quoted from aquamonkey

WHICH IS A SOFTWARE COMPANY.

Oh wow... whoopdy do.. what a monumental qualificaiton.

Since you're the be all and end all of Windows talk, even though you use Unix (other Unix users seem to share the title). What super qualifications are you hanging onto??

The kind of qualifications that a person has when they don't have to brag in order to try to make a point... qualified enough to laugh when I saw your very general job description as an arguing point.

I don't know much about Windows systems though.  I do , however, use my reading skills when it comes to the subject we are on about.

Edit:  I'm getting kind of... I don't know if the arguing is getting fun or if it's going to just end up being nasty.  I don't feel like taking more of a nasty turn today to be honest and sort of wish we could find a way to end this.
I'm sorry for the bashing on back about the death penalty by the way.
I'm also not quite sure how harsh you meant to be on the first go in the other thread.  
But not that I wouldn't continue on either...

I managed to upgrade to Vista over the weekend. I purchased the Vista Home Premium full retail version because I preferred doing a fresh install rather then go through an upgrade which can sometimes cause registry problems. It took me a whole afternoon backing up my data and searching for device drivers and basically preparing for what I thought was gonna be an onslaught of errors and incompatibility issues but I thought to myself if I stay strong I can over come even the meanest blue screen of death and I was determined to get it all done by atleast sunday afternoon. It took me no longer then an hour to get it all done and the process was so easy. Vista pretty much does it all for you...it installed the required drivers automatically and it even informs me and directs me to third party drivers that come out. Maybe I was one of the lucky ones because I had read so much on the net with people having problems and some people even going back to XP simply because they have issues that alot of them probably don't fully understand and as a result misdirect their anger at microsoft when alot these issues really lie with some third party products who are now jumping up and down preparing fixes for something that was out on beta for almost two years. Anywayz, vista aero does require abit of grunt under the bonet but if you have what it takes to run it and are thinking of upgrading then I would recommend it. It runs alot smoother for me, decent security actually exists this time around and the overall improvement of workflow is in my opinion next to none, definitely worth a try.