Vista Update
April 05, 2007
OK, here it goes. Wait for it. Wait for it...
I like Vista. No, seriously I do. The latest round of updates since RTM have made a /huge/ difference on performance and made it a pleasure to use. Sure, UAC is annoying. Sure, I'll keep XP around for gaming. For day to day use though, Vista is the Bee's Knees. The font smoothing is so much better than XP that it makes me no longer long for a Mac. Aero's interface really is lovely and I love how it always matches me wallpaper (being see through and all).
I love the new Explorer the most though. It is finally a well thought out filesystem interface. Configurable shortcuts abound. The location bar (with clickable folder paths which bring you to that folder) is a godsent improvement tha tmakes my life so much easier. Even thumbnails have improved with configurable sizes and sane filename display.
Oh, and the new file transfer dialogs are amazing. Gone is the "1 year remaining" style dialog box, and in is the "1 hour @ 100Kbp/s" transfer box that I always wished Explorer had.
So there, I said it. I like Vista. It's got my seal of approval. I'll post more as I find new little things.
Permalink |
Add to delicious |
12 Comments
| Tagged: Vista, Computing
Andy 2007/04/05
Hmm... Both James and Jordan are saying good things about this Vista... perhaps it's time for an upgrade for Andy.
jesse 2007/04/05
Very good Jordan. We are seeing the benefits here as well. By the way, I was listening to a member of the Geek Squad today on a radio show. A caller asked this gentleman, "If everyone in the world had a MAC, would they all be out of jobs?" I listened to this guy stumble through his explanation on how he would still have a job because hackers only target vulnerabilities that can affect the most people. Wow. How do you like that?
James 2007/04/05
I figure I'll add a couple other things here. As I told you before, I had a couple hangups with Vista and some of my hardware. Good news is that my RAID controller is supported again, and I apparently don't need drivers installed for my TV card as the software I'm using communicates directly with the card. I also mentioned before when running the C&C3 demo about the problem I was having with cutscene audio/video sync. I'm not experiencing that problem with the retail version. On top of that, the odd Sidebar/Windows Update 100% CPU issue I was having turned out to be caused by a hard drive monitoring widget I had installed. Once I uninstalled it, the problem has disappeared. (Yay for poor jobs done by third-party programmers!)
That does, however, leave me with one remaining annoyance I have with Vista: The Aero interface. Don't get me wrong, I love the transparency, Flip-3D, and all the other effects you get. BUT, my problem is how Vista takes the video overlay surface to run Aero. This is not a problem if you're using Windows Media Player. But if you want to use any other media player, it's a big deal. Most, if not all, other media players use the overlay surface for video playback (apparently because it's less CPU intensive) and when the application wants the overlay surface, Vista happily gives it to the application, disabling Aero in the process. Fortunately, players that have active and continuing dev support (such as Media Player Classic) are expanding support to use a DirectX interface for those of us who don't want Vista whining about Aero having to be disabled just because I want to play a video. So I guess in the end this is just another starting-out issue that will eventually go away, but that won't stop me from being irritated by it until then.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/04/05
James; Aaaah yes... the overlay surface problem. I agree with you on that, though I spend far less time viewing video than you. Although, since you haven't even started Code Geass... tsk tsk. Did you ever hear back about that interview?
Andy; Perhaps it is - or perhaps it isn't. Like I said, gaming with Vista is to be pooped upon. I'll get back with some 3dmark benchmarks shortly. When are we going up to your mum's? That machine is ready to go.
Jesse; Ah... Geek Squad. Not that I have anything against the employees, but it's the corporate ethos of salesmen that pervades everything Best Buy. There was an article floating around of someone who switched around a jumper on a hard disk (basically a switch) that disabled it, and Geek Squad kindly informing him that he would need to buy a new motherboard (this was done to test ethics amongst computer repair specialist's - he found them bad across the board save for one guy who fixed the jumper and didn't even charge him).
Security... I've argued this to death, but the weakest link in IT security is the user. It doesn't matter how much protective layering you put down, the monkey will still click the HAPPYBIRTHDAY!!!1!!1eleven!!1.exe that was emailed to them - or click "Allow" to "Muhammed Ackmabar Penis Enlarger" when it pops up (whether they have one to enlarge or not). Either way, Windows or OSX, their documents will be gone. With a Mac, the OS is more likely to stay intact - but you still lost all those pictures of Grandma that you never backed up.
Now, there have been two notable flaws in Windows that don't require explicit user intervention the Windows Messenger vulnerability and the recent .ani vulnerability. Though, two major flaws over such a large period of time - I'll accept that as par for the course.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/04/05
Oh, hmm. I forgot the part about "aaand Windows users need to stop using Outlook, IE and Media Player and move over to Thunderbird, FireFox and Media Player Classic". A lot of vulnerabilities do creep in from those apps.
Andy 2007/04/06
Outlook, IE and WMP may be included in Vista and windows, and I think they should be. Mozilla stuff will never be built in. Not like it's not like it's hard for us to seek them out and install them.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/04/06
Andy; What makes you think that these applications should be included with Windows? The market has succeeded in creating better alternatives anyway. With all the crapware that manufacturers like Dell and HP put on their new computers, they might as well install FireFox and Thunderbird as well.
As for us seeking these softwares out; this becomes one of Windows' security flaws. With poorly written Application Software being included with an Operating System, user lethargy takes over and they just assume it to be the best. Thus, they continue using IE6.0 and Outlook Express despite there being gaping security holes released continuously.
I'm not sure at this time how IE7.0 stacks up in terms of security since there hasn't been a long track-record. Hopefully it's a fair bit better, though the interface is highly confusing to new users.
Andy 2007/04/06
I think it's because shitty software comes with Windows that there are good alternatives like Mozilla stuff. It means there's competition out there, and when companies compete, we win. If there was no need for alternative web browsers and email clients, then there would be no competition, and eventually it would degrade again.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/04/06
Good point Andy. Btw, when are we going out this weekend?
Andy 2007/04/07
Good question. I just got off work tonight, and I have to pull a noon to 9 tomorrow (Sat). Sunday night maybe? I think most restaurants will be open.
Brian 2007/07/26
Hi Jordan,
I saw your comment re: rsync at: http://lifehacker.com/software/rsync/geek-to-live--mirror-files-across-systems-with-rsync-196122.php
I wasn't sure how to contact you, so I'm trying this. You said in your comment that you "routinely sync a filebase of 4Gigabytes worth of tiny 12k files in roughly 35minutes across the internet." This is almost exactly what I have been trying to do but with little success and much frustration. I have a database of over a million small files on a Mac OSX computer in Hawaii that I'm trying to sync with a Windows XP machine in Michigan so that I can set up a mirror site. I'm not all that computer savvy, though. Before I go ahead an try to set up rsync to do this, I just wanted to ask you if you still use it and whether you can offer me any details or tips about setting it up / using it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you care to follow this up, please contact me at bbruya@sbcglobal.net.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/07/27
Email sent! I'll see about writing up a small how-to in the coming month or so.