http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11354256/

Quote :

"SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. hopes to have the new version of its Windows operating system available in time for the U.S. holiday season, spokesman Lou Gellos said, narrowing the time frame for the much-anticipated product's release. Microsoft has long said the new system, called Vista, would be available in the second half of 2006, but Gellos said Tuesday that the company wants to have it in stores in time for holiday shoppers. He declined to give any more detailed guidance. (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.) "

2/15/2006 5:07:12 PM

Mother fucker better be out before late fall. I really need a new PC and want to wait to buy one with Vista so I don't have to pay for an upgrade.

2/15/2006 5:19:27 PM

Get ready to spend some $texas

Quote :

"A Tech Strategist within Microsoft, Nigel Page, has gone on record to discuss the hardware requirements for Windows Vista, due out next Christmas. What he's said is kind of shocking. System breakdown Graphics: Vista has changed from using the CPU to display bitmaps on the screen to using the GPU to render vectors. This means the entire display model in Vista has changed. To render the screen in the GPU requires an awful lot of memory to do optimally - 256MB is a happy medium, but you'll actually see benefit from more. Microsoft believes that you're going to see the amount of video memory being shipped on cards hurtle up when Vista ships. CPU: Threading is the main target for Vista. Currently, very little of Windows XP is threaded - the target is to make Vista perform far better on dual-core and multi-core processors. RAM: 2GB is the ideal configuration for 64-bit Vista, we're told. Vista 32-bit will work ideally at 1GB, and minimum 512. However, since 64-bit is handling data chunks that are double the size, you'll need double the memory, hence the 2GB. Nigel mentions DDR3 - which is a little odd, since the roadmap for DDR3, on Intel gear at least, doesn't really kick in until 2007. HDD: SATA is definitely the way forward for Vista, due, Microsoft tells us, to Native Command Queueing. NCQ allows for out of order completions - that is, if Vista needs tasks 1,2,3,4 and 5 done, it can do them in the order 2,5,3,4,1 if that's a more efficient route for the hard drive head to take over the disk. This leads to far faster completion times. NCQ is supported on SATA2 drives, so expect them to start becoming the standard sooner rather than later. Microsoft thinks that these features will provide SCSI-level performance. Bus: AGP is 'not optimal' for Vista. Because of the fact that graphics cards may have to utilise main system memory for some rendering tasks, a fast, bi-direction bus is needed - that's PCI express. Display: Prepare to feel the red mist of rage - no current TFT monitor out there is going to support high definition playback in Vista. You may already have heard rumblings about this, but here it is. To play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content you need a HDCP compatible monitor. Why? Because these formats use HDCP to encrypt a video signal as it travels along a digital connection to an output device, to prevent people copying it. If you have just standard DVI or even an analogue output, you're going to see HD scaled down to a far-less-than-HD resolution for viewing - which sucks. This isn't really Microsoft's fault - HDCP is something that content makers, in their eternal wisdom, have decided is necessary to stop us all watching pirated movies. Yay. "

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09/07/vista_hardware_reqs/

2/15/2006 5:51:33 PM

Quote :

"Display: Prepare to feel the red mist of rage - no current TFT monitor out there is going to support high definition playback in Vista. You may already have heard rumblings about this, but here it is. To play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content you need a HDCP compatible monitor. Why? Because these formats use HDCP to encrypt a video signal as it travels along a digital connection to an output device, to prevent people copying it. If you have just standard DVI or even an analogue output, you're going to see HD scaled down to a far-less-than-HD resolution for viewing - which sucks. This isn't really Microsoft's fault - HDCP is something that content makers, in their eternal wisdom, have decided is necessary to stop us all watching pirated movies. Yay. ""

that shit will get hacked

2/15/2006 6:03:56 PM

you know it will.

2/15/2006 6:05:08 PM

Its going to be a sad, disappointing Christmas.

2/15/2006 6:09:19 PM

man idk about this x64 stuff, i installed 64 version of windows and half the programs i normally use are not compatible, all them companies better make some changes before vista comes out.

2/15/2006 6:09:20 PM

i tell u waht 64 bnit is flaw3d technol0gnies!

2/15/2006 6:55:54 PM

Giving the gift of bad code for Christmas... fun times...

2/15/2006 6:59:25 PM

lol


RING THE JOY-BELLS.

2/15/2006 7:04:02 PM

nothing makes lil johnny happier than a copy of windows in his stocking.

2/15/2006 7:13:56 PM

hahaha


But yeah, noone is going to implement this in a business till at least SP1.

2/15/2006 7:16:06 PM

i dunno.

Windows longhorn server liscensing is very attractive.

2/15/2006 7:16:46 PM

Wait....which is it....


Longhorn or Vista?

2/15/2006 7:17:54 PM

whatever.

the server equivelent of vista.

2/15/2006 7:19:11 PM

obviously the bigger boom will be for computer manufacturers since they can put Vista on that new christmas computer

2/15/2006 7:25:54 PM

That new $$$ computer.

When the happy medium is a gfx card that's got 256mb of dedicated ram, and 2gb onboard, you're looking at a retail desktop in the neighorhood of $2k.

2/15/2006 7:30:23 PM

the article above failed to mention that third party graphics cards won't support HDCP

the only video out that will support HDCP will be included in OEM computers. It will be impossible to build your own box

[Edited on February 15, 2006 at 9:17 PM. Reason : s]

2/15/2006 9:16:51 PM

you wanna post a link to your FUD

2/15/2006 9:22:23 PM

If that's true, HDCP will either have a short life, or it will be cracked faster than windows validation.

2/15/2006 9:27:28 PM

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_nvidia_hdcp_support/

2/15/2006 9:28:33 PM

That's seriously fucked up.


1/4 of the resolution!?!?

2/15/2006 9:42:37 PM

Who wants to take bets that Linux will gain marketshare after this release?

(Choices: 1. Replace PC 2. Upgrade PC (yeah right) 3. Live with OS released in 2001 4. Look at Linux)

2/15/2006 10:36:15 PM

Was told late Feburary would be when I should expect a DVD in the mail.

Can't wait.

2/15/2006 10:37:42 PM

wtf?

I can't just buy the new OS. For decent performance it's like I have to buy a new tower, new monitors, maybe even new speakers of like a HDPEsuperduper mouse

Gay.

2/15/2006 10:52:15 PM

What the hell is supposed to be so fucking super about Vista anyway?

What makes it so much better than XP?

2/15/2006 10:52:43 PM

THE NEW FILESYSTEM, DUH

2/15/2006 11:11:37 PM

OMG, Windows is so backwards compatible! Stupid Apple is always increasing their requirements. I mean, OS 10.4 won't even run on a 68 K processor. For real.

2/15/2006 11:17:34 PM

Check out the new control panel, it will give you a glimpse of some of the new stuff.

the desktop is also becoming 3d

and there are a shitton of other features.

http://www.bentuser.com/article.aspx?ID=332&page=1

2/15/2006 11:52:11 PM

"Windows Mail" instead of "Outlook Express"

and

Quote :

"Alt-tab is still alive and well in Vista, but Microsoft has augmented this with the Window Switcher - which may end up having its own hardware button, similar to the Windows key. Window Switcher is similar in purpose to Exposé from Mac OS X - it is a way of visualizing all of your open windows and quickly finding the one you want."

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 12:15 AM. Reason : ]

2/16/2006 12:15:23 AM

So basically, they take Apple's ideas from several years ago, make them look like shit, and slap the Microsoft label on it.

2/16/2006 12:26:47 AM

Quote :

"THE NEW FILESYSTEM, DUH"

There will be no new file system, at least it won't be included with the release. WinFS will be out as a beta, when Vista finally comes out. That said, anyone who pays all that money on a new rig just to run Vista is a fool. You might as well buy a Mac, which includes an OS far superior to Windows anyway. I suspect Linux will gain quite a bit a market share as people look to get more life out of their old machines.

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 1:03 AM. Reason : ..]

2/16/2006 12:48:11 AM

Quote :

"Check out the new control panel, it will give you a glimpse of some of the new stuff."

Could someone circle all the new things in that control panel pic cause I only see about 3 or 4 "new" things and I suspect that the 3 or 4 new things are just different names for things windows can already do. I mean it looks like they just took everything you can already access in the current control panel and from tools -> folder options and crammed it into one long list to make it look impressive.

^^^If that is the "3-D" desktop I'll just keep my 2-D one and save a grand on hardware, thanks. And is that a Commit Charge of 979M!?? Ha ha. No thanks.

I'm officially an old coot now. I'd rather keep my current OS over what is coming out.

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 9:14 AM. Reason : -]

2/16/2006 9:03:29 AM

Quote :

"Its going to be a sad, disappointing Christmas."

lol
gg val

-ZiP!-

2/16/2006 9:04:09 AM

what in the fuck are they thinking


If i wanted to buy an overpriced OEM box with less functionality i'd buy a mac.

Its like they saw osx and decided Hey! lets go backwards!

2/16/2006 9:44:32 AM

No joke.

I've been through enough shitty Windows releases to have learned the lesson by now.

Let Bill release his pet, let the dumbasses in the market who have to have it first get it. Then laugh as they struggle with it for a year or two.. then pick up the new OS when they finally have all the bugs worked out and the hardware prices have fallen.

OR

Buy a mac.

2/16/2006 9:48:39 AM

yea sure

buy a mac and be just as limited as vista

2/16/2006 9:49:47 AM

And what is meant by "The desktop is going to be in 3d?"

Do I need to buy the little 3d-glasses to use Vista too? j/k

But seriously, besides hogging a ton of resources, how the hell is that going to help? What functionality does the desktop being in 3d have?

Not trying to be a dick, just seriously trying to figure out how that can be a good thing, besides looking different.

2/16/2006 9:53:37 AM

yea i dunno.

Aside from a few visual upgrades the only major difference i've heard of in vista is WinFX.


Which is good and all, but the way they appear to be crippling hardware choices wipes out any positives.

2/16/2006 9:59:10 AM

So what is Vista supposed to add that Mac OS X doesn't already have? (Or that you can't find or have implemented in a Linux distro)

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 10:02 AM. Reason : +]

2/16/2006 10:01:56 AM

fancy ui - check
lack of hardware support - check
extra cost - check.


seems like they hit everything.

2/16/2006 10:03:01 AM

I wonder if the 3d desktop shit is on by default regardless of your system specs. Might make some upgraders really pissed off when they realize the UI is so slow on their machines that it takes them 30 minutes to navigate to a point where they can deactivate the goofy stuff.

I mean there was a fairly signifigant slowdown on older machines when you had the new xp-style interface enabled in XP, espescially before some of the first patches. I can't imagine how much a 3d real time rendered desktop will cripple machines towards the lower end of the required specs.

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 10:38 AM. Reason : ]

2/16/2006 10:36:24 AM

Not to mention, what about laptops? How long will it take for the hardware in laptops to catch up and be able to run Vista??

Seems like it's gonna be a while....

2/16/2006 1:46:47 PM

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/02/16/clevo_sli_19in_notebook/

well

maybe not that long

2/16/2006 2:18:40 PM

that's a desktop replacement.


It WILL be a while before we see ultra portables or even lightweight notebooks that will comfortably run Vista, unless these specs change quick.

2/16/2006 2:58:01 PM

MS Office 2007
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060216-6196.html

2/16/2006 3:56:30 PM

Eh, looks like the t60's, macbook pro's, etc. have reasonable specs to run vista.

2/16/2006 3:59:35 PM

So how many here are actually going to upgrade?

2/16/2006 11:15:04 PM

i figure i'll prolly buy/build a new pc mid-2007. will prolly get vista then

[Edited on February 16, 2006 at 11:21 PM. Reason : either that or an apple if it's worth it by then]

2/16/2006 11:21:19 PM

It's worth it now.

2/17/2006 12:35:11 AM