I just read that Microsoft won’t be providing Windows XP after Monday. So what is the next thing on the horizon? I’m thinking about getting a notebook computer and wondering what I will be getting used to.
Erm, Windows Vista. Have you really not heard of it? BTW XP is still supported for some time.
Errrr. Vista…?
Vista sucks so here is something to look forward to…
What’s After Vista?
- Vienna will revolutionize the UI as we know it.
By: Alex Muradin, Editor, Software Reviews
Windows Vienna to follow Vista has indeed been confirmed by Microsoft’s blogging guru, Robert Scoble. The new code name for Blackcomb is indeed Vienna. In a thread
reply to a channel 9 video he said, “since this video was shot the codename for Blackcomb has indeed changed to Vienna. I haven’t gotten the story on this yet, though.”
Windows Vista aims to be a technologies-based release, this includes user-interface changes in the form of the Aero set of technologies and guidelines. But for the Vista successor, they’ve changed that mentality and they are now planning to revolutionize the way we interact with our home and office PCs. The “Start” interface we’ve grown used to ever since its Windows 95 introduction will most likely be changed to something completely new.
Some other drastic changes are the complete replacement of the Explorer shell. The taskbar will also be replaced by a new concept based on 10 year research from Microsoft’s “Vibe” lab. GroupBar and LayoutBar projects will probably make an appearance as well. They will allow users to more effectively manage, track their applications and documents while in use, and there will also be a new way of launching applications. It also seems that Microsoft has taken some ideas from the MAC guys (is this the firs time that this has happened?) and investigated a pie menu-type circular interface similar to that of the MAC.
Although the news is mainly on Vista right now with the upcoming release, focus will probably shift when completion of Vienna is around the corner.
I like most Guests. They have better manners. Thanks combust-i-cation for the news about things to come!
But mostly that tells me that I’m in trouble. I don’t learn new things quickly anymore.
I’m just now getting used to clicking on START to stop.
And truly, Askance, I didn’t know. I’m a little old lady with grown grandchildren, vague memories of being a flower child and a tendency to be the bawdy one at the club luncheon. All technical stuff I leave to Zeldar. Glad to know they will support XP for a while so that he can procrasinate a little longer.
History, Mystery and the Wolf, I love your name! I used to be a wolf docent.
Off the top of your head can you name two current collection designers for Tiffany & Co.? No fair doing a search! Errrr…you wouldn’t want to discourage me from asking questions here that I don’t know the answers to, would ja?
The reason they (and me) are surprised is that it was big news, including on these boards, all last year as it was launched, so it has often been a very visible subject. Plus it’s internet related, and as we are all internet savvy enough to use the SDMB, it ought to be enough for us to know what’s bubbling under in relevant internet news.
But then again, having said that, some pop culture totally passes me by, sometimes for years, until everyone is doing it and I stand there looking amazed that I missed out on it all.
I predict a vocal contigent here who will angrily proclaim, “Vienna Sucks!”
If it’s true that they’re going to change a lot of the interface, then I’m sure that will happen. They might well be right in saying it too.
Constantly moving the furniture around is a sign of not having anything useful to do.
I wonder if Microsoft will ever realize their first users are getting older and less able to deal with vast changes in operating system interfaces time after time. At what point do they release the new Windows Classic interface?
Most likely it just means that they’ll change to a dashboard system (like Mac (which is essentially a glorified quick launch bar.))
We don’t need your fancy new features, Microsoft. We don’t want your fancy new features. We just want an OS that is small, fast, and doesn’t crash before I finish this po
(Strictly for Zoe’s benefit… 
)
How was XP generally received here? Which rendition of Windows preceded it?
Service Pack 2 had some various grumblings right when it was released because it broke quite a some things (which is always expected), but movement to it among the technical world was pretty rapid and most people were shaking their heads at the people who didn’t upgrade within quite a short period of time.
I don’t recall the SDMB being particularly different from that.
I remember not wanting to upgrade to XP and being very suspicious of it. Lots of people suffered birth-pangs with software that just didn’t work any more, despite all the compatibility tweaks, but I think XP managed to prove itself a fairly stable and usable OS within a reasonably short time.
The same was never true with Windows ME, and it doesn’t really look like it’s going to be true of Vista.
Certainly, my personal mistrust and resistance to XP was never quite so intense or prolonged as my resistance to Vista has been.
XP was preceded by Windows 2000 for businesses and ME (which was just Win98 dressed up as mutton) for home users, but in practice, many home users skipped straight from Windows 98 or even 95 to XP
My family and I went the NT->2000->XP route, which was a lot merrier from all I’ve ever heard. A lot of the crying and shouting about the evils of Microsoft (and the Blue Screen of Death) would probably be significantly less in modern day had MS marketed those products to the masses instead of 98 and ME.
Meh, don’t worry about it. I moved up to a Vista computer last year, since it was too much of a hassle, and too expensive, to find an XP for “Mom’s Games Computer”, and I’m getting along with it okay. Pretty much all the same functions as XP are there, it’s just that sometimes they’re hidden, or are in slightly different places that I’m sure made logical sense to the geeks designing the thing in a conference room in Redmond, but which to Real People is sometimes baffling. Good example: they decided to hide the file name extensions for reasons known only to themselves. In XP, when you do Explore to look at what files and folders you’ve got on your computer, you can tell it View with List or Details, and it tells you all the file extensions, like .jpg and whatnot. But Vista won’t automatically show you those, you have to go in somewhere and find a box and uncheck it (I googled it, is how I found out how to reset it.)
The main hassle I’ve found is that some of my Big Fish-type games that I used with Win95, WinMe, and XP won’t work with Vista, it not being backwards compatible in certain respects, so bad cess to Redmond for that.
So check all your software to make sure it’s compatible with Vista, and be prepared to have to buy some stuff again if it turns out not to be.
I also discovered that you can improve performance dramatically by choosing Windows Classic over the default appearance, since Redmond in their infinite wisdom decided to include something called dwm. exe that governs the graphics display without going through the graphics card, supposedly to improve performance. Which it doesn’t. So, again, there’s a need for a consumer workaround.
But really, it’s not that much different.
One piece of advice is to not buy the cheapest notebook. Vista is a pig, and doesn’t run well if it doesn’t have enough memory.
As mentioned, Vista breaks lots of things, but unless you have lots of weird programs to put on your new notebook, it shouldn’t be a problem.
I had a loaner laptop with it. I found the default settings very annoying - “Do you really want to blow your nose? Y/N” (It also didn’t come with enough memory, and ran like a crippled snail.) You might want to get a book to tell you with simple pictures how to turn nasty defaults off, or ask here. I’m holding on to XP as long as I can, and I get to use UNIX at work, so I’m happily not a Vista expert.
As you’ve noticed, Vista is not considered a success. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the next one, though. If you’ve got to get it, search for incompatibilities with the software you’d put on it, just so you’re not surprised.
Yeah, it’s annoying to have to tell Vista every. single. time. that yes, I do want to allow Safer Networking (i.e. Spybot) to run this time. Again. It’s a totally anal hysterical worrywart piece of software absolutely hell-bent on protecting me from myself at every step of the proceedings; if it was a person you knew, you’d have dropped them like a hot potato because they drive you crazy.
And the part I find alternately amusing and infuriating is that occasionally I get the worrywart “are you SURE you want to let this file run?” popup when I’m trying to run something from Microsoft themselves. Hello?
Given the number of times patches from Live Update has screwed things up, maybe Vista is smarter than I thought. 
You don’t have to stay with Microsoft!
Vista will probably not work with any hardware that was purchased prior to about 6 months ago. I don’t know I may be wrong. I used to sell electronics and was trained for Windows Vista’s release months before Vista was on the shelves. After the release we had HP, Epson, Canon reps coming in with brand new printers that were going to work with Vista. Half of the printers I sold came back because it didn’t work. We were told by the reps that they would work and to sell them by telling customers they would.
i advise that you hold onto XP as long as possible, and check weekly as to whats going on in the computer world.
I held onto Windows 98 for as long as possible and jumped to XP. Do some research and figure out what will suit you the best. Almost always this happens, when you upgrade your OS you’ll be upgrading your computer or buying a new one.