Total Members Voted: 50
Sure DX10 is integrates the desktop into a 3D (OS X) type interface... but what they don't tell you is that OpenGL will no longer be natively supported and it will be run ON TOP OF DX10. Which as we all know will slow things down...
Eli asked about OpenGL, Direct Draw, and WPF, and how they work with Desktop composition...OpenGL can go through one of three paths in Windows Vista depending on how your computer is configured. 1. MSOGL - this is an implementation of OpenGL 1.4 that uses Direct3D under the covers to hardware accellerate the application. 2. Legacy ICD's - These are the ICD's that are available today for use on Windows XP. These will continue to work on Windows Vista, but will disable the DWM when they are loaded in to the process of the application that's using OpenGL. The reason for this is that Legacy ICD's operate directly on the GPU without going through Windows at all, and we have no way of redirecting application's output in a stable, predictable manner. 3. Windows Vista ICD's - this is a new path for 3rd party ICD's introduced for Windows Vista that will work in a way that is compatible with desktop composition. Essentially allowing direct access to the GPU for hardware accellaration, but then having the final surface that appears to be the front buffer to the application actually be a shared surface that gets composed by the DWM
Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to delay the consumer launch of its much-anticipated Windows Vista until after this year's holiday shopping season, sending its shares down nearly 3 percent.The world's largest software maker pushed back the consumer version of Vista until January 2007 from an earlier target for the second half of 2006 and pledged to ship the next version of its operating system to business customers in November
Microsoft delays Vista again You probably were expecting thisBy Nick Farrell: Wednesday 22 March 2006, 06:36THE ON again off again release date of Microsoft’s Vista is off again.The outfit, which has been promising a release of a replacement to the old and now slightly smelly Windows XP for five years, is claiming that the beast is still not ready.Microsoft promised on its mother’s grave that the operating system would be ready by November for everyone.Now according to Jim Allchin, co-president of the company's Platforms & Services Division Vista will be released for Vole's corporate customers in November, but needed an additional couple of months to get the consumer version out.He said that Microsoft still has not got the security right for the product. However he also hints that Vole might be bowing to the will of its software vendors. Obviously the security is right because Microsoft’s corporate customers will be getting it in November as planned.But Allchin said that Microsoft’s vendor partners do not want a November release because it will kill off all their pre-Christmas sales.He says they do not want to release software which might "create instability" and cause their back catalogue sales to fail and stuff up their busiest sales period.This is a strange excuse as it was not a problem when Microsoft released 95 during the same period to huge acclaim and applause.Shareholders are not buying it either. The price of VoleStock fell three per cent in after hour trading.
Thing about an alternative OS is... well to MS there really ain't one. Linux has its body parts spread too wide, too many versions, too many different interfaces which ain't ALL that and its too tedious for the avg secretary who wants to install msn messenger. Then there OS X which would be a GREAT alternative.. but then you'd have to buy an Apple which doh come cheap and wouldn't be available in the quantities required to fill the PC market. And well then you got UNIX and other variants.... and theres always solaris... but yuh get meh drift. As far as most ppl are concerned there is NO alternative. So unlike say AMD or Intel who when they shoot themselves in the foot lose up to 5+% market share. MS pretty much doh have that concern yet. Now if OS X were publicly available as a Standalone OS for X86... THEN they'd have cause for concern.
Microsoft employees in Vista revolt Bring me the head of Monkey BoyBy Nick Farrell: Thursday 23 March 2006, 07:22WHILE THE markets and the IT press are castigating Microsoft for releasing Vista late, it appears that Vole is suffering from an attack from its own staff over the decision.According to an insider bog, the staff are up in arms about the move.The blog is fuming that Microsoft will not only miss the back to school market, but will also now lose the Christmas sales period."Vista's deployment is going to come from people buying CPUs with the OS pre-installed, not dancing down the CompUSA aisle as they clutch that boxed version of Vista to their loving chest," the bog says.The bog, which is backed by hundreds of similar comments from Microsoft employees, says that managers should be offering their resignations for the delay. Other comments called for the head of "Monkey Boy" while others said that it is time for a shareholder revolt. "Vista is the biggest software development failure of all time, IBM's office vision was the previous record holder, with $900 million spent… Vista has cost five or six billion," the poster moaned.However, one person, who claimed to work in the Windows department said that Vista simply was not ready to ship."If you had spent the last five years of your life grinding away to get this thing out the door, you would have realized the only thing worse than slipping the date, would have been to lay a turd in August. Those of us in the trenches (front-line L61 PM here, on a real feature set, not one of those useless COSD bureaucrats) see exactly what bugs are between us and shipping."
More than half of Microsoft Vista needs re-writing Panic at the VolehillBy Nick Farrell: Friday 24 March 2006, 06:56[Blocked Ads]MICROSOFT appears to be in a state of panic, ordering 60 per cent of its new operating system to be re-written amidst a major shake-up of its troubled Windows division.The news follows another delay with reports of a staff revolt over the way that management has handled the development of the operating system.According to a Volish denizen speaking to smarthouse.com, orders have come down from on high to rewrite more than 60 per cent of the consumer version of Vista in a bid to get it ready for the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas.Vole has shifted programmers from its Xbox team to help resolve many problems associated with entertainment and media centre functionality inside the OS. They are also working with Intel's Viiv team engineers and it is believed that Viiv could also be stalled to line up with Vista’s launch.At the centre of the problem appears to be the Media Centre code which will not be optional. Apparently they cannot get it to work properly in its current format and will have to make a lot of changes to the code to jack it in.Meanwhile Vole has moved to sort out management problems in its Windows division and restructured the lot.Steven Sinofsky has been promoted to senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live Group to take control of the division. He is one of the Volish "rising stars" and is famous for getting a team to work properly.Smarthouse has dug up an internal memo on the changes from Co-President, Platforms Products & Services Division Kevin Johnson to his executive staff. He said that he had made a lot of the changes after talking to staff. One of the people who seems to have had his job changed is Johnson’s other Co-President, Platforms Products & Services Division Jim Allchin. Although his role in Vole has not changed, apparently he will have to report to Johnson from now on.Although there are some musical chairs, no one appears to have been fired or demoted for a cock-up which has effectively cost Vole 40 per cent of five billion dollars.
It's is my belief that if there were say 2 versions of Linux they'd have a fighting chance. Too much diversity causes headaches in support. If the linux comm came together (ALTOGETHER) and worked towards 1 product they'd be a lot more sucessful inho.
Sure at the core they're similar or the same but imagine a large corporation (>>100000users) buying 1 flavour for a hundred different propreitary apps... is the security support, updates, new programs, troubleshooting etc going to be sufficient to deal with that many users? who is trained to support that size user base in a 24hr period? the whole world+dog can do basic troubleshooting on windows
What about certifications? how many ppl have linux certifications vs. MS certifications? true certifications in reality mean only so much, but to the rest of the world and business at large its the defining requirement. I've dabbled with Linux a few times and each time i've been turned off.
Most ppl don't want to read throught forums and look up questions on how to do x y z. They just want find file, execute file, done. Uninstall something, click click done, upgrade xyz. Ppl have been weened on MS and the way they do it, last time I dabbled with Linux (other than on the prompt) it was clicking away at anything to get ANYTHING to work. The damn CD player game me trouble once. And let's not even talk about recompiling stuff. Most ppl doh know how to install or uninstall something far less to recompile a program for it to work.
Then not too long ago I read an article about how bloated Linux was becoming from trying to make an interface like Aqua and Aero.
I can't believe i'm gonna say thins, the good thing about MS is that they're working altogether to perfect a particular OS (with variants) but utlimately the same things with different lipstick. Linux has several different teams working on several different products that look similar but are all distributed to compete with one another. What sense does it make to compete against urself when trying to gain popularity?
Red Hat aims for open-source stack Column Linux distro buys JBoss, sparks M&A actionBy Martin Veitch: Tuesday 11 April 2006, 11:56COULD A THOUSAND predictions that Oracle would buy JBoss be wrong? You betcha. When JBoss founder Marc Fleury signed on the dotted line a few minutes before midnight on Friday, it put a stop to what was becoming a tediously protracted parlour game of predicting who would buy the hot open-source application server firm. Red Hat’s acquisition agreement with JBoss promises to be one of the most interesting deals of a year likely to be heavy with merger and acquisition activity. First of all, these are companies with personality. JBoss founder Marc Fleury is a hoot of course, a younger version of Philippe Kahn with bags of attitude. His story is also a good one. Five years ago he was forced to move in with the parents in law after running out of money and now he is selling his company for up to $420m with a good chunk of it in cash. His blog is often hilarious and the recent entry about his Business Week interview is well worth checking out. As is his surreal take on combining with Red Hat: "Today is the beginning of 'Red'; we are going to wonderland and the rabbit hole keeps on going. Just like the Matrix protagonist wakes up to find 'the real battle', JBoss, Inc. today is stepping up to a bigger challenge by merging with RedHat." Oh, OK then. Red Hat chief Matthew Szulik is also good value with a likeable taste for corny jokes – nothing wrong with that. They should webcast the board meetings and sell subscriptions. Second, Red Hat is clearly building a stack here and the companies that stand to be affected are some of the biggest in the business. HP’s malfunctioning efforts to build a middleware business means that it is largely unaffected but IBM and Sun will be looking at this deal with a little trepidation. JBoss is certainly going to be a lot more credible with big accounts now that it has Red Hat’s capital behind it. Third, the deal is probably going to cause a domino effect. BEA might look more attractive than ever to Oracle and others but open-source middleware firms will too. If not now, then when? Fourth, Red Hat might be glad that business is not a popularity contest. Neither firm has much respect from the open-source militant tendency and lashing them together won’t change matters. Don’t expect any penguins to get hugged. By the way, anybody who thinks that this business of prognosticating the future of technology is easy should look at the InfoWorld link here. There but for the grace of God… µ
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