05-11-2004, 12:00 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Not Everyone Will See Longhorn In Its Full Glory
"The next version of Windows will sport some fancy, three-dimensional graphics, but for those with an older video card, Longhorn will look a lot like Windows 2000. That's because with Longhorn, Microsoft plans to offer three different graphical interfaces, each requiring a different level of graphics card.
...The top-of-the-line interface, code-named "Aero Glass," will have transparency and other advanced three-dimensional shading features but will demand a high-end video card with at least 64MB of video memory. The midlevel "Aero" interface will offer most of the improved graphics abilities and will require just 32MB of video memory. Both Aero and Aero Glass will also require DirectX 9.0 support, AGP 4X for external graphics cards and a Longhorn graphics driver."
Personally, I'll for this - I'd love to be able to take advantage of the powerful 3D card I have in my computer for something other than just playing games. Giving Windows users an enhanced GUI experience if they have the hardware to make it work is a fantastic idea, and the concept of scaling back the GUI for users of less capable machines means no one is left out of using the OS.
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05-11-2004, 12:48 AM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,503
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Waste of time to me. Give me a decent OS, not a pretty one.
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Baka. Soku. Zan. - The justice behind the dysORDer.
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05-11-2004, 12:56 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 566
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Re: Not Everyone Will See Longhorn In Its Full Glory
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Personally, I'll for this - I'd love to be able to take advantage of the powerful 3D card I have in my computer for something other than just playing games. Giving Windows users an enhanced GUI experience if they have the hardware to make it work is a fantastic idea, and the concept of scaling back the GUI for users of less capable machines means no one is left out of using the OS.
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Conceptually, I like the idea as well. But the cynical side of me is screaming.....'Marketing Ploy! How much ya wanna bet there will be 3 diff price levels?!?!?'
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-= Sass =-
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05-11-2004, 01:01 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,819
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng
Waste of time to me. Give me a decent OS, not a pretty one.
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Totally agree. The faster computers get, the more bloated the software gets. Why should I need a 256meg video card for my OS? :roll:
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05-11-2004, 01:30 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,968
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by James Fee
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng
Waste of time to me. Give me a decent OS, not a pretty one.
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Totally agree. The faster computers get, the more bloated the software gets. Why should I need a 256meg video card for my OS? :roll: |
I don't think they are concentrating on video memory alone, though I am sure they will want to do all texture computations, etc on the video card. They will probably also be leveraging several of the DirectX 9 features which is typically available only in the latest cards, and most of the latest cards are only 64MB and up.
Suhit
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05-11-2004, 01:44 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng
Waste of time to me. Give me a decent OS, not a pretty one.
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So design aestheics mean nothing to you? You've never changed your desktop wallpaper, changed the default Windows XP window colour, etc? Some people haven't, and thus things like this won't matter to them, but I applaud Microsoft for pursuing a better WORKING and LOOKING operating system - I want both!
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05-11-2004, 01:52 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,819
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
I want both!
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At what cost? I do understand you point about wanting a pretty OS, but at some point I'd rather see the effort put into security and the file system and not wallpaper or screensavers. :?
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05-11-2004, 01:56 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by James Fee
Totally agree. The faster computers get, the more bloated the software gets. Why should I need a 256meg video card for my OS? :roll:
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<sigh>
Why is it that new features = bloat? I get so sick and tired of people whining about all the "bloat" in Windows XP, and this is usually coming from people that are using Windows 2000. I had a friend like that, and he just would NOT believe me that Windows XP wasn't just a "pretty shell" until he got a laptop with XP and after a few months he apologized to me for hacking on XP so much - he really had no clue what it had to offer until he started using it.
And you won't NEED a high-end video card for the OS - didn't you read the article? There will be three levels for the GUI, and I'm sure you'll be able to pick the one you want to use in the same way that you can configure Windows XP to look 97% like Windows 2000 today.
This is simply a matter of enhancing the user experience to better take advantage of the hardware acceleration that most of us have today. And two years from now even embedded GPUs will have some serious horsepower, so it will be hard to find a modern computer incapable of running the basic GUI.
It might be that you don't care about the GUI enhancements, but that doesn't mean they're useless for everyone.
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05-11-2004, 01:57 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by James Fee
At what cost? I do understand you point about wanting a pretty OS, but at some point I'd rather see the effort put into security and the file system and not wallpaper or screensavers. :?
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Have you read about SP2? If you have, how can you possibly say that Microsoft isn't putting huge resources into security? That's the main reason Longhorn is delayed! And as to the file system, WinFS is a huge step forward - did you read the article I linked to?
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05-11-2004, 02:53 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,968
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I agree with Jason here. It is cool that Microsoft is concentrating on the graphics/visual aspects of the OS, but it is certainly true that they are also concentrating on tightening up the network protocols, security, performance, etc. Their OS is so widely used and this is why they get criticized so much. Seriously, I just wish people would see the effort that they have put in.
Suhit
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