So much for Vista then

http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39183827,00.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7334123.stm

This was announced on Monday on the BBC website.
Hopefully it's better than Vista and comes through sooner rather than later.

They'll probably still be patching Vista when it arrives.

Windows! Phhh...

Huw, you should know better! Although with you having your moderators head on recently, I thought you might be sporting this t-shirt.

Love it!

Been meaning to order something suitably geeky for years

The devils of Hell will be having a snowball fight before Micro$oft produces a decent OS that is secure and un-crashable....

un-crashable windows = oxymoron

I think i'll stick to using Linux!

Which flavour?

Currently using Open Suse 10.3, have used Slackware in the past. At work I'am forced to use an old P4 running XP and it's painfully slow!

Good news! Forget Windows, the command line is back (maybe UNIX has been the answer, all along)!

I have gone back to XP, Vista is an annoying and complete rip! The Aero takes around 600-800 MByte of ram, disable this and turn off other graphic enhancements and guess what? You’re left with something that resembles XP only slower!

Ed

The 'resource meter' hovers at around 40-50% when there are no programmes loaded on the only Vista machine here at ebme heights

All the other PCs are Win XP and we even have a couple of Win Me boxes that happily putter along with their daily chores.

At Hannis Hovels, on my old (twelve years old, in fact) and trusty (not to mention cheap) 16 MB "Pentium 1" (100 MHz) DOS machine (to where I still often retreat when some real "nuts and bolts" coding needs to be done), there is only ever one program loaded (not actually true, but you see what I mean)! And I won't even mention bloated file sizes (Huw)!

But, more to the point:-

1) I am always in command!
2) It never crashes!
3) Programs come up, ready to use, in milliseconds!

(there is a downside to all of that, of course ... there's less opportunity to put the kettle on)

Anyone else remember QEMM? Or TSR's (of which SideKick must be the outstanding example for all time)? Or, better yet, FreeDOS? (if you don't like the way a DOS command worked, you just wrote your own - in C, naturally)!

Are you sure you want to delete this file? <yes>, are you really sure? <yes> are you definitely sure <YES>

Man its a good thing Microsoft don't design air-bags! Imagine it!

Ed

On that point, Eddie, I reckon that good (modern, if you like) software should be configurable (as I keep saying). So that we can have different levels of safety for the various levels of user (from the timid ... to the so-called "power user").

In fact, most of it already is extremely configurable, but the majority of users never stray too far from the default settings. What a waste (of the developer's time, if nothing else)!

Ahhh poor Mr Gates!

Ed

Configurable software and OSes are all very well and good ( within limits )BUT in my experience configuration of Windows is difficult and awkward enough for even a technically minded person like myself ( multiple tickboxes in three different menus to change one thing and the need to poke around with the dreaded Registry for some other things ) that I can understand why most people leave well alone.

Agreed, Jon. But, as I have been known to say to equipment users, when on the receiving end of their displeasure at some unappealing aspect or other of a particular piece of kit:- "I didn't design the damned thing"!

On a serious note though, define what you actually want to use your PC for, then Google for tips and tricks. I use one machine primarily for recording multi-track music (DAW). I then turned off around 20 background services (not required) and managed to boost the performance of the system 10-fold!

Ed

That's exactly what I've been advising people since the dawn of the modern era (somewhere around 1983):-

Yes, there's all this "gee-whiz" technology ... but what, exactly, do you want to do with it?

I'm continually amazed, almost daily, that here we are in the age when the Nintendo Generation are now racing around in little red (sometimes silver) cars, and yet most people remain basically clueless when it comes to the kit!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7370821.stm

Says a lot for Vista!!!!!

Check out the latest news.

Looks like Bill has had enough, too!

Bill's been stepping down for years...
Probably the longest phase-out in history

Close the Windows ... and open the Midori?

Here's some more. Especially for those of you out there who enjoy a well chosen turn of phrase (of the Baboon Speak variety, that is).

Well, here's the exciting news that I guess you've all been waiting for!

Windows 7 Beta Available For Download Legally From Friday



Source

Let's see if they get it right this time.

Check it out for yourself here

Burn an ISO <<< Hmmm getting more like Linux everyday

Ooooh - me sides...

It just gets piled higher and deeper. One day perhaps they'll listen. What we need is a bare bones, robust and reliable machine interface on which to run our software. Put the API into the Public Domain and let the world develop its own software (much as it does now, in fact, behind the scenes ... but the plebs in the street know little or nothing about all that, of course).

There used to be a thing called DOS.

Meanwhile, in my experience, Windows 2000 has been the most reliable Windows OS. Pity they didn't just stick with that one. But, there again, the "customer" expects a new version every couple of years now, does he not? After being conditioned to think that way, that is. Remember Ivan Pavlov and his famous dogs?

I really liked DOS. It was cool that you did what you needed to do then moved on; back to the real work.

But then, I really like the internet!
I'd hate to be without it, so that's the price you pay.

It's just so damned addictive though, isn't it?

Surely the solution is apparent?

Do your work in DOS (or some other command line processor). Or, at the very least, using the OS of your choice ... but in any case off-line.

And do your communication, research, entertainment etc. on-line.

So, when the web becomes unavailable, as it sometimes does (hopefully only temporarily), at least you can take advantage of the lull (er, opportunity) to carry on with some real work.

The great thing about DOS was (is) how little it does, and how it doesn't get in the way. That and its lightning speed, of course (on modern machines, that is). DOS was (is) really just a program loader with disk services. It does practically nothing but give you a command line for loading programs and a simple way to manage disk space and files. That's the elegance of it! As usual (as long as a thing is well designed ... and DOS is), "less is more"! One day some genius at Microsoft will be handsomely rewarded for re-selling that ancient idea, no doubt! That is, when Windows gets reduced to a mere Pane, rather than just being a (fat) Pain.

PS: in anticipation of someone mentioning Windows CE ... here I am mentioning Windows CE (note the pricing). I guess I'll be sticking with my 8-bit 6502 stuff!

PPS: Despite the best efforts of certain mega-corporations, DOS hasn't simply crept off someplace and croaked. It still has a place in embedded systems, for example (ie, running happily - and reliably - in devices with limited memory), and I'm pleased to report that FreeDOS is still available, and continues to thrive.

Don't they mean neighborhood network?

Ed

Hi Eddie,

" any device, navigate seamlessly across them "

Sounds like a real good way to empty a Bank Account !!

Hope its better than Vista and the annoying little wheel

About ten years ago now we were promised that technology would mean that everything would be connected, and "talking" to each other. Well, I'm still waiting for my toaster to start chatting away to the 'fridge.

Why would we want that? Good question. But there again, why would we want about 90% of the crap that they sell to us (well, try to sell to us, in my case). Apparently, it was so (for example) the refrigerator would keep stock of what it contained, and go on-line to re-order when necessary. Wow!

Yeah, so when you come home from work ... do you think your box of groceries will (still) be waiting for you on your door-mat? Yeah. Right.

As I keep saying, we have got to the stage where technology can do (almost) anything we ask of it. To my mind, the problem is that we're not asking the right questions.

Well I managed to get the beta version installed on Virtual PC and they don't mean neighbourhood network. Can't understand why but they've introduced a new feature that's called HomeGroup it's exactly like neighbourhood network but will only work on Windows 7. Since they haven't got rid of neighbourhood network all that can be said is Why!?

I also had to check the Microsoft website for changes because it appears to be Vista with a face lift. Although not a good one, it does look like they've examined OS X and Unix X11 (which OS X probably ripped off anyway) and copied it!

If Vista made people want XP more this will probably make them want Vista (or even stick with XP)! It does seem to be a step backwards than an improvement and I think XP/Vista Home Server combination would be better.

My old ZX81 never crashed - except when the 16KB (yes, KB) RAM module got dislodged once in a while and erased every line of BASIC I laboriously typed in.

Sounds like you need to check out this thread, Mate.

A Windows holiday anyone?

Hi Huw,

Just loaded Windows 7 on my Trusty Laptop and find this site is very slow, lots of Errors on Page Messages, missing pictures and just general lethargy !! Is it compatible I wonder. Also showing last posts as Yesterday PM. I just can,t believe El Annis is asleep still. !! Ha Ha Only joking mate.

Rust never sleeps!

Nothing to do with Win 7, Mate ... the site isn't performing too well at all this morning.

There's obviously some weirdness going on. Lots of 503 and 504 Errors!

We just need to be patient (as our man is on the case, no doubt)!

As they (used to) say:- "Normal service shall be resumed as soon as possible"!

Thought the official launch (win 7) was the 22nd of this month?

My No.1 Son works for Microsoft

... or, better still:- on the way out!

I have received reports that the famous TaskMaster program doesn't work with Windows 7.

I cannot confirm this at the moment, as I don't have Win 7 available to me.

My first thought was that a more recent gdiplus.dll may be necessary, but it looks like things are not going to be that simple, as (upon briefly digging about on the web) it seems that this problem has become well known amongst the Visual FoxPro (VFP) community. I have just read of one poor guy (a developer) who has an app out there with 5,000 plus paying users, many of whom have charged on and installed Win 7, only to find that the database they have always relied upon no longer works.

TM is coded using VFP 9.0, but I have seen reports that stuff written in VFP 7 works fine! So much, then, for progress!

This sort of thing is even more irritating when you consider that both VFP 9.0 and Win 7 are Microsoft products.

OK ... I shall need to look into this. But meanwhile, if you want to use TM, best stick with XP (or Win 2000). To be honest, I don't know about Vista (but haven't heard about any problems there). Can anyone put be straight on that one?

If anyone else has tried to install TM on top of Win 7, I would be pleased to hear about how it went (either on here, or by PM or email). The only other tip I have at the moment is not to install TM into the Program Files directory, but into a separate new directory instead (as mentioned, I believe, in the ReadMe.txt file).