Well when I switch to 7 I plan to get classic shell, since that looks
like it will be the best way to get best of both worlds.
Now all I need is a sound recorder that is like the one in xp but
better, audacity is ok but another free something would rock.
sound recorder in win7 is a bit busy in my opinion.
At 08:04 p.m. 13/12/2011 -0500, you wrote:
Hi Charles,
Yes, in some respects Vista is better than XP in certain areas like
security, better graphics technology, support for blue ray movies,
etc. However, there is no arguing that Microsoft rushed the release of
Vista, the initial release was unstable, and it cost Microsoft a lot
of respect and credibility. Microsoft had to release Windows 7 quickly
to address a number of issues in Vista to hopefully regain the trust
and support of their user base. That said, I think Microsoft has
learned from their mistakes because Windows 7 is far more stable than
Vista, runs much better on the same hardware, and is the operating
system Microsoft should have released instead of Vista. Plus as I've
said I've had some experience with the new Windows 8 development beta
and it seems to be very rock solid stable for a beta. So while
Microsoft did make a catastrophic mistake with Vista its not likely
one they are going to make again any time soon.
You are certainly right in saying Microsoft should be more careful to
test their new software for stability and reliability, and I think
they are now doing that with Windows 7 and Windows 8 respectfully.
When Vista was released companies like Del, HP, Compaq, ran two
different lines of PCS one with Vista and one with Windows XP.
Marketing serveys clearly showed that the systems running Windows XP
out sold those with Vista on them. Too make matters worse Del and some
other manufacturers actually began shipping PCs preloaded with Linux
on them which further cut into Microsoft's Vista market. Apple's sales
of Mac OS X nearly doubled between 2007 and 2008. It couldn't have
been more clear to Microsoft that Vista was a complete failure. Do you
honestly expect them to repete that mistake again?
I for one don't think so. I've seen Windows 7 and Windows 8 first-hand
and both are huge improvements over Windows Vista. They both are also
better than XP in a number of areas as well.
For example, Microsoft SAPI 5.4--which comes with Windows 7---has some
improvements over SAPI 5.1. Improved speech recognition, Microsoft
Anna is better than Sam, support for real time ssml tagging for
realistic speech output, etc.
The ability to pin applications to the taskbar for quick reference. As
Valiant mentioned if an application like Internet Explorer is pinned
to the taskbar you can press a keyboard combo like Windows+1 from
anywhere in Windows and immediately jump to that window without having
to alt+tab through every open window on the desktop.
Windows Explorer now has improved backup features such as the ability
to burn data cds, music cds, data dvds, and convert unencrypted movie
files to video dvds. This saves the Windows 7 user the cost of having
to purchase Roxio DVD Creator, Nero Burning Rom, etc. You only need
something like Nero for advanced cd and dvd creation tasks.
Microsoft's DirectX 11 API is a huge leap forward in 3d graphics for
games and other applications. XAudio2 has a number of key advantages
over DirectSound including true 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound support,
the ability to submix sounds in real time, better handling of custom
DSP effects, etc. XInput allows you to share game devices between your
XBox 360 and your Windows 7 PC.
In terms of hardware Windows 7 supports more ram and hard drive space
than Windows XP. If memory serves me correctly Windows XP was only
designed to support up to 4 GB of ram where the 64-bit version of
Windows 7 can support up to 128 GB of ram. While it sounds like that
much ram is unecessary the fact of the matter is that high definition
video such as realistic 3d graphics rendering and blue ray video
technology is upping the hardware requirements on memory and file size
every day. It probably won't be that long before games and home movies
needs 50 GB of ram to run the way we are going with realistic graphics
and video technology. Already most Play Station and XBox games ship on
a blue ray dvd because they are 20 to 25 GB in size. Most of that size
is do to high definition video clips, 3d graphics, and high definition
audio files.
Moral of the story is the more we lean torwards high definition
multimedia the more CPU power and memory it takes to run it. Something
like 128 GB of memory sounds rediculous now, but looking ahead I can
clearly see a day when software developers will need it to meet the
needs of high definition multimedia tomorrow. Therefore what Microsoft
is doing with Windows 7 is looking ahead at what is needed to support
this or that higher end multimedia and meet those demands in a newer
flashier OS, and its not simply a case of just upgrade XP because that
doesn't necessarily work when an entire API or technology has to be
rewritten from scratch to meet the demands of newer technologies
coming down the line. Plus Microsoft probably has reached the peak
number of sales for XP so aren't likely to make anything off of
rewriting what needs to be done to XP to upgrade it to meet current
marketing demands and release A free service pack. After all, they
have a business to run and they have a vested interest selling the
changes in a new version of Windows.
Cheers!
On 12/13/11, Charles Rivard <wee1s...@fidnet.com> wrote:
> Was Vista better than XP? Is Windows 7 better than Vista? Am I right in
> that Windows 7 came out to be Vista with the bugs worked out? And was
> Microsoft already working on Windows 8 when 7 came out? One thing I would
> like to see, if Microsoft insists on continually coming out with a new OS
> time and time again, is that they quit rushing them to market before the
> bugs are worked out, and give us a solid stable product that has thoroughly
> been tested and proven to be stable and reliable, rather than a junky
> troublesome buggy product. I know the task would be massive, and I know it
> would take an enormous amount of time and effort, but it would
sure do a lot
> to regain the credibility they once had, and it would also be more readily
> received by the customers.
>
> ---
> Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
