ByronM - 5:52 pm on May 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

It wasn't MS bashing, I was just trying to provide a view to balance the 'marketing fluff' that ByronM posted.

What are you talking about. Explain "marketing fluff" - have you tried Vista? Have you seen what i described in use? how is is marketing fluff to over those improvements?

The only "marketing fluff" you care to look at is the pretty new gui and you discount the entire OS on that.

How many beta testers like UAC? "Great idea, poor implementation" is the resounding response.

? Every beta test i know and those who are in the developer side and support side is estatic about Vista. sure it was a long time to wait and many ups and downs but hardly a let down.

Why should consumers and businesses immediately welcome an OS? Can you back up this claim?

Security, Manageability, Usefullness, supportability, integration with business applications and more. The Vista Business edition has so many integration points with Email, Networking, Systems management and such that it is a "no brainer" for mid to large size businesses to upgrade to.

Why does Vista Business tell me it needs 'Gaming Graphics' to run properly?

You don't "need" 3d graphics to run vista. If you have the capability it will be enabled.

OSX requires 3d graphics acceleration for quartz as well. Almost the entire X support in linux is moving towards accelerated/GL or 3d desktop environments.

2d is so yesterday and 99% of computers sold today have some sort of 3d support that is accelerated by the GPU so in 99% of the cases the 3d desktop won't be slower by any means but actually more responsive and capabable then XP by a long shot.

Am I about to recommend to clients that they embark on yet another round of workstation upgrades so that... wait for it... end-users can have transparent windows on their desktop? <boggle>

You again fail to realize the benefits of Vista. Do you work in a centralized managed environment? Do you have managed mail, office, document repositories, VPN access or anything? have you looked what the next product line delivers over and beyond the Windows 2k/XP and 2003 server and workstation lines?

* Better Deployment
* less kludgy SMS management
* Better laptop management/backup management/Recovery
* a lot more auditing (any business wants this)

Transparency is great for people who work on PC's for a living. Why? Can you back this up?

I manage about 70 oracle databases, login to about 15 unix servers, have 2 web consoles up watching our grid control and have office, another web browser, instant messenger and other programs running on a dual monitor setup. I use transparent windows to watch tail files that i have setup color coded so i can see red/yello/orange status appear in the background and quickly jump to them. i also use transparency on IM to have it floating over an app that i'm working on or debugging so i don't have to tab or look out of my workspace. i also use transparency for some of our custom apps simply because when you stare at something for 10 hours a day a little bit of color is nice. I usually have my daughter, my family or vacation photos on my desktop and it gives a little bit of character to an otherwise bland and mundane process i do.

A properly setup unix box needs root for nothing. A properly setup Vista would be the same A properly set up XP box would also be the same. Where is the 'value added' in upgrading from XP to Vista in the scenario?

XP isn't as granuallar and the security is a snap in rather then foundation.