You had to know it would be a matter of time. Not long after I wrote about the limitations of Vista’s upgrade version I found this. First let me reset. Previous versions of Windows upgrade versions would allow you to do a “clean” install (format the drive) if you had the previous versions install media at hand. The install would stop to validate the install media and you could proceed. Very handy if recovering from a full hard drive failure, virus infestation, etc. Well the word was, Vista upgrade requires the previous OS version that you upgrade from to be installed on the Hard drive. This makes the rebuild process from such failures sound VERY nasty and tedious (read: just go buy a new pc…) However….
Tag: Windows Vista
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Vista torrent pulled
Several days ago I mentioned vistatorrent.com that had copied the Windows Vista download into a bittorrent tracker and allowed bittorrent downloads of the DVD iso. Well, they’ve received a cease and desist order as thanks for their efforts. Some are saying the fact that the download servers are slammed to the point MS is recommending that people order the DVD for a shipping charge is proof that Windows Vista is eagerly anticipated and that the response trumps any open source release. Well, ok – I’ve got to say I was interested to see it for all the press it’s been getting (and I’m sure WILL get), and in 12 months I’ll likely be trying to support it, so I wanted to dip the toes in now. I don’t plan on running it on a desktop myself. In fact the last 24 hours I’ve been on a quest to install it in a virtual machine and I’ll pass along details of that in another post.
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Microsoft Vista hardware requirements…
Microsoft has started releasing details of the hardware requirements for the upcoming release of Vista. It appears there are two categories of requirements. One is a bare minimum for vista, the other is a minimum for Vista Premium. They’re calling the specs Vista Capable and Premium Ready…
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Vista UAP (User Account Protection) – too much?
First let me tell you I have not seen first hand Microsoft’s Vista UAP (User Account Protection) I cannot then claim firsthand experience with it, the following is and will be based on what I have read plus how it relates and compares to linux and “run as” functionality. George Ou thinks that UAP is getting a “bum rap” from people, some of whom want it both ways, tighter file access security, but this is annoying… Another ZDNet columnist has done a more detailed look at UAP. One of the articles cited by George Ou is this post from Paul Thurrott which is highly critical of UAP
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Vista’s rocky road….
Microsoft hasn’t got a lot of positive free publicity about Vista that I’ve seen. I read about a Gartner Group suggesting that it wouldn’t be available until 2nd quarter 2007. (Which was shortly after Microsoft said they wouldn’t make 4th quarter 2006 if I recall…) I’ve seen a lot of analysts talking about how the really big features they were excited about have been shelved to get it out the door. And, well… of course, I don’t expect a positive, rah-rah Microsoft article from the Register… but they’re reporting on a Yankee Group analysis of the upcoming OS…
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Lawsuit to block the release of Windows Vista?
Betanews.com is reporting on a move by a public interest lawyer (who is running as a Republican for the Governors Office of Illinois) who is attempting to block the distribution of Windows Vista. He intends to ask Microsoft for an unconditional warranty that the operating system is free from major bugs that could lead to security vulnerabilities. (Good luck with that one…)
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Sunbeltblog on Windows Vista’s attempt to keep Windows up to speed
Sunbelt blog has an article about Microsoft’s plan to keep Windows Vista from becomming more sluggish as the system aged. Microsoft’s plan is to run defragmentation in the background and preloading commonly used components as outlined in this article.
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OpenGL asking for help as Vista appears poised to make it useless
It looks as though Windows Vista has been designed to essentially neutralized the usability of OpenGL, one of two competing 3d acceleration apis. Directx *(by Microsoft) is the other competing API and from what I read, the current structure makes OpenGL applications run through Directx cutting performance by 50%, preventing upgrades of the API and it would appear essentially killing off their graphics API competition.
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Monad will not be in Windows Vista
I wrote earlier about “proof of concept” viruses that targeted Monad, the next generation command shell from Microsoft. There had been talk that Monad would ship with Windows Vista and so some people were saying these “proof of concept” virii were the first to target Vista. Well, according to the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog that is wrong, Monad will not ship with Vista so these aren’t Vista viruses. I thought most of the articles I had seen had made it clear that it was uncertain when Monad would be available, possibly Vista (now we know it won’t). (The next Exchange Server release?)
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