An interesting look and comparison of Microsoft Vista’s AERO interface and Ubuntu Linux’s BERYL interface. It sure looks like Microsoft (and Apple for that matter) has a long way to go. Why don’t these big companies hire some of the talent behind BERYL for their next release?
It has recently been reported that Microsoft’s newest operating system, Vista, may require 4 GB of memory to operate at its best.
David Short, an IBM consultant who works in the Global Services Division and has been beta testing Vista for two years, says users should consider 4GB of RAM if they really want optimum Vista performance. With Vista’s minimum requirement of 512MB of RAM, Vista will deliver performance that’s ’sub-XP,’ he says. (Dell and others recommend 2GB.) One reason: SuperFetch, which fetches applications and data, and feeds them into RAM to make them accessible more quickly. More RAM means more caching.”
While RAM option have been steadily increasing in the big PC manufacturers, 4 GB still seems like a bit much for the average user. Good thing Microsoft was really thinking about their target market with this one…
On the list of the most hated characters of all time, Microsoft Clippy ranks right near the top sharing space with the likes of Jar Jar Binks, Barney the Dinosaur, and Pikachu. Well, today is the day you’ve all been waiting for, as engadget reports that Clippy is no longer a part of the Microsoft Office family, which ends a glorius 10 year life. Once the forefront for annoying and inconvenient helpful advice for Microsoft’s entire office line, in recent years Clippy was relegated from his role as a starter to a mere second string bench player (in fact he was not even turned on by default in Office 2003). While he may be gone, he will never be forgotten and perhaps one day we can look back fondly on the memories of our fallen friend. RIP Clippy…
On January 30, 2007, Microsoft Vista was released worldwide to the general public. There are many reasons to upgrade to Windows Vista and there are just as many reasons not to. The bottom line is if you are happy with XP then you should at least wait a couple months until software and hardware vendors work out any compatibility issues. Many people recommend waiting till Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is released. Don’t expect this any time soon, remember that Windows XP Service Pack 1 came out 11 months after XP was released.
Microsoft has spent $500-million on its marketing campaign to push both Windows Vista and Office 2007 so it is easy to get caught up in the hype. Just remember that Windows XP is not going away anytime soon! As long as there is no further adjustments to its policy mainstream support for all versions of Windows XP will continue at least until April 2009.
