4 ms·

What parts of Vista need to be fixed?

unalone 18y ago
I'll try not to get mean - I'm a Mac user, and I know how much I hate it when Windows users get douchey - but I think that the biggest problem they'd need to fix is the ration of aesthetic to functionality. It's what pissed me off every day with Vista. Microsoft added features that look "Mac-like" but without the inherent usability. For instance, that window display where they're all sideways and you can scroll through them. I'm certain that's a rip off of Expose on the Mac. The difference is that Expose provides a very quick-n-easy way to access your windows, whereas that display seemed like it didn't make things particularly easy. And I forget if I tested it, but I very much doubt that it was a spring-loaded view, either. The Aero theme is another instance. Compare that to Leopard's Aqua. They're both attempts to look modern and beautiful, but Leopard goes about it my making all of its chrome minimal. The buttons are small, the borders on every last window are 1px. With Vista, you get bulk hanging off of every window and the buttons look cartoony. I won't go into the OS operations, because - again - I think that anything that I say will only invite flaming on the other side, and frankly I'm sick and tired of Hacker News having the same fucking OS wars that every other social news site does, and I don't want to flame things. But OS X feels like a complete solution in a way. Every part of it has been lovingly slavered over to perfection. From the feel of the computers to small things like the message windows (there was an article here talking about on OS X message windows are more direct than their Win/Lin equivalents) things are polished to a fault. And that's something that Windows or Linux need to "fix" before they can really seem like a decent competitor in my eyes.
- raganwald 18y ago
  * frankly I'm sick and tired of Hacker News having the same fucking OS wars that every other social news site does* A-fucking-men. Almost as bad as having the same profane reaction comments that add noise without signal to the discussion.
- utx00 18y ago
  and yet linux (specially ubuntus 8.04, 8.10) feel pretty polished to me. yes, to a fault.
  - unalone 18y ago
    No. I've played with Ubuntu in each iteration, and its level of polish is on a magnitude below what Apple's doing. Compared to Windows, it's very nice: I'd pick Ubuntu over Vista at this point without hesitation. But OS X has polish to a level that's uncanny: it's the sort where I'm still finding out new things about my computer that make my life slightly easier every day. It's really beyond comparison to other operating systems as the other systems stand right now. Still, what works for you works. If Ubuntu's doing the job for you, then congrats and have fun. Just don't make the mistake of comparing it to the Mac systems without spending a lot of time in each.
    - briansmith 18y ago
      Ubuntu is not more polished than even Windows XP. The main things keeping me from switching my day-to-day work to my Ubuntu partition are (1) text rendering, (2) reliability, (3) battery life, and (4) Lenovo's Thinkvantage tools. Windows XP absolutely kills Ubuntu in these aspects.
      - unalone 18y ago
        That's entirely possible. I've never used Ubuntu on a laptop setting. From my experience with it, it works great if and only if you can find the right drivers. When it runs well, I like it more than Vista and most likely more than XP. But XP is certainly more supported overall, and that's another thing that's definitely worth considering.
      - krschultz 18y ago
        1) That has changed recently with the addition of the Liberation fonts, but I agree - a few months back it was a hack 2) What? I don't think many people will agree with you on that aspect. The fact that most Linux crashes you can just reset X and be back at the login screen, where as a Windows crash needs a full reboot means that even if Linux did crash more often - which I don't think it does - you spend less time getting screwed 3) Really? I haven't found much of a difference on my Dell laptop. and 4) Probably true
river_styx 18y ago
You mean besides the fact that it's slow, clumsily designed, and ugly?
gnaritas 18y ago
How about that it's much slower than it's predecessor, requires tons more hardware, and generally all around just kinda sucks. I've reverted to XP pro myself at the office, Vista's a piece of crap.
- utx00 18y ago
  yup. that pretty much covers it. funny thing is that XP sucks too. it just looks soooo much better in comparison, that i began to actually like it a bit.
- wizlb 18y ago
  Try plugging a Vista box into your living room TV and getting a Gyration remote. Then come back and tell me how much it sucks.
krschultz 18y ago
Compatibility. Nothing draws me to Windows other than the programs I NEED to run on it for work. For me, Solidworks 2007 is needed. It doesn't run on Vista/Linux/Mac, but it does run on XP. So I will never upgrade until we upgrade Solidworks versions (unlikely), or Microsoft or the vendor fixes compatibility issues (unlikely). If you want to talk about day to day use, Windows is far inferior.

I'll try not to get mean - I'm a Mac user, and I know how much I hate it when Windows users get douchey - but I think that the biggest problem they'd need to fix is the ration of aesthetic to functionality. It's what pissed me off every day with Vista. Microsoft added features that look "Mac-like" but without the inherent usability. For instance, that window display where they're all sideways and you can scroll through them. I'm certain that's a rip off of Expose on the Mac. The difference is that Expose provides a very quick-n-easy way to access your windows, whereas that display seemed like it didn't make things particularly easy. And I forget if I tested it, but I very much doubt that it was a spring-loaded view, either. The Aero theme is another instance. Compare that to Leopard's Aqua. They're both attempts to look modern and beautiful, but Leopard goes about it my making all of its chrome minimal. The buttons are small, the borders on every last window are 1px. With Vista, you get bulk hanging off of every window and the buttons look cartoony. I won't go into the OS operations, because - again - I think that anything that I say will only invite flaming on the other side, and frankly I'm sick and tired of Hacker News having the same fucking OS wars that every other social news site does, and I don't want to flame things. But OS X feels like a complete solution in a way. Every part of it has been lovingly slavered over to perfection. From the feel of the computers to small things like the message windows (there was an article here talking about on OS X message windows are more direct than their Win/Lin equivalents) things are polished to a fault. And that's something that Windows or Linux need to "fix" before they can really seem like a decent competitor in my eyes.

raganwald 18y ago
* frankly I'm sick and tired of Hacker News having the same fucking OS wars that every other social news site does* A-fucking-men. Almost as bad as having the same profane reaction comments that add noise without signal to the discussion.
utx00 18y ago
and yet linux (specially ubuntus 8.04, 8.10) feel pretty polished to me. yes, to a fault.
- unalone 18y ago
  No. I've played with Ubuntu in each iteration, and its level of polish is on a magnitude below what Apple's doing. Compared to Windows, it's very nice: I'd pick Ubuntu over Vista at this point without hesitation. But OS X has polish to a level that's uncanny: it's the sort where I'm still finding out new things about my computer that make my life slightly easier every day. It's really beyond comparison to other operating systems as the other systems stand right now. Still, what works for you works. If Ubuntu's doing the job for you, then congrats and have fun. Just don't make the mistake of comparing it to the Mac systems without spending a lot of time in each.
  - briansmith 18y ago
    Ubuntu is not more polished than even Windows XP. The main things keeping me from switching my day-to-day work to my Ubuntu partition are (1) text rendering, (2) reliability, (3) battery life, and (4) Lenovo's Thinkvantage tools. Windows XP absolutely kills Ubuntu in these aspects.
    - unalone 18y ago
      That's entirely possible. I've never used Ubuntu on a laptop setting. From my experience with it, it works great if and only if you can find the right drivers. When it runs well, I like it more than Vista and most likely more than XP. But XP is certainly more supported overall, and that's another thing that's definitely worth considering.
    - krschultz 18y ago
      1) That has changed recently with the addition of the Liberation fonts, but I agree - a few months back it was a hack 2) What? I don't think many people will agree with you on that aspect. The fact that most Linux crashes you can just reset X and be back at the login screen, where as a Windows crash needs a full reboot means that even if Linux did crash more often - which I don't think it does - you spend less time getting screwed 3) Really? I haven't found much of a difference on my Dell laptop. and 4) Probably true

river_styx 18y ago

You mean besides the fact that it's slow, clumsily designed, and ugly?

gnaritas 18y ago

How about that it's much slower than it's predecessor, requires tons more hardware, and generally all around just kinda sucks. I've reverted to XP pro myself at the office, Vista's a piece of crap.

utx00 18y ago
yup. that pretty much covers it. funny thing is that XP sucks too. it just looks soooo much better in comparison, that i began to actually like it a bit.
wizlb 18y ago
Try plugging a Vista box into your living room TV and getting a Gyration remote. Then come back and tell me how much it sucks.

krschultz 18y ago

Compatibility. Nothing draws me to Windows other than the programs I NEED to run on it for work. For me, Solidworks 2007 is needed. It doesn't run on Vista/Linux/Mac, but it does run on XP. So I will never upgrade until we upgrade Solidworks versions (unlikely), or Microsoft or the vendor fixes compatibility issues (unlikely). If you want to talk about day to day use, Windows is far inferior.