3 ms·
I'll die right there with you on that hill. For all it's flaws: Vista was a truly breathtakingly beautiful operating system. I still remember fondly the matte
by dijit 1y ago
I'll die right there with you on that hill.
For all it's flaws: Vista was a truly breathtakingly beautiful operating system. I still remember fondly the matte frosted dark tinted hue from the start menu and the strong deep red of the shutdown button. Everything shimmered and refracted, with almost a tactile feel. My first iPhone felt like I was interacting beyond the current dimension, the retina display with the skeumorphic design made it feel like I wasn't just interacting with software, I was interacting with another digital world... and my first Macbook was similar; every application was gorgeously rendered natively: something even Windows couldn't manage despite having the lions share of developers.
All this, on LCD panels that were comically abysmal compared to the colour accuracy of the displays we take for granted today, and with less than a quarter of the pixels.
The thing is: I think the same issue plagues software also, that when it becomes a place where good money can be made, you attract people who want to make money and, by necessity, push out all the people who were there for the passion.
Diminishing quality of art and engineering sort of go hand-in-hand if MBAs need to make room for themselves and set up fiefdoms.
- delta_p_delta_x 1y agoCheers. I'd say Vista introduced or changed—for the better—a ton of Windows paradigms, most of which still endure. User account control, dwm.exe and the WDDM, improved user profiles, the ribbon UI, and more. Vista had the most pervasive changes to Windows in the past two decades, from UI and UX to fundamental OS primitives, APIs, and syscalls. Disdain levelled at Vista is unfair—it was a heavyweight OS that needed better hardware than was really commonplace at the time. As for money now being the end game... I have no words. The stupid Weather app (sorry, no, WebView2 wrapper) on Windows 10 and 11 is exasperating.
- lttlrck 1y agoI ran Vista on a 17" Dell Inspiron. Core 2 Duo. It ran magnificently. Sometimes it seems like I was the only person that had that experience...
- anonymars 1y agoI feel like I gave up less compatibility for Vista than for Windows 11, and for...what?
- miladyincontrol 1y agoWhat it really needed was more than the intel 915 all too many prebuilts cheaped out using, which intel strong-armed MS into certifying as 'vista ready' when it absolutely wasnt.
- lynguist 1y agoWhat is the Intel 915?
- dijit 1y agoa very underpowered integrated graphics for Intel CPUs (core2 and first-generation i-series CPUs had them). It’s also known as “Intel GMA”, if that helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA
- anonymars 1y agoAn underpowered integrated graphics that was ubiquitous at the time but not really up to the task. Microsoft relented to Intel and allowed it to be classified as "Vista capable" despite not being able to run WDDM. This is a decent writeup of the situation: https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/microsoft-e-mails-reveal-intel-pressure-over-vista/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/microsoft-e-mails-re...
- anonymars 1y agoI think this offers some interesting thought experiments in [tech] leadership: * what would you have done in Jim Allchin's position? He disagreed once finding out but ultimately trusted his team's judgement and stood by their decision (isn't that exactly the manager you want to work for?) Yet, look at the results * hypothetically how do you think Steve Jobs would have handled it, by contrast? * but Windows is a whole ecosystem with many stakeholders, while Apple is not, so the balancing act between Intel and HP is much more delicate. (Apple ultimately ditched Intel, right? But could Microsoft?) (edit: clarify some wording)
- 1y ago
- SlowTao 1y agoVista is the technical foundation Windows has been built on ever since. It can be praised for that at least.
- skydhash 1y agoAnother on that hill/cemetary. I remember how mush I wish for a computer that was capable of running Win7 (I was on (P2?) with 512mb of memory and 64mb vram). The OS was a delight from turning it on. I have a friend that has Mavericks on his macbook, and that was another amazing experience. Even today, you look at screenshots of ios 6, and it's still timelessly beautiful. Some apps were atrocious, but you recognize them from a mile away.
- SlowTao 1y agoThe other day we found my wifes laptop from 2009, complete with the original Vista install. Still in hibernation from about 12 years back! Firing up vista is a visual feast. For all its technical and usability offlaws, Microsoft absolutely nailed the aesthetics it.
- 3dGrabber 1y ago> I'll die right there with you on that hill. count me in. May I throw in BeOs' icons [1] for good measure? [1]: https://mastodon.social/@allenu/111581402975463677 https://mastodon.social/@allenu/111581402975463677
- xattt 1y agoWas Vista your first major OS? The overdone gloss seemed to be a spiritual copies of all the Windowblinds themes, that were themselves inspired copies of Aqua.
- dijit 1y agoNah, my first OS was Windows 95.