where i've been, a.k.a. windows vista ultimate x64
yes, it's true, i've gotten myself a retail copy of vista ultimate... and, surprisingly, i'm really enjoying it. i know i'm a fairly anti 'new microsoft software' kinda guy, but it's hard to argue with the price tag of free, and even harder to argue with my nerdy nature.... so, here i am running build 6000 of vista.
now, for you mac fanboys:
here's what i will say, when you look at it, the new version of windows aren't that complicated, and, to a degree, i enjoy the separation between the versions, making it easier for consumers to pick and choose based on things like price and features. i can't tell you how often i've seen people pay more than they need to for a copy of windows xp pro, completely oblivious to the fact that the 'pro' does not make it better... i'm sorry, but if you have one or two computers in your home, you don't need xp pro, thanks. however, with 4 consumer versions, it can be a bit of a headache to figure out which version you need...
think of it this way, if you'd like, home basic is 'xp home', home premium is 'xp media center edition', business is 'xp pro', and ultimate is has all all of them rolled into one... check out the various review sites to find out exactly how each version differs, but, this is a basic rule of thumb.
more mind boggling than the new options for windows is the new options for office. i'm blown away by the 259 new 'packages' of office, which basically take all the different office programs and makes combinations out of them... literally EVERY COMBINATION. office pro, office business, office small business, office premium, office home, office student, office overweight, office lavender premium rev. 3... the list goes on and on.
really though, all they've done is updated the 'suite' to include the late comers to the office family as well as the new 'groove' which is basically a 'collab' software for project-ers... what happened to ms project? i think it's still there... so's visio... so... whatever.
for everyone, though, the big this is that microsoft finally recognized that all regular consumers are buying the $150 office 'student & teacher' edition... or just pirating it. they finally sucked it up and stopped trying to get regular consumers, who just want a way to do their word processing without the bundled 'works' that came with their cheap wal-mart e-machines, to pay more for their office software than they did for their computers, and now they have office 2007: home and student edition. a version that's meant for non-commercial use. welcome to the 21st century microsoft, worried about losing everyone to openoffice.org? you should be. (p.s. i really wish the average home consumer would stop deluding themselves into thinking that word and photoshop make them better people... seriously, you don't (know how to) use 95-99.9% of the features of these software packages, why do you think you need them?)
anyway, back onto vista, and my experience with it so far.
it's pretty tight. microsoft has left a lot of the xp functionality in, which is to say that a lot of the core of the system harks back to windows 95/nt, but, they've made a lot of functional changes that make the system a bit easier to use, and a bit harder to 'fuck up'.
i've used about 3 versions of vista over the last few years, and this version does not deviate much from the rtm, although, there's a bit more support out there now, as companies panic to make their software compatible. the WOW64 compatibility layer is working a bit better now, too. (which is good, because honestly, if i'd had to endure the nightmares that was the old xp 16-bit compatibility layer, i would have probably stabbed someone). perhaps at a later time i will try and explain what all of that means, but for now, either just keep reading, or go to google and do some searching (hell, just hit up wikipedia, their computer articles on basic structure are pretty solid).
anyway, there's a lot about the new windows that has been borrowed pretty heavily from max os x, which is good, imho, because mac os x has done a lot of things right, at least in terms of ease of use and operability.
i have a few gripes, but i will save those for another time, i'm just going off of first impressions.
now, i will be honest, i have a fairly decent system and vista runs pretty damn well, though, on 2gb of ram, vista is eating about 35% of that all by itself, and while i can run xp happily with only about 28 processes, vista is running with about 55, and that's at boot. of course, as time goes on, i will be looking at how to slim that down, but for the time being, at least to see how it works, it will do.
on to software, i've installed some, without much incident. adobe creative suite 2 installed well, after i spent some time looking up HOW to make it work. as i mentioned before, i'm running the x64 version which has support for 32-bit software, it's relatively seamless, except that adobe was too smart for vista's good and built their installer on some strict rules (one's that made sense for xp). this means that installing creative suite, it wouldn't allow you to put it into the 'right' directory (X:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\), because of the characters it uses, so you actually have to go back to the OLD SCHOOL LEGACY naming structure and install it to (X:\Progra~2\Adobe\). if you don't install it where it belongs, launching any of the cs2 titles will cause it to panic and run away.
now, once installed, photoshop and illustrator run BEAUTIFULLY! i was amazed at how smooth it's running, to be honest, large files seem to actually handle better under vista, causing the system to do less of that silly 'dotted line sticking' and 'ghost gui hangover' and other annoyances you can find under xp... so, circle takes the square.
that's one example, another, however, is the inability to install alcohol 120%, which is very disheartening. the only info i found on their site was in regards to old rc1 (5300 builds) and such, which seemed to have mixed results. people seem to be of the mind that microsoft 'blocked' the software... meh, daemon tools will do.
the last thing i'll mention is that my favorite free anti-virus software, AVG, does not support the x64 version of windows. you have to pay for their 'commercial version' to get 64-bit support. so, i've been forced to migrate to avast!, which, actually seems to be pretty darn good anyway, so, i'm alright there.
so, those are a couple of examples...
so far we have... nice interface, smooth operation... oh, and i didn't mention it before, but a really simple install. however... on to something that really matters...
GAMES!!! alright, so, i've only installed one. i figured it would be a good chance to see what this system could do. i'm talking about... rainbow six: vegas! here's why i tried it... one... it's the most system intensive thing i have, and two... i really like it.
i expected that, with the system eating my ram for breakfast, and putting my cpu under a lot more stress than xp, and with all the shit that goes on in the background, that it would stutter and lag. however, it installed and plays BEAUTIFULLY! now, i've read that a few games still don't run under vista, battlefield 2 among them, but support should exist sooner or later for most current games, and really, i'm dual booting with xp for a reason... as i try more games under vista, i'll report my findings, because, i know everyone out there cares about what i have to say.
anyway, that's enough about that, i'll move on a little bit.
in other, fairly earth shattering news...
i'm quitting smoking. this is something i really need to do, for myself, for my daughters, for my wallet. i'm trying to ween myself off of them, and it's working, so far. i've gone from a pack to a pack and a half down to 5 per day, and i'm hoping that before the end of this week i'll be down to 3 or less, and shortly after that, i'll be completely done with it.
music!
one of my favorite forums, filled with grumpy jerk offs with unnecessarily high opinions of themselves and an odd sense of elitism, had a thread about some 'new' music.
these are the youtube videos, which, are of a band called 'muse'.
they are really tight band from the u.k., who, while desperately not wanting to be, are quite literally the 'new radiohead'. since i love radiohead, it's all good. now, it's amazing to me that this band, which has actually been around since the late 90's, hasn't already caught on here in the u.s., but it seems like that is odd about to change. one of the tracks on one of the three cd's i now have is something i'd heard a while ago and vowed to follow up on, better late than never, so, i'm digging it right now, you should check it out too...
omg... racial slurs nsht!
an obviously satirical site, blackpeopleloveus.com is actually pretty amusing... i really enjoy reading their 'your letters' section, which shows the depths to which some people's stupidity actually plunges.
werewolf nazi babe
a screen cap of the upcoming fake trailer for 'werewolf women of the ss', by rob zombie, it will be in the middle of grindhouse... man, i would love to see the movie actually made. it couldn't be wrong.
do you like pictures of owls?
do you also like them with funny internet lingo and such on them? then you better go here and have a look... cause, it's been on fark.com for about 27 years, it's time you checked them out too!
charlie brown anime?
yep, these have been around for a while, but they're still pretty entertaining.
bahahahahha
watch! (nsfw if people are sensitive to drug use for any reason...)
i don't really understand this...
do you? bacterial orchestra? mmkay... moving on.
linux nerdery!
if you care to read about linux in 2006, this is the article to do it.
... and i'm spent...
that's it for now. in closing i would like to say... what the fuck is wrong with you people!?!?!?
good night!
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