I'm lovin' Windows Vista Beta 2...

Second Life is running much better for me. And all I had to do was install Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2.

I'm surprised actually. I've seen a tremendous framerate increase when playing SL in a window, and even more when I go full-screen.

Aero is just bea-u-ti-ful.

So far, most of my every day programs are running fine in Vista; something Firefox does causes all Aero effects to be disabled until I close Firefox, and then Windows automatically re-initializes Aero.

Hibernate is cool, my boot time from computer off to ready to work is about 12 seconds.

I used a flash drive today to supplement my system RAM and found that new feature to be pretty cool -- Vista will cache seldom-used memory, but stuff that still needs to be in RAM, to the flash drive, freeing up RAM for current tasks. It's a nice feature.

I'm just pleased to see so many of my games running this well in a beta. I tested the very first Longhorn beta and it was attrocious. The sidebar in this version is attractive and unobtrusive, unlike the first beta, in which it was huge, buggy and clunky.

Now if Microsoft can make the January 2007 release date. Knock on wood.

Anyway, I posted this to say Second Life is running GREAT on my computer using Vista and I'm very, very, very pleased about that.

Actually thats good to hear. I havent had the courage to try the Beta's, since I just hate having to re-do my system.

Vista should be an improvement since Microsoft is saying Vista is being optimized to alleviate the GPU-CPU bottlenecks.

As usual, I'll use XP Pro till Vista is stablized & XP is on its way out totally.

What kind of video card do you have? I could not get SL to run with the Nvidia beta drivers for my Geforce 7800GT - SL bitched and said the card was not supported and gave up. Otherwise, I am loving Vista and would like to begin to use it as my primary OS.

I've been enjoy it for years. It's called MacOS.

Better late than never, eh (fan) boys?

~Ulrika~

eh, took 'em long enough.

The only downside to Vista right now, that I can see, is the whole DirectX 10 part. It doesnt do DirectX 9 or less. It has to emulate it. MS rewrote the whole shebang. So those of us who spent plenty on high end video cards wont get to enjoy the fancy new graphical goodness games will eventually start having without buying new ones.

On the upside- support for 4 Video Cards, as in 4 running as one. Sweeet!!

The only Mac I would bother with is a Quad G5 w/ 16 GB RAM, preferably a water-cooled system (which they dont have unfortunately), and SLI video or Quad-SLI (not sure if they'll ever have it). Anything else is about as good as a $400 Dull... I mean Dell.

Ulrika, you were away during your "permanent departure" when in these forums I said I was sold on a Mac when Boot Camp came out. I can't live without Windows because software I need to run my business is available only for Windows. Everything else but these one or two pieces of software I'd much rather do on a Mac.

So calling me a fanboi is about as accurate as me calling you a terrorist.

I'll permanent departure you, mister! *Pow!* Aaron joins Duke Nukem and Vista in software purgatory for all eternity.

~Ulrika~

Now when can I get my grubby little hands on the Beta!?

-Kiamat Dusk

Micro$oft's Website, if I'm correct. I forget where tho.

Currently only available to IT professionals with Microsoft MSDN subscriptions, but the Microsoft website says access to the public will be opened to this version "in the next few weeks."

You can find it online through various, um, channels, but if you get it that way, you won't get your own key and will not be able to use it more than 14 days.

Places to watch:

http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/default.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

I figured out my problem with SL - for some reason, even though I ran the Nvidia installer, the drivers were still the Microsoft ones - I updated them and now SL works fine. The only problem is SL has the same problem with this beta driver as it has with the XP ones - the avatars turn solid black with avatar vertex program and local lights turned on. I did notice it is even faster on Vista for me than it is on XP. I may just be able to use it as my primary OS after all now - I will see how it goes, I definitely am very happy with it.

How much is it going to cost to upgrade to Vista from XP? Home Basic and Premium.

I'm loving my Windows SP3.

As far as I know, no pricing has been announced yet, except that there are going to be like three gajillion different versions of Windows Vista. The cheap ones won't even have Aero in them. There's a basic version, premium, extended, ultra extended, platinmum, ultra extra version, and a version for albinos born in Alaska on the eve of the summer solstice.

And apparantly, all versions will be on the same media, and will unlock and install depending on the software key you enter in. Don't know how long that will last before every hax0r in the world has the ultimate edition, but hey.

When I heard they were going away from the "home" & "professional" versions to several versions, I got to thinking- How many consumers are going to be 'cheap' about it, trying to save a buck & buy the cheapest version only to be disappointed when it cant do what they want?

Hopefully it will be clearly marked what you can and can not do with each version.

I aint touching that thing. You couldn't pay me to either.

Your loss - it's extremely well done and a welcome improvement over XP.

Well actually no. Because Micro$hit will want to make a policy just like they did with 95/98 etc, to mandate upgrading to the next OS. So no, I won't be at a loss, because I'll be forced to upgrade like I was before.

I'm content to be on XP if they decide to continue updating it, but like the past, they won't.

Eh, do like I did, wait till it's absolutely necessary. By then the price comes down a bit. Got the OEM version of XP Pro for $105 compared to what? $400+ retail?

XP will still be around for about 5 years after Vista. Seems to be the Microsoft way.

The updates for Windows XP from Windows 98 was a little over $100.00 if I remember correctly. Haven't read about any updates from XP to Vista though.

If Vista has half the DRM in it that it's supposed to have..... I think you'll see a much larger number of people migrating to Linux than ever before.

I'm already planning on being one of them for other reasons.... but DRM may be what kills Windows, and the lack of it may be what boosts Linux.

How does US$1129 sound to you?
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4463/53/

As an apple user, I've grown spoiled paying only US$100 for my OS and iWork upgrades.

~Ulrika~

Now that Bootcamp is on the street, I think people will be more apt to move to Apple than Linux. I know my next notebook will be a Mac.

-Kiamat Dusk

All the more reason NOT to buy it.

Like I have that kinda money to spend on an OS.. Linux anyone?

I appreciate the feedback Aaron. I'm in a focus group at my job for Vista, but I can't test my games there.