Please clarify what a TigerDirect sales rep said about a mobo.

In message <Xns9ABD4EA926EDlostthreads@216.196.97.136> "-Lost"
<maventheextrawords@techie.com> wrote:

>Although my only experience of Vista is a friend's laptop and Best
>Buy after hours, I am seriously not impressed with Vista.

Yeah, it's a horrible way to experience Vista.

I'm a fan, but it's not something you can sit down in front of for a few
minutes and poke at, all that does is teach you that things are
different, and humans don't usually naturally like different.

You need to get to get over the "I hate change" phase before you can
spend any quality time with a new OS, and this means actually using it
as a primary machine, bumping into things you used to know how to do and
finding them.

UAC is frustrating to fight with when you first start out, but once your
system is up and running your average user really shouldn't be seeing
popups on a regular basis unless they're doing something very unusual.

>I turn all the graphical junk off anyway (I prefer more speed).

Vista is actually faster with Aero enabled, although you should turn the
transparency off if speed is your primary concern.

>I
>hear its security isn't putting XP's to shame, so... I'll probably
>stick with XP a while yet.

Vista is doing better then XP, especially if you leave UAC enabled.
Vista's security track record isn't perfect, but by most measures,
Vista's first year was better then most comparable operating systems.

(In other words, a hardened console-only BSD server isn't comparable to
a workstation class GUI-based OS)

Response to Pecos <anortRemOveThIs&2on2@phreego.net>:

<snip>

> In that case you might want to check out the free XP 64 bit 120 day
> trial:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/6...trial_old.mspx

I didn't even know something like this was offered in trial.

Interesting. Thanks!

--
-Lost
Remove the extra words to reply by e-mail. Don't e-mail me. I am
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Response to DevilsPGD <spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net>:

<snip>

> UAC is frustrating to fight with when you first start out, but
> once your system is up and running your average user really
> shouldn't be seeing popups on a regular basis unless they're doing
> something very unusual.

That's actually one thing that turned me off. I was perfectly happy
with the likes of gpedit and whatever the security console in 2K was
called.

I actually found everything fairly easily -- but the friend's laptop
was SUPER slow.

The desktop at Best Buy had an Opteron pushing it and would "reset
graphics demonstration" every 2 minutes -- which made using it
ridiculous.

>>I turn all the graphical junk off anyway (I prefer more speed).
>
> Vista is actually faster with Aero enabled, although you should
> turn the transparency off if speed is your primary concern.

That's not the first time I've heard that. Can't say I understand
it. I guess we are talking about systems with at least 2 to 4GB of
RAM? Or 64-bit systems?

--
-Lost
Remove the extra words to reply by e-mail. Don't e-mail me. I am
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In message <Xns9ABD69DB5999Alostthreads@216.196.97.136> "-Lost"
<maventheextrawords@techie.com> wrote:

>Response to DevilsPGD <spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net>:
>
><snip>
>
>> UAC is frustrating to fight with when you first start out, but
>> once your system is up and running your average user really
>> shouldn't be seeing popups on a regular basis unless they're doing
>> something very unusual.
>
>That's actually one thing that turned me off. I was perfectly happy
>with the likes of gpedit and whatever the security console in 2K was
>called.

Group policies are still available in Vista, although not in the
versions targeted at home users (nor did 98SE/ME have group policies)

>I actually found everything fairly easily -- but the friend's laptop
>was SUPER slow.

Without knowing anything about the machine, I'd look at preinstalled
software from the manufacturer and/or AV software.

>The desktop at Best Buy had an Opteron pushing it and would "reset
>graphics demonstration" every 2 minutes -- which made using it
>ridiculous.

I wouldn't suggest trying any new machine in that state.

>>>I turn all the graphical junk off anyway (I prefer more speed).
>>
>> Vista is actually faster with Aero enabled, although you should
>> turn the transparency off if speed is your primary concern.
>
>That's not the first time I've heard that. Can't say I understand
>it. I guess we are talking about systems with at least 2 to 4GB of
>RAM? Or 64-bit systems?

Vista offloads a ton of the GUI to your video card, using the GPU to
render the interface, and even decoding MPEG-2 video (assuming the card
is DX10 capable), rather then doing said work in the CPU.

The result is faster performance because GPUs are *very* good at what
they do, and they not only bring processing power to the table, but
additional memory as well.

On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:59:34 -0600, DevilsPGD
<spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote:


>>> Vista is actually faster with Aero enabled, although you should
>>> turn the transparency off if speed is your primary concern.

This reads like a marketing ploy, GUI has not been any
significant factor on system use for many years now, unless
someone turns on a lot of effects that reduce productivity.


>>
>>That's not the first time I've heard that. Can't say I understand
>>it. I guess we are talking about systems with at least 2 to 4GB of
>>RAM? Or 64-bit systems?
>
>Vista offloads a ton of the GUI to your video card, using the GPU to
>render the interface,

Actually no, the CPU still does it, then hands off the
workspace to the GPU.


>and even decoding MPEG-2 video (assuming the card
>is DX10 capable), rather then doing said work in the CPU.

Why did you write this? It has nothing to do with Vista.
Any OS back to Win95 with GPU that has hardware MPEG2
decoding and a supportive driver and player does this..


>The result is faster performance because GPUs are *very* good at what
>they do, and they not only bring processing power to the table, but
>additional memory as well.

False. Vista is slower in practically every way and
attempts by MS to spin things around in marketing propaganda
have failed when people put their claims to the test.

The one thing we can say however is that if someone were to
use a GUI add-on app for XP or earlier that attempted to
duplicate a similar level of eyecandy on the earlier OS, and
if that application were not DX accelerated, then that would
put a significant overhead on the processor. Thus, if
someone likes and wants Aero-like eyecandy, it becomes more
of a reasonable tradeoff to use Vista to do so.