are we looking at Windows XP SP3 or a completely different OS. With the WinFS filesystem pretty much scrapped it seems that their new OS will be more like Windows 98/98SE was to Windows 95 than the biggest and most ambitious OS since Windows 95. Theyre placing alot of emphasis on search. Copernic already does that for me. Also the machine will boot into least priviledged user mode to keep people from installing malicious code: okay so I already have that with XP with Admin and Guest accounts. Also security will be tighter and the user interface will be cleaner and prettier....nice. Let me get this straight, you wait 6 years (it comes out Aug 2006) to make improvements that couldve taken 2?

They should call it "Windows Ricer". It doesn't seem like they changed much under the hood. They just added tinted windows, chrome rims, added a lift etc.

ill vote for Windows CCCoQQ (crashy, crumbling code of questionable quality) ...... at least then it would sound like it MIGHT be a secure and fast OS.

It was not much difference from Win2k to WinXP, except for a slightly better gaming support and the ugly bluish theme. However, I hope that they improve Windows Longhorn (or whatever it will be called) accounts. WindowsXP does, have administrator and limited user accounts, but I've found pointless to run as limited user in Windows: A lot applications won't run, others as Winamp crash, while others as media player can't read codecs previously installed as administrator. The whole system and the applications that run with it are single user only. You can push hard to make extra accounts, but I don't use it.

Again, there're plenty of room for improvements. If MS will use that or not is another question. Also, it's not only up to MS to develop good applications. In Linux, every application is created with multiple users on the same system in mind and their personal configuration files are usually hidden files at their /home/. If you install Gimp for Windows, you will notice that the same happens in Windows: Users configuration files are stored at C:\Documents and Settings\User name. Now try running Winamp as a guest/limited account and you will see that it will use the same configurations as administrator and will crash because of it. Blender3D, Firefox and other open source applications for Windows has the same behavior as The Gimp has; storing personal configuration files in the right places.

Now, is that MS fault? Nope... it's the lack of knowledge and good programming practices from Windows programmers not doing a nice job. Open Source community does a way better job with their applications, without filling them with a bunch of registration(even for freeware) and spyware crap nonsense. Windows is not that bad, really. The developers around seems even more money hungry then MS... not even text editors are free in Windows (as TextPad).

I'm not asking for everything to be free, but spyware, single-user applications that requires you to be administrator and registration non-sense is not MS fault. Most Windows developers suck... putting it in a vulgar way, they suck...

Yep, as has been noted else where "Vista" means "pleasant view," and that's exactly what it's going to be. Some eye-candy slapped onto XP. The only other real difference is that they've made some minor tweaks to the default user permissions that are so obvious I'm amazed it took them this long to fix.

Everything else of interesting (WinFS, Avalon, Indigo, etc.) is already scheduled for back-porting to XP.

And they expect people to waste a couple hundered dollars on this?

Actually what is really interesting is - DB managing system - if it will work it might be really good feature... Of course they may do it and it will work very bad and no one will use it. (lime limited user access)

I need such feture even now to organize all my music, pictures and other stuff (hadn't found anything like then neiser for windows nor for linux).

However what I've heard (correclty if I'm wrong) first version will not include new WinFS - with DB support...

Anyway lets wait and see...

Maybe I even will give it a try... If it is really user friendly and ready for normal unexperienced user

How exactly does this work? Do you know any details. I saw a video from a microsoft employee once talking about database style file systems but he didn't give any details.

Do any linux filesystems work like a database?

If you guys did some reading you'd know that it's going to be a whole new OS. Sure on the surface it looks just like a flashy WinXP but the reason they renamed it from Longhorn to Vista was because they scrapped the codebase in favour of starting again. See? Microsoft realised that Windows wasn't as strong as it should be and are working on that, they're going to officially support linux in their virtualisation software, they aren't that evil...

ROFL! How about they cut down on the cr*p on their OS? The whole WinFS thing sounds like running win95 ontop of DOS, Now it's Vista ontop of XP.

I want to save some of my computer's resources for applications (OOo, World of warcraft), not let the OS use it all. I bet the minimum requirments for this baby would be:
Pentium D/AMD 64 ar faster CPU,
4GB of RAM,
A top of the line/waste of money video card,
2/4 disk RAID (120GB min).


I'm just gonna use XP as long as I can, then I'll switch to linux.

EDIT: (found this on vista's site)
Windows Vista Business
Regardless of the size of your organization, Windows Vista Business will help you lower your PC management costs, improve your security, enhance your productivity, and help you stay better connected.

Windows Vista Enterprise (WVE)
Windows Vista Enterprise is designed to meet the needs of large global organizations with highly complex IT infrastructures. Windows Vista Enterprise can help you lower your IT costs while providing additional layers of protection for your sensitive data.

Windows Vista Home Premium (WVHP)
Whether you choose to use your PC to write e-mail and surf the Internet, for home entertainment, or to track your household expenses, Windows Vista Home Premium delivers a more complete and satisfying computing experience.

Windows Vista Ultimate (WVU)
If you want all of the best business features, all of the best mobility features, and all of the best home entertainment features that Windows Vista has to offer, Windows Vista Ultimate is the solution for you. With Windows Vista Ultimate you don't have to compromise.

Windows Vista Home Basic (WVHB)
Windows Vista Home Basic is designed to deliver improved reliability, security, and usability to home PC users who just want to do the basics with their PCs.

I cant make up my mind between WVHB, WVU, and WVHP. Whatever one takes same/less resources ar XP, cheap (less that 80 bucks), and is very similar to xp home.

Uh oh! Better not tell that to a mate thats running it on a Athlon 3800+ with 512MB RAM, maybe it'll crap out once it realises what's going on!

Come one, don't post rubbish man, makes you look like an idiot.

IMO it's Windows XP Service pack 3 + DRM and media + new interface

That's FUD. Microsoft start from scratch their DEVELOPMENT process; they throw away Longhorn code not Windows XP (and backwards, even DOS) spaghetti code (which is STILL there).

That makes no sence. Try writting that again after double checking your grammer.

You can talk...lol

Sorry, don't take it the wrong way, I couldn't resist

There's quite a difference between what Microsoft promised Longhorn would be, and what they actually delivered. Basically, as far as I know, every single one of the significant new features got dropped-out. They've gotten themselves into the stock-market expectations that they will release a new system every two years, and, like IBM before them, they're serving Wall Street analysts more than their own customers.

I predict that "sales" of Vista will come from new-hardware sales where the system is bundled. Other users will pass.