One finger salute to Vista


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People bitched about XP and said "Oh i'm sticking with 98 " XP sucks too childish, no drivers blah blah blah and now look at them. they are using XP and are bitching about vista... few years they will use vista and bitch about vienna.. and the cycle goes on...

This is the best post I've seen in this thread. The cycle indeed will continue...

Brandon_Live: I admire your restraint in dealing with the trolls. Rest assured that they do not represent the majority, and many of us are excited about Vista and looking forward to upgrading (sooner or later..)

General Thoughts:

I really don't want to judge vista yet. I can point some definite positives (my integrated audio has never ever sounded as good under XP or any other OS), and some definite negatives (media player classic doesn't seem to work.. be it MS's or the app developer's fault).

One thing I have been curious about in my Vista usage about: Is there any way to get information on exactly which process is trying to access to protected files through the UAC prompts? I've looked at the 'details' section, but often it isn't obvious which process the UAC prompt is referring to.

I really don't want to judge vista yet. I can point some definite positives (my integrated audio has never ever sounded as good under XP or any other OS), and some definite negatives (media player classic doesn't seem to work.. be it MS's or the app developer's fault).

Media Player classic seems to be working fine for me; make sure you download the latest build from the project's sourceforge page.

Vista uses Ram dynamicly ther for it can dynamicly relase ram as applications request it Example: games and other applications. here is a screenshot of vista on my system now grant you build 5278 so not RTM but as you see in it the CPU is being used alot cause i am encoding some videos for my Wii and PSP in the background. but look at the ram usage

post-74594-1166917048_thumb.jpg

Edited by notuptome2004

It's a new OS. Backwards compatibility is never perfect...why do people get so ****y over the fact that software and drivers need to be updated to be Vista compatible? It's how it's always been. Like, when wasn't it?

And who would be surprised that games have problems? Games are notorious for screwing up with the slightest change of configuration. Hell, it isn't even just an OS issue. The exact same OS with the exact same updates can be on two completely different computers and one won't be able to run something as well as another, if at all.

What always annoyed me so much was how, on the off chance that a problem was 100% the fault of the GAME programmers, somebody somewhere with his cyber posse will be putting the blame squarely on Microsoft.

Baffles me, really. People aren't even thinking before they complain. It terrifies me that the same people have the right to vote.

I love Vista. Everything works for my laptop all the drivers and apps I install. Its alot faster then xp I say about 20X faster. And the glass effect makes it even faster. I will never go back to XP cause it sucks bad I had lots of trouble with XP so goodbye XP hello Vista.

I love Vista. Everything works for my laptop all the drivers and apps I install. Its alot faster then xp I say about 20X faster. And the glass effect makes it even faster. I will never go back to XP cause it sucks bad I had lots of trouble with XP so goodbye XP hello Vista.

Check the grammar below your avatar.

Vista = Vista

XP = XP

If you don't like Vista...use XP!! :p

XP has had two service packs, millions of bugs fixed because it's been publicly released for 5 years, giving microsoft a much wider audience for bug reporting, whereas Vista has not been released to the general public yet so it has no chance of being anywhere near as good as XP is at the moment. But just wait a while, and you'll begin to see things dramatically improve :)

-Rich-

even if vista were the best operating system ever released, I still would not give one cent to such an unethical company. seriously, like forcing flash drive companies to pay royalties for using the FAT32 partition on their drives (only because it needed to be compatible with MS). They are a greedy monopoly and I will always support open-source (or, if MS finds a way to defeat it once and for all, OSX)

even if vista were the best operating system ever released, I still would not give one cent to such an unethical company. seriously, like forcing flash drive companies to pay royalties for using the FAT32 partition on their drives (only because it needed to be compatible with MS). They are a greedy monopoly and I will always support open-source (or, if MS finds a way to defeat it once and for all, OSX)

Huh? So any companies that collect royalties for use of their inventions is unethical? Since when? Is Novell unethical? Apple? Creative Labs? Sun? And I'm sure $0.25 is so unreasonable.

You also say "monopoly" like it's a bad thing. Why? Just because a company is extremely successful makes them bad? Getting off-topic here, but I think Microsoft should be allowed to do whatever they want in their products. If someone else can build something better, then by all means - go for it. But I don't think Microsoft should be "handicapped" because of their success.

Concerning www.tvpolonia.com - Internet Explorer doesn't die as it just can't handle that sites code too well, Vista kicks into protect its self because www.tvpolonia.com attempts to send unsolicited information to your computer thru the browser and may be attempting to hijack the browser. If you had the Vista security features turned on you would have gotten a security notice from the Vista firewall telling you there was some sort of problem with iexplorer.exe because that site has some type of code that Vista senses wants to do something to iexplorer.exe or your system. Then if you looked in the Vista firewall after this you would have seen two rules added in the inbound rules blocking Internet Explorer for TCP and UDP from activities of this nature. No, IE doesn't die because Vista is crap, in fact Vista may have kept something bad from happening to your system or kept your system from being hijacked or compromised, and was doing its job for your benefit.

If your using another OS and you can go to www.tvpolonia.com just fine with that other browser in that other OS then the other OS is the one thats really a turd opertaing system because its not protecting you.

All the games i'm running work fine in Vista; Battlefield2, GRAW, FEAR.

Copying is fine from DVD to hard drive for me.

Firstly. I am so glad I didn't have to spend money to buy this turd operating system. Sure it was a gift from Microsoft for beta testing, but its a evil nasty product.

-Applications generally don't run as quick as Windows XP.

-File copying from DVD drive to Hard Disk is speed retarded.

-Lots of my games don't work or work at what seems is 30% slower than under Windows XP.

-My wife goes to www.tvpolonia.com and Internet Explorer dies - repeatedly.

I'm not even touching Windows Vista until after SP1 is released.

I have gone out and spent lots of cash and built a Core2Duo PC with 4GB DDR2 and while Vista itself boots and runs ok - application compatibility / Internet Explorer 7 reliability and general quirks mean I'm bidding farewell to vista while giving it a one finger salute.

Edited by Spooky

Before you open your mouth about windows being ethical, look at the facts. Heres another example: Back in the DOS days, there was the DOS compiler and the Borland compiler. What DOS would do is look at the signatures from both exe files and if it were compiled with DOS, it would choose to run faster. Since most people used DOS, they assumed it was the better compiler. Is that not unethical? How about "embrace, extend, extinguish"? Now, thats exactly what they are doing to flash drive manufacturers. They encouraged the flash drivers to use the FAT32 to be compatible with MS. Once there were enough, they simply said okay. Pay us money now. that, my friend, is the DEFINITION of unethical. Do some research. There are hundreds of accounts of Microsoft using sly business tactics to get ahead. Ive never seen Apple do that.

The problem. Brandon Live, is that there ARE better, faster, more efficient, more stable operating systems. Personally, I would say OSX is best for the average consumer. If youre a programmer I would recommend linux. Microsoft is doing all it can to maintain dominance and its being sly and evil about it.

Before you open your mouth about windows being ethical, look at the facts. Heres another example: Back in the DOS days, there was the DOS compiler and the Borland compiler. What DOS would do is look at the signatures from both exe files and if it were compiled with DOS, it would choose to run faster. Since most people used DOS, they assumed it was the better compiler. Is that not unethical? How about "embrace, extend, extinguish"? Now, thats exactly what they are doing to flash drive manufacturers. They encouraged the flash drivers to use the FAT32 to be compatible with MS. Once there were enough, they simply said okay. Pay us money now. that, my friend, is the DEFINITION of unethical. Do some research. There are hundreds of accounts of Microsoft using sly business tactics to get ahead. Ive never seen Apple do that.

The problem. Brandon Live, is that there ARE better, faster, more efficient, more stable operating systems. Personally, I would say OSX is best for the average consumer. If youre a programmer I would recommend linux. Microsoft is doing all it can to maintain dominance and its being sly and evil about it.

There was no such thing as a DOS compiler. What you mean is the Microsoft C compiler, which was the better choice for application development at the time.

The theory that DOS would look at an executable's signature and then decide to run it faster or slower depending on which compiler it was built with is news to me. If you want to bring up examples for un-ethical behaviour by Microsoft at least use known ones, not ones pulled out of your arse.

One known example would be how beta versions of Windows 3.1 checked for the DOS version they ran on and gave a (non-fatal) error message if they detected a non-MS DOS version. You could also mention how during the first browser war Microsoft did whatever they could to beat Netscape - although imho Netscape beat themselves with the buggy mess which was Netscape 4.x. However: All those examples of un-ethical behaviour happened years and years ago. Sure Microsoft still isn't completely innocent, but: They're not nearly as evil as the ABM front thinks they are.

If you can even deny that Microsoft uses "Embrace, extend, extinguish" techniques to dominate the market, you are blind. Perhaps Windows should focus more on creating an amazing operating system, rather than use dirty tricks to destroy the opposition. I support Linux and Apple to the fullest (and not just because its Unix-based). They aren't greedy like Microsoft is.

I also would like to add that Microsoft is greatly hindering the global computing industry by making things only inter-Microsoft compatible (for example, Microsoft cannot read EXT3 partitions, and do not plan to patch it, of course, no matter how much better it may be.)

Had to ditch Vista, so it got my one finger salute as well. The OS kept breaking after the first week or so being installed, while I can keep XP installs virus free for over a year or two. It also runs slower than any other OS I have ever used.

Huh? So any companies that collect royalties for use of their inventions is unethical? Since when? Is Novell unethical? Apple? Creative Labs? Sun? And I'm sure $0.25 is so unreasonable.

QFE. if it's theirs, they have the right to charge for it.

You also say "monopoly" like it's a bad thing. Why? Just because a company is extremely successful makes them bad? Getting off-topic here, but I think Microsoft should be allowed to do whatever they want in their products. If someone else can build something better, then by all means - go for it. But I don't think Microsoft should be "handicapped" because of their success.

but i have to say that monopolies are a bad thing. face it: Microsoft, right now is the #1 company because... well... it WAS the #1 company when computers boomed. i don't think their current products (except for Office 2007 which is completely awesome) do their #1 position justice.

the point is not "if someone else can build something better (...) go for it". it's the fact that to build something better would require a long time and lots of investment. something only such huge company like microsoft has. not to mention the fact that even though it is better, people won't migrate because there's no compatibility or something like that.

QFE. if it's theirs, they have the right to charge for it.

The only thing I have a problem with concerning flash drives, is that Microsoft allowed them to use the FAT32 partitioning to be compatible with their system. I mean had the flash drive makers used EXT3, windows couldn't read from it! So really, they were just trying to make things work for windows, windows let it grow, then punched it in the face. It seemed really really dirty to me.

The only thing I have a problem with concerning flash drives, is that Microsoft allowed them to use the FAT32 partitioning to be compatible with their system. I mean had the flash drive makers used EXT3, windows couldn't read from it! So really, they were just trying to make things work for windows, windows let it grow, then punched it in the face. It seemed really really dirty to me.

true... that comes from Microsoft's interoperability fear.

the less "compatible" with other alien standards their OS is, the more locked down they keep people, this smaller compatibility bubble is what keeps people from migrating to other things... they end up needing Windows for this and that thing.

If you can even deny that Microsoft uses "Embrace, extend, extinguish" techniques to dominate the market, you are blind.

Do you have an example of that? I've heard of "Embrace and Extend" before, and never thought of it as a bad thing. That's sort of what Microsoft does with things like RSS - embracing a popular standard that consumers like and extending it (like Simple List Extensions, Sharing Extensions, etc) to make it more useful. I can't imagine what benefit Microsoft could have from then "extinguishing" something that's doing well for them.

Perhaps Windows should focus more on creating an amazing operating system, rather than use dirty tricks to destroy the opposition. I support Linux and Apple to the fullest (and not just because its Unix-based). They aren't greedy like Microsoft is.

What dirty tricks? Everything we do in Windows is to make it a better OS and to create a better experience for our users, developers, and enterprise partners. Unfortunately in many cases we aren't allowed to innovate because it's considered "unfair" to companies that can't do as good of a job or offer any value of their own (see security vendors, for example). You can bring up stuff from 15 years ago when Windows wouldn't run on non-MS DOS platforms... but really, is that so unethical? You don't think that Microsoft had the right to make their Windows software package require their DOS package? I think that's a completely 100% reasonable thing to do. Just like Apple locking their OS to their hardware. If you don't like it, don't buy it! Isn't capitalism wonderful?

I also would like to add that Microsoft is greatly hindering the global computing industry by making things only inter-Microsoft compatible (for example, Microsoft cannot read EXT3 partitions, and do not plan to patch it, of course, no matter how much better it may be.)

1) Are you saying that Microsoft should include support for Ext3 in the OS? Why? Who does it benefit?

2) Windows supports a fully pluggable filesystem interface, and at least one Ext2/Ext3 driver exists for Windows.

3) Ext3 is a totally lame filesystem. It's just the archaic Ext2 filesystem with a shoddy journalling implementation tacked on. Don't most Linux systems use ReiserFS these days? At least that's a reasonable clone of NTFS.

The only thing I have a problem with concerning flash drives, is that Microsoft allowed them to use the FAT32 partitioning to be compatible with their system. I mean had the flash drive makers used EXT3, windows couldn't read from it!

Sure it could, if they included a driver for it. Not exactly a difficult proposition especially since the driver already exists (and I think is even GPL'd).

The thing is, none of the Flash companies cared. If you want to actually debate the advantages or disadvantages of OSes then don't throw up straw man arguments like this one.

[...]

1) Are you saying that Microsoft should include support for Ext3 in the OS? Why? Who does it benefit?

2) Windows supports a fully pluggable filesystem interface, and at least one Ext2/Ext3 driver exists for Windows.

3) Ext3 is a totally lame filesystem. It's just the archaic Ext2 filesystem with a shoddy journalling implementation tacked on. Don't most Linux systems use ReiserFS these days? At least that's a reasonable clone of NTFS.

Sure it could, if they included a driver for it...

Actually ext3 is the standard file system used by pretty much all Linux distributions. SUSE used to use ReiserFS as default, but has with the latest release (openSUSE 10.2) changed the default to ext3 as well. The fate of ReiserFS is a whole other story with the murder allegations against its author - which doesn't belong in this thread though.

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It's fair to say this will perform better than a NAS that is enclosed in a metal or plastic case, as almost everything storage-wise is exposed! Anyway, the ZimaBoard 2 did not break a sweat with Plex streaming or disk benchmarks. ZimaOS Factory Reset ZimaOS does not include a factory reset option. Instead, you have to download the ZimaOS image and flash it to the eMMC manually. The flashing process is shown in the above gallery. The steps to do so are listed below: Download the ZimaOS image here; Open BalenaEtcher (Run as Administrator) and select the image; Select your inserted USB drive (min 8 GB) Flash to it; Connect your USB drive, monitor, keyboard, USB hub (optional), mouse (optional), and network cable (recommended) to the ZimaBoard 2; Connect power and press F11 continuously; Select your USB drive starting with UEFI in the boot device menu; Press Enter on the Install ZimaOS option; Select /dev/mmcblk0 (MMC) flash drive as target; Confirm with (three times) to wipe the target disk; Wait a couple of minutes while ZimaOS installs; Remove the USB drive and confirm with a reboot; Your ZimaBoard 2 has been factory reset. However, you don't have to stick with ZimaOS, in fact the company also offers official CasaOS images, that are based on Debian; or as they say themselves, put anything you want on this "hackable single board server" it's up to you. Conclusion I had a lot of fun putting this together. I've custom-built all my own PCs and servers since the 90s, and this is the first time I have had to put a NAS together. Even if the actual base ZimaBoard 2 was already a completed build, it still feels pretty custom. I just wish that IceWhale Technology included a getting-started guide in the box for the Start Kit, which would have really completed this kit. Instead, I had to search for the official video on the YouTube channel to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. So who is this for? Definitely the hobbyist who is comfortable building their own PC and servers. It also has a much smaller footprint than its nearest equivalent (in terms of specs), like the Beelink Me Pro, which is another NAS I will be testing soon. Although the Beelink does not come with the PCIe 3.0 X4 expansion, the ZimaBoard 2 Starter Kit suddenly looks to be a great bargain, even if it only offers the two 3.5-inch bays over the four in the other example. It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N150 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the ZimaBoard 2 is intended for, media streaming and backup. It also looks like the IceWhale Technology staff are quite active in the official forums helping people with issues they come across with ZimaOS and the devices, peer support seems to be good as well, I was quickly able to find why I was not able to create a new Storage Pool in ZimaOS v1.6.1 even though that is quite a serious bug, hopefully it will be fixed in the next update. If you are comfortable with the command line and Docker, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. This was my first time with ZimaOS. It seems a bit barebones in comparison to the likes of Synology DSM, TOS, and UGOS, but it has a ton of apps to get you started with your home or small business NAS. Where to buy As of publishing, IceWhale Technology is running a discount of up to 5% for the Starter Kit. If you opt to get just the ZimaBoard 2 itself, it does come with a SATA Y-Cable, so you will be able to connect up to two 3.5-inch HDDs to it. ZimaBoard 2 1668 Starter Kit for $534.50 on Amazon US (was $548.60) ZimaBoard 2 832 Starter Kit for $372.88 on Amazon US (was $390.60) Zimaboard 2 1668 (16GB+64GB) for $419.90 on Amazon US Zimaboard 2 832 (8GB+32GB) for $359.90 on Amazon Disclosure: IceWhale Technology provided a free sample without any editorial input or review pre-approval. Good to know The Amazon link is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. 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    • It's in the Insider's group so yes it's technically beta, though these days it's hard to see much of a difference unless you opt for the most extreme beta builds, which I don't. When I moved here from the Release Preview channel I did so primarily because I wanted to see how well the restored taskbar functionality (restored from Win10, and earlier) is working and whether it was time to finally abandon SAB--and it is--working fine, so far. Not as polished as SAB, but it'll do for me.
    • I've been using MWB Premium for a number of years so that along with Windows updates and updated browser should be fine. Thanks for that.
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