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Time:
05:46 EST/10:46 GMT | News Source:
APC Mag |
Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum |
Microsoft has confirmed that there will be a widespread public beta of Windows 7 in early 2009, while urging device manufacturers to start immediate testing with its pre-beta release to avoid the widespread hardware compatibility problems that contributed so much to the negative perception of Vista.
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#1 By
28801 (65.90.202.10)
at
11/6/2008 7:59:12 AM
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"begs"? I think there is a big difference between "begging" and "urging".
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#2 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
11/6/2008 8:15:53 AM
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Hardware makers beg Microsoft not to screw Windows 7 like Vista. They also beg MS to come up with realistic system requirements, and not play silly marketing games like 'Vista Capable'.
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#3 By
17855 (205.167.180.132)
at
11/6/2008 8:28:51 AM
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This is APC Mag. I'm not surprised, they spin more facts than a presidential canidate.
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#4 By
28801 (65.90.202.10)
at
11/6/2008 8:28:54 AM
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I will agree with 'Vista Capable' issue (even though it has nothing to do with this thread), but the driver issues were totally on the Hardware makers. They had plenty of time to create drivers but in some cases are still drag-assing!
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#5 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
11/6/2008 10:10:53 AM
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I'm not sure how MS is over the barrel here to the point where they have to beg for anything. The tail does not wag the dog. MS doesn't need any specific hardware vendor, but they all need Microsoft. MS is usually in the position to dictate, not beg, and I don't see this as being any different.
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#6 By
143 (96.28.67.142)
at
11/6/2008 12:47:53 PM
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NVIDIA diver flashback?
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#7 By
15406 (216.191.227.68)
at
11/6/2008 1:04:10 PM
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The driver model supposedly hasn't changed, so drivers shouldn't be an issue.
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#8 By
72426 (69.144.82.159)
at
11/7/2008 2:08:24 AM
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#7 Yes and No...
Vista drivers should transparently move to Windows 7, as Vista was the architectual change. However Windows 7 introduces a few new driver and device concepts that OEMs need to STICK to and use properly on newer hardware.
For example, low latency Sound Driver support that is new in 7, then there is the new device interface that needs to be supported instead of OEMs or device MFRs resorting back to their crap software, bypassing the new interface concept.
Additionally there is a whole new set of input and device aware APIs that are new to 7 that need to use the new APIs instead of implementing their own driver and application level support, these include everything from GPS and ambient lighting, to accelerometers, and don't forget supporting the new Windows 7 touch/vision driver interfaces.
The last being very important, as HP has already written their own 'crap' software for touch interfacing, and this needs to be adjusted so that it all supports the Windows 7 drivers and API touch sets instead of using the HP software/model that breaks Windows 7 by locking their applications to their framework. (HP makes good hardware, their software is notorious suck.)
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#9 By
7754 (24.118.134.93)
at
11/7/2008 3:30:35 AM
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#8--"low latency Sound Driver support that is new in 7"--is this an improvement/enhancement to WaveRT (new with Vista), or something new altogether? If so, what's the story with WaveRT in Win7?
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#10 By
82766 (122.107.48.75)
at
11/7/2008 4:06:27 AM
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The official Vista 64bit Dell drivers (OLD!) for the nVidia in my D820, worked perfectly fine with Win7... so it's a good start :-)
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#11 By
72426 (69.144.82.159)
at
11/7/2008 12:49:34 PM
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#9 - The audio team at MS have reworked how the Sound loop processes and newer drivers can take advantage of it, reducing latency by 50% or more, counting the round trip for sound processing.
It adds on to the architecture that Vista made possible and achieves this by using polling instead of queue sound commands, so if the driver and audio hardware can process chunks faster it can have sound ready and waiting instead of trying to just process in time with the content or sound application and only handing information to the sound processor as the OS expects it to be needed in pre-defined time intervals.
This opens up the door for better processing of the sound giving time for more intensive sound processing enhancements, echo reduction, etc. This benefits everything from Voice and communication processing to having more time to process sound before it is rendered to the devices.
There is a good video on Channel 9 about the Audio changes that was released in the last week or so, find it.
It is stuff like this that will make Windows 7 seems like a miracle compared to Vista, but it was the major architectural changes in Vista that makes all the now 'visible' stuff possible. It is also why Windows 7 will be a lot more 'fun' OS release as users will be able to see most of the work being done and direct benefits.
To this day explaining the benefits of Vista like the memory priority system or WDDM to end users is lost as they don't get to see what it is doing and making possible to do. Windows 7 gets a chance to show off what MS did with Vista and why NT is such a powerful and dynamic OS architecture compared to the aged *nix or other models. (Strapping WDDM into OS X or Linux would be nearly impossible because of the *nix model and individual natures of each of their kernel technologies.)
Anyway, Channel 9 is your friend for Windows 7 information for now...
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#12 By
8556 (12.210.39.82)
at
11/8/2008 9:27:37 AM
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MS still will have a tough time getting the average consumer to want to use 7 as Apple will no doubt have humorous ads ready that inform people that 7 is really Vista and MS "fixed" it by changing the name. Do not doubt the depths that Apple will go to to keep the sales of Macs climbing. Can MS come up with a great ad campaign that rivals the Stones "Start Me Up" of Windows 95? That was their best and most successful ad series ever. Now they have their heads up their asses. No matter how good 7 is, or will be, without grabbing the attention of the public in a positive and entertaining way the product's acceptance will only be so-so. Can't blame hardware makers for that.
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#13 By
1896 (74.166.235.69)
at
11/8/2008 5:53:23 PM
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#12: the best, and cheapest, strategy for MS would be to make the beta and RC builds available to everybody; word of mouth is an unbeatable method for spreading the message.
Vox populi, vox Dei.
This post was edited by Fritzly on Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 17:54.
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