Microsoft is poised to release to testers the second Community Technology Preview release of Vista, paving the way for a second full-fledged beta, which is now expected in December. Among the new features which could find their way into the updated build are a number of IE 7.0 enhancements; the resurrected "Sidebar" task pane; Windows Media Player 11.0; and new networking functionality.
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The interface sucks and it also sucks that they change it? Now I disagree, I like WMP and think itunes is a useless, ugly, bloated pig, but I have to ask you, how can you say the interface sucks and they shouldn't change the it? That statement seems so stupid, more irrational "windows sucks no matter what" sentiment imo.
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Tell me, since when does WMP let you view music videos, music previews, stream radio preset stations as easy?
The layout of iTunes is far superiour and thats coming from someone who dont use Windows/OSX as a normal user. It's got nothing to do with Windows or OSX political arguments, it's a simple UI observation. Since iTunes runs much better from what i've seen on OSX, I leave you to put two and two together before calling iTunes "a useless, ugly, bloated pig"
Besides OSX apps can afford the UI to be intensive since OSX has OpenGL acceleration.
Member since:2005-07-06
Trust me. iTunes' interface is not fast. At least on Windows it feels painfully slow. I used iTunes exclusively for quite some time, but then just got fed up with the slowness. i.e. if you have a lot of files in a playlist and scroll, the scrolling will feel very sluggish. Other than that, I think the iTunes interface is very nice, especially the v5 one.
btw, OSX apps are not faster interface wise then let's say the Windows one. The entire OSX shell feel somehow sluggish.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-09-02
My pet peeve with WMP is that is looks different to everything else, which throws any consistancy out the window (pun intended).
Even the latest Vista shots show it having a different windows boarder. Do people in Microsoft even talk to each other?
http://www.neowin.net/staff/cashman/vist5321_1.jpg
Member since:2005-07-06
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See these:
http://activewin.com/articles/2005/images/Infopath12_Main.jpg
http://activewin.com/articles/2005/images/Word12_Settings.jpg
http://activewin.com/articles/2005/images/Powepoint12_Design.jpg
They look so bad as far as UI is concerned. And all of them are part of the same Package.
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Member since:2005-07-06
How so? I can purchase music through it, burn music to a cd, play videos, see virtualisation effects whilst playing music, and to top it all off, convert as well; I don't know about you, but it seems that it is a race between iTunes and WMP.
Sorry, RealPlayer isn't in the radar, the sooner the executives are Real realise that they're flogging a dead horse with their proprietary codec, and do a Apple and embrace an open format like H.264/MPEG4 for their stuff, Real will keep getting left behind (coupled with the fact that Real software is chock with spyware, slow-down-the-computer-ware and other assorted crap that people don't want with their software).
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2005-07-09
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Member since:2005-09-02
More likely they just haven't even moved the dust off the notepad code since 95 
However, a quick search on sourceforge turns up a few free editors worth looking at:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
http://tinn.solarvoid.com/
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
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"I actually prefer Media Player Classic myself"
I used to use that on Windows boxes but may I suggest VLC media player instead? VLC is far better than MPC and it seems like MPC's development stopped long ago.
VLC media player:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Member since:2005-07-06
I'm also an avid MPC user. I've tried VLC one time and chose a random video to test it, and it rendered it false. I'm sure it's great and all, but MPC is just perfect for me
And noe, development hasn't stopped. It's just that there's not much more to be done really. Maybe some minor improvements could be made, but nothing revolutionary.
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2005-07-08
I've been using Vista for quite a long time now and I just enjoy what's going on. It's so much more than just an "OS". It really brings the Windows experience at a new level. Microsoft made so much progress in the last few months and you can feel it.
Also, Vista + VS2005(.NET 2.0+WinFX) is my favorite combo for bleeding edge stuff. It's just perfect. I just love the mixture of C#+.NET+XAML. I never had so much fun before.
GO VISTA :]
RE: Vista is just awesome
Member since:2005-07-08
RE[3]: Vista is just awesome
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It's so much more than just an "OS". It really brings the Windows experience at a new level.
Please expand on the point that Vista is more than an OS because it brings the Windows experience to a new level. I too am looking to escape from the restrictions imposed on me by logic and reality. Please help...
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2005-07-02
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Member since:2005-07-08
Well. You're wrong. Take a look at Linux 10 years ago and you will realize that desktop-wise, nothing really changed (worth mentionning). Still the same old X11 with some weird WMs running on top of it. I don't see innovation here.
On the other side, Apple and Microsoft made radical changes to their OS. Compare OSX with older MacOS and compare Vista to older Windows and you will see many differences (lot of them are under the hood btw).
FOSS programmers are not the best of the best. The proof is that corporations like Microsoft and Apple have enough money to pick the best ones as soon as they are about to graduate. So I don't really understand your point of view. Maybe some anti-ms stuff?
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"Well. You're wrong. Take a look at Linux 10 years ago and you will realize that desktop-wise"
Please don't pigeon hole my comment to one area.
"nothing really changed"
Well, you're wrong
"On the other side, Apple and Microsoft made radical changes to their OS. Compare OSX with older MacOS and compare Vista to older Windows and you will see many differences (lot of them are under the hood btw)."
If the source code was open, then we would truly be able to compare, but since it is closed, all we can do aside from looking at the surface is speculate about what's beneath. Any smart navigator on the waters wants to know what lies beneath, but that just goes to show that stupidity $ell$.
"FOSS programmers are not the best of the best."
Not this again, next we'll see posters going to talk in the third person without their accounts and then talking again with their accounts again to try and demonize others.
"The proof is that corporations like Microsoft and Apple have enough money to pick the best ones as soon as they are about to graduate."
The proof is that more people on this Earth would rather choose to sell their soul to Satan rather than take any setbacks that come in order to further humanity. Innovation has been stifled by a monopoly for years and it's only now that times are changing. Once times have changed for good, no mafia like tactics from gorillas will be able to keep the open source movement from gaining ground.
"So I don't really understand your point of view."
I think you do, based on your past posts on the subject of borgsoft.
"Maybe some anti-ms stuff?"
The same old philosophy that software should be free and open for the benefit of humanity. The majority opposes this, as it threatens their philosophy of worshipping money and themselves. That's too bad, the poor outnumber the rich, and with the flattening of the world via internet, people all over the planet are learning how to communicate with each other and about FOSS.
The bea$t is weakened - oh, and, you may want to stay on-topic about the VLC media player at least somewhere in your reply, because you're way off topic.
Member since:2005-07-08
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Some of the best programers in the world choice to work on OSS or contribute, even IBM, HP, Redhat do. Hans reiser, Andrew Moron, Greg kroah mean anything to you?
Media players dont need to be slick looking, just simple and the Linux players are the slickest UI about. Microsoft offer/bribe people to work for them with big $$$$, most just do the right thing and contribute to Linux without the restraites of deadlines, thats OSS in the end.
Member since:2005-07-08
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RE[3]: VLC Media Player is better
Member since:2005-07-08
You're right, they don't, and there is not a single media player that you can use on multiple platforms made by BorgSoft, while Linux has several media players, some of which ARE multi platform and have better features and no spyware/adware phonehome type of crap that wintendo media player has. How much information does your system send back with wintendo's media player vs. a Linux media player?
It could be a pig with glow in the dark lipstick and the Wintendo users would kneel before the dark gates and worship, choosing looks over functions.
Of course it's just like the wintendo "firewall" which says nothing to alert you when it reports to its master, and why would it?
Mindless slaves so willing to tosh aside their hard earned cash so they can be protected from using their mind while they drool over their squealing lipstick adorned virtual pigs.
I don't for you but here it's friday night. Chill out dude You're literally hurting my ms-powered heart :]
Member since:2005-07-06
That's a big some there. I don't think I need to provide a list of "best closed source programmers" that have relovutionanized the computer industry.
Media players dont need to be slick looking, just simple and the Linux players are the slickest UI about. Microsoft offer/bribe people to work for them with big $$$$, most just do the right thing and contribute to Linux without the restraites of deadlines, thats OSS in the end.
That's "the right thing" in your point of view. And Microsoft doesn't bribe anyone. They offer them money for their services (whatever that may be). This might come as a shock for you, but pretty much the entire world economy works this way and has worked this way since existed humanity. No need to change that
Member since:2005-10-13
This might come as a shock for you, but pretty much the entire world economy works this way and has worked this way since existed humanity.
Well, lets not go crazy. 1000 years ago a lord would have told his serfs to do something, and they would have done so or been killed. The entire concept of money isn't all that old in many parts of the world. More recently there were things you might have heard of called slavery and communism.
Point taken, though. I'm actually one of the few (here, at least) that likes WMP. I tried iTunes on Windows and it just felt incredibly heavy. It was on an older computer...
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Horses for courses. I love Winamp for listening to music but I use VLC for video/dvd playing. I love the kiss UI of vlc and wish more programs could be the same.
Get rid of the glitze and give up something that works and does it simply with the least amount of resources.
Now IE, no thanks, I'll stick to Opera. Aside from a complete rewrite with modularity in mind, there is nothing really enticing for me about Vista. The only reason I want modularity is so I can properly piss off the default software MS forces onto my hard drive without using a 3rd party application. I want to choose what code lies on my hard drive.
Member since:
2005-09-04
iTunes 6 has been substantially optimised on Windows. It's a lot faster than previous Windows versions. Version 5 was clearly a half-baked release of version 6, and I suspect the interface changes introduced in v5 were designed to make it easier to draw windows. (But as I said, v6 is a LOT quicker than v5).
Member since:
2005-08-27
>Regarding WinFX, because you 'jizz' yourself over
>your girlfriend [cough]computer[/cough], actually
>try using other operating systems besides Windows;
>you may actually find there are loads of superior
>alternatives sitting out there - but hey, that would >be using ones brain.
I would rather be productive and get something done before I try to screw everything up and go back to something that already works fine for me now.
Instead of converting the world, why not try to enjoy what you use yourself. I have tried linux and I couldn't give a rat's a$$ about it really. It's all hype and no substance.
Linux advocates are becoming like Liberal terrorists. Use our OS or we are going to hack your system.
Too each his own, enjoy what you want to use and don't try to convert people instead use the computer the way you like. However, I honestly don't give a $hit that you use Linux. It doesn't affect me and I honestly don't care, if you want to be backwards and be a terrorist that is your own problem.
RE: OSes and why people should enjoy what they use
Member since:
2005-07-08
I think amarok (the KDE music player) is one of the best music players available for any platform. Kaffeine and Totem are fair media players, but they both have some serious room for improvement, especially Totem (although the 2.12 version is a significant improvement).
I can't see how anyone likes per-application skinnability. It isn't cool to have each application look radically different. Not if the idea is to have an integrated computing experience, at least. I don't understand how anyone has the time or motivation to customize the look and feel of each application they use. All of these nifty Windows applications should use a common theme engine so that they can look weird in a unified manner.
on the topic of IE7... MS is releasing it for WinXP? I thought that was "impossible."
Member since:
2005-07-06
IMHO Amarok is the best audio player ever created. Nothing on windows come even close. For video, things are much better on the Windows platform since Mplayer and VLC are also available, and Windows Media Player is ok for video. Maybe with Qt4 and KDE4 a port of Amarok will be made and I'll be happy
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WMP is a sorry excuse of a media player. First, its interface is so... weird... that I can't understand (No! really) how to do simple things like organize a playlist. For music, I much prefer Itunes and way how it handles your music collection and your playlists.
For video, there are several much better options than WMP like BSPlayer, MPC and VLC just for starters.
Member since:
2005-07-20
Well Meadia Player isn't great, but iTunes is an excuse to run iPods. That thing is a complete hog, it will install Quicktime, iPod service...everything without asking. This is inexcusable. On top Of that iTunes.exe(without anything loaded up uses ~40 mb of system memory, starts up in about 10 seconds, and has a very sluggish interfce due to apple GDI library I would presume).
To get rid of iPodservice.exe (iTunes run just fine without it, You need to rename folder in Program Files/iPod << to something like _iPod (keep it for uninstallation).
If You really want fast player that plays everything and isn't buggy(current VLC is not exactly useful due to instability and various quirks), get JetAudio Basic. _www.jetaudio.com.
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I prefer to use old mplayer 6.4 for viewing movies or old Winamp for playing music. It's fast - opens and plays in a jiffy. iTunes is pretty slow and WMP9 is quite unncecessary for me.
Again, iTunes has a smart interface, good functions, but IT IS sluggish (on P4 1.6 & 128 MB RAM). Well in some parts of the world people still use slow, old computers;and I am one among them.
