Microsoft will soon be releasing its Windows Vista Os (formally Longhorn) on 1/30/07. the 2 coolest features are Windows SuperFetch and Windows ReadyBoost.
Windows SuperFetch preloads programs into your cache based on how often you use it or are likely to use it.
Windows ReadyBoost allows one to use flash memory or thumbdrives as ram so nolonger do you have to pop open your case and void your warranty to add memory to your pc, something like this is
great for individuals like me with 256mb of memory on my pc.
ready boost is also good because sometimes the ms os can be a resource hog taking away from rendering time.
i dont know if vista is going to be a 64 bit os yet or not (or if its going to be worth the upgrade) but it looks pretty good
superfetch and readyboost sounds awesome, but the real-world performance is minimum compare to that of XP(unless the final release will be MUCH better than RC2). Granted, XP doesn’t have readyboost, but it already has a pretty decent pre-fetch function. Plus, flas hbased HDDS (required by readyboost) is insanely slow compare to ram, so there is not much advantage in cache stuff on a flash disk.
I am still excited about the new desktop composite engine, though
So Vista is such a resource hog it sucks up all my flash memory too?
And they call that a feature?
Rexprime - if you have 256MB of memory, I wish you all the best in running Vista.
For rendering, you need to compile yourself a nice lean linux kernel on a minimal distro. Then run a custom build with all the appropriate compiler flags turned on. Blender will run much faster.
This is a BAD idea. Get yourself some real RAM. Flash drives aren’t designed to be written and re-written like RAM is. They only have a finite number of writes before they cease to be functional.
And spur a flurry of ‘I only have a desktop, no apps running, and vista has used all my memory!!!’ because people don’t understand how the caching works.
Nice to have taskmanager permanently loaded in to memory, save waiting for it so you can kill those errant processes when it locks up.
And yes there is a 64 bit version, which incidentally didn’t work when the beta failed to recognize my 64 bit processor.
I actually have vista (a very recent “beta” type build) because of a arrangement my college has. I really don’t like it and stopped using it quickly (probably before I could really get used to it). There are nags everywhere and you can’t turn them off.
Super-Fetch - I don’t want my computer “guessing” what program I will use.
Ready-Boost - how to fry you flash drive in 2 seconds flat!
Flash memory I think can only take somewhere around 100K to 1M writes before its in danger of failing. Thats like 10 years of doing about 27 complete writes every day. I would bet 1M is how much I write to my ram every second… but I am no computer expert so I could (probably am) wrong here, But I know using flash as ram would fry it in hours, not days or months.
I am just using vista as an excuse to go Mac/Linux because its clearly a (bad) copy of them so I am just going with the originals.
However, not everything is bad about it, I just have this personal thing against it…
The beta is open to anyone with a valid windows. It’s nothing special right now, as it has none of it’s DirectX 10 features and still has some compatability issues (From the version I got to try). But, it’s new design is definitly welcome and it’s speed is much improved. If your college gets a special version with the DirectX 10 on it, I don’t see why your complaining : P. It really surpasses windows xp, except in compatablility.
RC2 seems to have DX10 according to dxdiag. But since non of the graphic cards (other than the insanely expensive geforce 8800 right now) is DX10 capable, you won’t see any new eye candies until DX10 games come out.
I have no idea what Vista is going to be like yet I will give it a chance though mostly due to the fact I am geting the upgrade for free. and if you think about it even if it is not beter than XP it still should be decent if it is like XP.
Frankly speaking, I won’t believe what the initial hype with SuperFetch or SuperBoost is until its been used in the field.
From what it sounds, SuperFetch is the new version of prefetch available in XP. If the prefetching algorithms were working, my PC wouldn’t slow down as time passed by. If their OS was designed to use virtual memory properly, if their caching algorithms were good they wouldn’t need ReadyBoost. Look at any Linux distribution; it creates a swap partition and if its reasonably sized, the OS works like a charm without slowing down over time. If you really want to increase virtual memory, use more space on an HDD; why use external disk sources that have a slower bandwidth and/or lower lifetime.
I’d take any of this marketing hype with a grain of salt. Why does an operating system require massive amounts of memory and disk space. Each successive OS released by Microsoft demands more and more space and memory. They want to integrate everything into their OS and make it bloated.
because its clearly a (bad) copy of them so I am just going with the originals.