On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 05:18:55 +0100, [H]omer wrote:
>> Name one compelling reason to upgrade to Fedora Core 6, or SUSE 10
>> or OSX 10.4...
>
> I'll resist the urge to list FC6's upcoming features; I get your
> point.
Thanks for not being obtuse, like most others.
>> Technologies that will be backported to XP: Avalon, Indigo, Windows
>> Workflow.. pretty much the whole WinFX stack.
>
> Avalon (a.k.a. Windows Presentation Foundation) - bit like Flash/SVG
> but with .NET hooks.
I use Avalon, because I didn't want to type a bunch of marketing names, and
WPF is too vague to most people here. It's not Flash or SVG. Both of
those are drawing technologies. Avalon is the entire user interface, not
just drawing.
> Indigo (a.k.a. Windows Communication Foundation) - communications
> transport .NET foundation for the above (and others) AFAICT.
Yes.
> Windows Workflow Foundation - A new .NET based IDE and classes.
No. There's no IDE, though there are IDE tools for use with Visual Studio,
but it provides a pretty comprehensive workflow library. This is being
taken advantage of by Office and Exchange and other applications. Third
party apps can add comprehensive workflow to their apps pretty easily.
If you don't know what this means, it means that you can add state driven
and end-user defined workflows (ie fire off an email and wait for a
response before allowing a user to move on to the next step).
> All gross over-simplifications of course, but that's the gist.
Yes.
> From the POV of a Windows developer, all very interesting I suppose,
> but will it actually pan out to be anything more than fancy
> terminology for something that can already be done in other ways,
> using other more familiar methods and tools. I note that .NET
> development does not seem to have become hugely popular.
You aren't noting very carefully. .NET developers are one of the top 5 in
demand jobs, according to CNN. A quick search of Dice or Monster produces
a ton of jobs. .NET really is the future of almost all Microsoft oriented
software.
> From the POV of a Windows user ... yawn ...zzzzzz.
Not really, because those tools provide features end users want. For
example, the new Sharepoint system provides end-user workflows, based on
WWF, without writing a single line of code.
> Drive encryption is not new, however, and I'd tend to think of any of
> the other security enhancements as patches that should have been
> pushed to XP users long ago, rather than used as a "selling point" for
> a new OS.
Regardless, they will be unique to Vista, and as such part of the whole
equation of what will motivate a user to upgrade.
As for Drive Encryption, that is something that is pretty new. In the
past, you had to have at least some part of your drive unencrypted so that
the computer could boot. That meant the decryption keys were also
readable, because that part had to be unencrypted for the OS to read them.
This will not be required anymore, because of the TPM chip.
>> 3D Accelerated UI
>
> Flavour of the month, on at least 2 platforms.
But not XP. You seem to be losing sight of what the discussion is about.
This is not about whether this or that technology is new to the universe,
but rather that it is new to existing Windows users.
>> Desktop Search integration
>
> Ditto.
>
> Bearing in mind that we are talking about XP vs Vista (I'm bitting my
> tongue trying to not bring Linux into the equation), as much as I like
> the above two features, I really wouldn't *pay* for a new OS just for
> them. However, yes they would at least *partly* influence me.
The part you're forgetting about is that may no single feature is worth
upgrading for, but all of them together make a compelling argument.
>> Despite what's been killed, there's still a ton of things in Vista
>> that are new.
>
> Yes, I can see that, but I'm not convinced.
You likely don't need to be.
|
|
