One more reason to look forward to Win7

[pixie]

It's not as if im pulling this stuff out of a a hat. This is just what Apple's own website said

In the picture it explicitly states taking it to the next level. It isn't like OSX wasn't 64 bit before it just has evolved. You might not be aware that XP too had had a first incursion into 64 bit before it reached a more mature and robust solution in Vista and then 7. The XP 64 bit experience wasn't all that great and introduced lots of problem not present in the 32 bit.

As for open CL, it was the only gpu related feature, so I can assume that Apple isn't as ahead of microsoft as we thought.

Windows DOES have UI acceleration. Aside from that, I also heard it uses the gpu to manage running applications more effectively.

OSX DOES have UI acceleration, Linux DOES have UI acceleration AmigaOS 4 DOES have UI acceleration, MorphOS 2.4 DOES have UI acceleration, it's not rocket science, almost everyone and it's pet have it, the thing I'm wondering is why you empathized developers. Do you think that only developers take advantage of it, perhaps the code is redrawn faster therefore they can write more code? Or can it be that developers can take advantage of it so they can present more compelling products to their users?

It also says that GPU will be put to more use then graphic intensive operations bringing an overall speed improvement, so exactly what's windows has that make it somehow special?

[Borgleader]

Windows 7 will probably be a success but I think that the "more" in the title of this thread is excessive...

Actually for having used Windows 7 for the last months, the "more" is more of an understatement

No I mean seriously, as much as Vista has it's flaws I still liked it, and even so Windows 7 is a leap forward compared to it, catch-up or no catch-up compared to Apple, Windows 7 beats Vista hands down. Ever since I started running Win7 (64bit) my boot times have been ridiculously quick. And I was surprised that I havent so far come accross any problems with the fact that it's a 64 bit OS, I was expecting driver issues, programs not running properly, ... none of that crap so I'm quite happy

And lucky me I'll be getting a free copy of Windows 7 through MSDNAA so upgrading wont cost me a penny Anyhow, that's all I wanted to say, let the head bashing continue

P.S: I'm not making any comments pertaining to Apple software directly because I haven't used it to form an opinion on it, in general my problem with Apple lies in the price of their machines not the workings of their OS. Oh and.... what????

[psor]

Well I'm using Leopard for quite a while on a "PC" and don't mind.



take care
psor

[Borgleader]

Well I'm using Leopard for quite a while on a "PC" and don't mind.
take care
psor

There doesnt happen to be "live cd's" for mac like their are for linux by any chance? Wytraven made me curious enough to want to try it

[WytRaven]

as much as Vista has it's flaws I still liked it

I have to agree that whilst many were bashing Vista I was quite happy with it when compared to XP in fact I actually prefer the look of vista to windows 7. 7 seems to have become almost toyish in appearance whereas I felt vista had a good balance between work and fun.

[Borgleader]

as much as Vista has it's flaws I still liked it

I have to agree that whilst many were bashing Vista I was quite happy with it when compared to XP in fact I actually prefer the look of vista to windows 7. 7 seems to have become almost toyish in appearance whereas I felt vista had a good balance between work and fun.

Let's see if I can fix that:
Fix #1: Download the windows vista theme for windows 7 on this deviantart page:
http://angelwzr.deviantart.com/art/Aero ... -122028501
DISCLAIMER: I havent tried the theme so, I'm not sure how well it works.

Fix #2: No download required, just right-click desktop --> display --> window color. There choose the grey prset, open the mixer and make the last slider black (drag it to the left). Finally, right-click your taskbar, go into the properties, check "Use small icons" and also choose "Never combine" in the dropdown menu. Not exactly vista but close

EDIT: Her's a before/after screenshot of my windows7 desktop. Left is my usual theme, and right is the one obtained for the instructions above.

[psor]

@Borgleader

We'll talk about that later.



take care
psor

[WytRaven]

OpenCL isn´t a property of Apple, instead is an Open Consortium

Thanks Juan, this was my original point in this thread. I was asking why, when open cross platform standards already exist, Microsoft insists on creating and pushing upon developers it's own proprietary systems which encourages single system development...ok I think I just answered my own question...

They did the same thing vs OpenGL with the original DirectX and even the highly respected John Carmack couldn't convince the Windows game development community that what MS was saying about DirectX vs OpenGL was bullshit and it's been all down hill from there. To answer ne0 on the PC gaming question THIS IS THE REASON, because MS has force fed a closed system to developers they have ensured that other platforms are starved of gaming; they aren't starved for lack of capable hardware. Even Sony chose OpenGL for the PS3 so basically the only computing operating system in general use in the world today that does not use OpenGL as it's 3D display core is Windows.

[WytRaven]

@ne0

Quoting marketing material is pointless. Here is the introduction to OpenCL from the Apple developer library. It will explain exactly what Open CL is for you as it is aimed at developers and not marketing hype for consumers.

OpenCL (Open Computing Language) is an open standard for leveraging the computing power of GPUs and multi-core CPUs. OpenCL makes it possible for you to write cross-platform code that can execute on a variety of CPUs and GPUs without having to use the language of a specific vendor or to map general-purpose code to a 3D graphics API such as OpenGL or DirectX. OpenCL provides an abstraction layer that allows your general-purpose code to run in parallel on all the GPU and CPU cores on a system. The OpenCL technology is specifically designed for use with applications that need extra computing power, that must be portable, and that need to respond readily to evolving improvements in hardware. OpenCL can benefit scientific applications, image processing, signal processing, and other programs that require large amounts of parallel processing.

OpenCL Programming Guide for Mac OS X explains how to use OpenCL to exploit the computing power that resides in the many processing cores in a Macintosh computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) and central processing unit (CPU).

Additonally, Mac OS X began supporting 64bit applications with it's Tiger release.

Further, Quartz Extreme (Apples OpenGL accelerated UI system) was first available in Mac OS 10.2 codenamed Jaguar (released in August 2002)

These ne0, are called facts. Learn.

[neo0.]

Im confused. Tiger came out 4 years after XP, which still means that microsoft even in all their corporate evilness is ahead of Apple.

And OpenGL.. That doesn't imply hardware acceleration, does it? That's like using directX. Like openCL, it's still just a hardware standard. Im talking about using your video card (hardware) to speed up your operating system
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/partne ... ows-7.aspx


Annyyhooowww.... Does anyone here know how much the windows 7 upgrades are retailing for?

[WytRaven]

Tiger was released April 29 2005. Windows XP Professional 64 Bit Edition (ie not the failed Itanium native incarnation) was released April 25, 2005.

OpenGL is not a hardware specification it is graphics API. DirectX (Graphics portion) is not a hardware specification it is a graphics API.

"DirectCompute enables applications in Windows 7 to take advantage of GPU Computing to accelerate applications.". Got to love that shit grammar. That is from your own reference ne0. Read this a few times so it sinks in: Developers will need to write DirectCompute code into their applications to make use of it, ie DirectCompute is not some automatic software accelerator it is an API. This is exactly the same as OpenCL except that OpenCL allows for one set of code for both GPU and CPU use whereas DirectCompute is GPU only which means to distribute across both you write two versions of your parallel snippet.

Last I saw Win 7 upgrades were about AUD$50 cheaper than full purchase. Here's an example of Ultimate both new and upgrade with apparent vendor discounts applied:

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Product Code: X1543
Operating Systems: Windows
Only $400 inc GST
Save - $69

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Upgrade
Product Code: X1544
Upgrade from:
- Windows XP (Home or Professional)
- Microsoft Vista (any edition).
Note: XP users will require a clean install from XP to Windows 7
Only $346 inc GST
Save - $83

And by the way ne0 there is no need to "speed up your operating system" using a GPU as an OS kernel is not a massively parallel programming problem and this is why neither Windows 7 or Mac OS X will use DirectCompute or OpenCL in the kernel. It's the applications that need it.

[neo0.]

Shrug

Hell if I understand it, but this got me interested
http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_7_for_home.html

Im defenitely not getting ultimate. Just the basic version.

[Zom-B]

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Product Code: X1543
Operating Systems: Windows
Only $400 inc GST
Save - $69

I get a Full Windows 7 Full license for 150€ @ Amazon... is the US $ really this fu**ed up??! link

Home Premium for 76€ link

[WytRaven]

Well to bring this thread back down from screaming pitch and to build a bridge I will interpret that video for you.

What you are seeing there are applications making use of GPUs for either display or non display related acceleration. So in that video I see a simple photo editor that is using the GPU for filtering (a la the pixelmator example I provided earlier) I also see a simple video editor using the same concept. As for the rest of it it is either simply showing the display accelration features (that have been around forever) or things like physics on the GPU (again not a new thing).

Don't get me wrong ne0 I'm not trying to say that Win 7 is some piece of crap, not at all, if you go back to the start of this thread you'll see that all I was doing was expressing my disgust with MS yet again trying to shut down cross platform development. My opinion of Win 7 is that it is a collection of ideas and technologies taken from existing products, nothing more nothing less. How well MS has implemented that cloning I don't know as I will not likely ever use Win 7. The one windows PC I have remaining, my tablet, will stay quite happily with Vista. I do take offence at MS's attempts to promote these concepts as though they came up with them as that is simply a falsehood.

So in the end I hope you do get Win 7 and I do hope it improves your computing experience. I mean it's about time MS released an OS that actually works right? 7th time's a charm?

[neo0.]

To be honest, I thought vista was going to be mindblowing.. And then vista pulled the rug under me and restarted for an update right when I was in the middle of working on something.. From what I read, windows 7 still has this problem, but it will be good to finally try something new. If somone could combine the visuals of mac OS with the windows UI, I would be in heaven. I definitely think Apple has their aesthetics down much better than microsoft in every area from Itune's UI to the Mac OS dock.

Maybe HW acceleration for UIs has been done before.. All that really matters to me is that I will be using something that will feel sleek and efficient, not something that drags you down.


Why doesn't Microsoft catch on to the 3D UI trend? Has anoyone here tried out cooliris? 2D UIs seem very last gen imo.

EDIT : What happened to the signatures?