Ikonboard » Printable Version of Topic » Whistling all the way to the bank.

Forum: Geek Forum
Topic: Whistling all the way to the bank.
started by: SimplyModest

Posted by SimplyModest on Mar. 21 2001,03:55

hey uh... as far as i can tell.. whistler sucks..

anyone got any info on it ? like.. how to make it NOT be a ram hog?....

btw, who has seen an install of it ?

------------------
Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was getting tired of being stared at.

Posted by askheaves on Mar. 21 2001,22:06

I'm still waiting for my Beta 2 of it... then again, so is everybody else. Beta 1 seemed to be OK.

What I'm really waiting for is Vis Studio.NET beta 2. That first one had real problems. Can't wait to develop apps for the desktop that can be immediately run on my PDA with no recompile. That's gonna be the bomb-diggy!

Posted by SimplyModest on Mar. 22 2001,00:11

what build do you have?

Posted by hal0 on Mar. 22 2001,00:24

did you see the newly updated gui? this is the gayest operating system i have ever seen in my life. it's way TOO user friendly. a 90 year old could use this. what the hell is the fun in that? easier == less tweakability.. i also heard that winamp and realplayer software doesn't work on it, as well as some cd burning software.. microsoft.. let's not stop the monopoly on web browsers now...

------------------
"that's even better! hot lesbian witches.. think about it, it's fucking genius!" - charlie sheen

Posted by SimplyModest on Mar. 22 2001,01:26

i swear by odin himself, that they wrote this whole fuckin OS in flash... i mean it looks THAT gay..

Posted by jim on Mar. 22 2001,11:37

Have any of you ever even USED Whistler???

The look that you guys are talking about is just the Luna theme that comes with the OS... The OS, as far as looks go, is completely tweakable and skinable!!! You can make it look just like Win2k, or a crayon box, or something even cooler!

Whistler fucking ROCKS!!!

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Posted by DuSTman on Mar. 22 2001,12:15

All this tweakability and skinnability means that application writers will have to comply, and be forced into offering certain UI customisability onto programs that don't even really warrant it. It could be very bad for older programs.. I mean, as it is all you can do is change the colour of various things, but that's too much for some things, which insist on colouring things default grey instead of just one of the system colours, and icons that look downright stupid against anything other than the aforementioned grey.

I'll keep an open mind - it could be pretty cool, but I kinda get the feeling they're walking into a minefield on that one.

Posted by jim on Mar. 22 2001,12:20

In the developers section of MSDN they are already preparing people for the new OS... They talk about how you need to include several sets of icons for each icon... 1 small, 1 medium, and 1 large using 256, 16 bit, and 32 bit color depths...

This is more of an enhancement for the future, not a plague for the past. All older apps will still look like they used to, but this opens the door for people who want to do more with their apps in the future.

If you've ever used Windows Blinds you'll understand. You simply filter out apps you don't want to be skinned....

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Posted by kornalldaway on Mar. 23 2001,00:00

Whistler does rock!!!! I run it on one of my computers and it kicks ass. Mine is 'Build 2416' and i assume that is beta one, though i am not sure on that one. Anyways it is very tweakable and all those skins could be removed to return it to Windows ME like interface or anything else you want. If you probably configure it, it doesn't hog the memory and never crashes. I have used RealPlayer and WinAmp on it. I never tried using burining CDs on it, but i'm sure it will have no problem.
I also read that Microsoft have released WindowsXP beta. Anybody knows if that's same thing as Whistler beta 2 or is it something even newer?

Oh yeah, and Whistler does fuckin rock.

------------------
"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"
- Ralph Whigham

Posted by jim on Mar. 23 2001,01:32

Whistler is the codename, XP is the official name announce at the same time the Luna theme was released...

Oh, and about burning CDs... It fucking RULES!!!! It has built in burning capabilities...

For instance I can browse around in windows explorer, click on a directory and select Send to -> Recordable CD... Then right click on some files and do the same, then some more directories... After I'm done doing that, I write click on the icon for my CD Burner and select Write CD. Windows then burns all the files and directories I previously selected to the CD...

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Posted by justcozz on Mar. 23 2001,03:49

Grrr. I saw it on a machine at school and I hated it. it was just disgusting. I don't like the 'prettiness' of it. It just seems... wrong. The recycling bin is a garbage bag that is transparent. Just wrong.

But that's just me.

Spelling.

This message has been edited by justcozz on March 23, 2001 at 10:50 PM

Posted by kornalldaway on Mar. 23 2001,12:28

it's been said already, whistler is completely adjustable in term of visual appearence and so are the icons
if u don't like the icons or the "pretiness" just go ahead and change it
u can get it to look exactly like Windows95/98/ME, with all the same icons and start menus, etc.

------------------
"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"
- Ralph Whigham

Posted by jim on Mar. 23 2001,12:44

Thanks kornalldaway... I was about to have to bitch slap justcozz... Oh what the hell *SMACK*

Out of the box it looks extremely similar to Win2k. You can turn off certain "features" like the new start menu to make it look EXACTLY like Win2k... This prettiness everyone is talking about is the LUNA THEME.

Let me say that again LUNA THEME... For fucks sake people. It's Win2k with some additions.

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Posted by SimplyModest on Mar. 24 2001,04:36

i was running it on one of my computers, but i thought it sucked so much that i decided to try and learn linux again..

it eats the fuck out of my memory, and runs slower than a REALLY slow bitch..
but as i admit, win2k sucked in beta also, so im not completely put off by it yet.

im pretty impressed with the burner support, not taht ive tried it yet, because i only have one burner, and not in that comp.

but speaking of realplayer.. why the hell doesnt media player support Real media yeT? (real player = sucks).. my guess would be that microsoft would get suied... but i think it would be worth it, not to have an install that total pos on my PC..

Posted by Sithiee on Mar. 24 2001,15:35

quote:
Originally posted by SimplyModest:
but speaking of realplayer.. why the hell doesnt media player support Real media yeT? (real player = sucks).. my guess would be that microsoft would get suied... but i think it would be worth it, not to have an install that total pos on my PC..

true that, yo.

Posted by askheaves on Mar. 24 2001,16:43

Windows Media Player (6.4?) used to support both RealMedia and QuickTime. At some point, I think Microsoft got scared of anti-trust stuff and stopped supporting those codecs.

BTW: WindowsXP beta 2 goes live today at Noon PST. So, that's in about a half hour, I think. I hope I get a pretty new CD at work this week

Posted by Observer on Mar. 25 2001,03:13

It wasn't that Microsoft's Media Player removed support for Quicktime and RealAudio, those two companies updated the codecs they use without licensing them to Microsoft.

------------------
A good programmer is someone who looks both ways on a one-way street

Posted by DuSTman on Mar. 25 2001,06:55

quote:
Originally posted by SimplyModest:
i was running it on one of my computers, but i thought it sucked so much that i decided to try and learn linux again..

Yeah, I hear MS are doing a system where you can take back windowsXP/officeXP if you just don't like it.. Seems pretty brave, also they'd need to put a sorta OS un-upgrading tool on..

might be difficult to do.

Posted by Sithiee on Mar. 25 2001,12:39

personally, i like quicktime the best, it has a clean interface, and it runs better (at least on my machine) than windows media player and real player. plus it doesnt have all that crap all over it, and my favorite, not "visualizations"!! godammit, you dont watch music, you listen to it.

Posted by askheaves on Mar. 25 2001,15:41

quote:
Originally posted by Sithiee:
and it runs better (at least on my machine) than windows media player and real player.

Are you high? Every time I watch a movie using Quicktime, firstly, it asks me to register it and buy the pro version. That really pisses me off. Then, you can't really fullscreen a movie, and it starts spinning explorer into a full screen refresh cycle over and over again, causing the movie to skip all over. And this is with 640 Meg of memory in my system. The movies are huge, the player sucks ass and hangs, and I don't like supporting that Jobs asshole. Aggg!!!! </rant>

I want to play with Windows Media Player 8. Sounds friggin sweet. Just waiting for my CD to show up here. Any word on if the beta was actually released Sunday?

Posted by jim on Mar. 25 2001,15:44

Yes it's out.

And available for download < here >. With proper authentication of course.

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Posted by Sithiee on Mar. 25 2001,16:05

windows media player is always crapping out on my comp. thats when it even works in the first place. and then it tries to replace my cd player with itself. that is so fucking uncool. if i wanted to use the shitty windows media player to play my cds, i would, but no, i use the windows 98 cd player, and then it deleted my copy of the 98 player, and put in a link to itself instead. WTF?????

Posted by askheaves on Mar. 26 2001,19:45

quote:
Originally posted by jim:
available for download here. With proper authentication of course.

I can't find it anywhere. I have a Universal Subscription. Isn't that good enough?

Posted by jim on Mar. 27 2001,14:50

GAFF! They must have removed the link from the TOC. They did the same thing to BETA 1, but you could still find it in the Top 25 list.

If it's worth ű.95 to you, and you just can't wait... This might be of interest.

quote:
Windows XP preview program
[Comments] by Julio Franco @ 11:40
Directly from MS´ WinXP website: "Register for the Windows® XP Preview Program now, and for ű.95 (USD) you can download the two Windows XP Professional release candidates* when they are available this summer, plus get access to the members-only newsgroup. Release candidate software comes with most of the features that will be in the final product, but without the final touches to development and testing. These test versions have the fresh new visual design of Windows XP and the performance of the new Windows engine."
If you don´t have a fast connection and want Windows XP Professional RC1 in the mail, the total cost of the preview program ร.95. RC2 will be available only via download from the Internet.

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Posted by askheaves on Mar. 27 2001,16:03

quote:
Originally posted by jim:
GAFF!

Yep. Register story: < http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/17949.html >

Posted by kornalldaway on Mar. 27 2001,19:42

is Windows XP 2454 beta2 or is it just another update of beta one. This seems to be the latest version available on the internet, but i don't know if it's beta2 or not. Anybody knows?

Posted by jim on Mar. 28 2001,16:13

2462 is the version I downloaded. 2458 is the latest version you can 'find' on the net.

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

This message has been edited by jim on March 29, 2001 at 10:24 AM

Posted by kornalldaway on Mar. 28 2001,20:38

any ideas on where i can download version 2462 or 2458, aside from MSDN site of course. I looked all over the place and couldn't find either on those.

Posted by askheaves on Apr. 10 2001,16:55

Oh, baby. MS made WinXP beta2 available last night to MSDN subscribers. I downloaded my copy, and installed it today on a test computer.

It's even sexier. I have a firewire camera plugged into it. Go to My Computer, the camera is already installed and listed. Double click on the icon, and that window becomes a live streaming viewer for the video. You can snap pictures off it, organize them, etc.

The start menu has been toned down a bit. It used to be much bigger, but they took some bulk out of it (near as i can tell). ClearType is built in. You can select multiple taskbar buttons and do stuff (OK... just figured out you can do that with Win2K... so shoot me). And, overall, everything feels warm and cuddly. It's like a big blanket of Luna.

As for performance, it's doing ok on a PII 300 here w/ 128Meg Ram. The kernel is using about 11Meg total, and overall, at idle, the system is using 80 Meg with the default services installed. The taskmanager has a Networking tab for watching Net utilization. That's pretty cute.

OK, that's all I've got right now. Just installed OfficeXP beta on it too. We'll see if it becomes extra sexy.