I don't see what the issue with the whole Glossy screen is. I've got a Unibody MacBook Pro (just switched actually), and I find I can see the screen perfectly fine wherever I go to. I work in an brightly lit all-fluorescent lighted office, and also use my laptop outside quite a bit. I've never had a problem seeing the screen. The ultra-bright LED backlit screen probably has something to do with it - but I can see my laptop screen in places where my old glossy-screened laptops were barely readable.
FYI: I am a developer myself, and have coded countless of little programs myself. I work with code written by other people on a daily basis as well.
IMHO I don't think that Vista is as bloated as people make it out to be. I believe that there is some truth to it, but for the most part I think people BLOAT it. For example when Mr. Technically Inept goes and looks for some random AVI to H264 converter, and downloads 4 shiftily coded applications and then goes to find a crappy .NET Application that strips album art, of course it is going to be slow. This was the case Windows XP as well. But people didn't notice it as much because the hardware requirements were lower (I had the vista syndrome running Windows XP on a P2-233 with 512MB of RAM too). But when hardware stays the same, and OS requirements increase you notice that extra bloat more. And iTunes using 400MB of RAM for a 6500 song library doesn't help either.
OS Requirements SHOULD increase with time. I mean, look at how much more is going on in Vista! File Indexing, Shadow Copy, Superfetch, Network Discovery, Offline Files.... how do you suppose Microsoft adds all those features with NO overhead. It's impossible no matter how many 'optimizations' you do.
And if you don't have 2GB of RAM in this day and age, I think it's time to go on newegg. RAMs cheap, and you won't believe how much quicker Vista is with adequate RAM. Vista was quick on even a Athlon 64 3200+ with 2GB of RAM.
I'm not saying I completely disagree with you. I just don't agree to extent you are over blowing the whole 'issue'.
Vista isn't bloated. It has a lot of services running that make other things run faster (aka Superfetch, Networking services etc.). And when you don't have a computer that at least is made in the last two years, and isn't a piece of shit Gateway with 256MB of RAM, it seems slow. Software requirements for consumer software and operating systems get bigger and bigger, and don't stay the same. Do you see Photoshop users bitching that CS3 runs slower and is more bloated than PS5? No.That's because they upgrade their hardware to satisfy the needs of the new version. If you have a computer that takes 30 seconds to open a directory in Vista, I seriously think you should suspend your internet service for a bit, save that money, and go get a new computer.
And to counter a point you made about optimization. It doesn't work as good as you think when it comes to Operating Systems. Gentoo Linux is a prime example. It was only a very small amount faster than the Ubuntu server that I set up the other day. I still use Gentoo - but not for optimization, just for the flexibility.
Vista does not clog my hardware. I'm running a Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.6GHz, 4GB of RAM, and dual 9800GTX+s. Vista Ultimate x64 actually runs faster than XP - benchmarks prove it (google it). And it doesn't clog my other system either, a Core 2 Duo E6750 with 2GB of RAM and a old 1900XTX. Oh yeah by the way, I am running 4 copies of Windows 2008 Enterprise Server (along with a few Linux distros), with Exchange, Sharepoint, and MSSQL server on a single ESX server with dual Opteron 265s and 8GB of RAM at work, and users never complain of lagginess. Point in case.
@Arran Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) -> Uncheck. Voila.
Yes you can in XP and Vista actually. Just that WDDM drivers in Vista have to be the same. When you use the XDDM drivers in Vista, multiple display drivers are possible, but it disables Aero. In XP you can only use XDDM drivers to begin with, so it ain't an issue.
Plus, both ATi and nVIDIA use a unified driver model now, so you can actually use Aero with both... let's say a GeForce 8400 with two 9800GTXs. That's what I do right now to get dual-monitors with SLi enabled.
Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
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