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Windows Vista delayed, graphics for Mac

updated 11:40 pm EST, Tue March 21, 2006

Windows Vista for Mac

Microsoft says it will allow developers to incorporate Windows Vista graphics on older versions of Windows as well as other platforms, including Macs and cell phones. The company also announced a delay in the consumer launch of Windows Vista, saying that some PCs with the new operating system won't go on sale until January--well after the holiday buying season. The company said the "few week delays" would force some partners to sell PCs without the new operating system due to time constraints. CNET News.com reports that the company's Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere, or WPF/E is a user interface design software for operating systems other than Windows Vista. Microsoft plans to release a "community technology preview" of the software in third quarter of this year with a final release due in the first half of 2007; the final version will be available for the Mac, Windows 2000, Windows XP and mobile phones. Due along with the new Windows Vista OS, the Windows Presentation Foundation will allow developers to write graphically rich applications that include animations and three-dimensional objects. [updated]

At last year's WWDC, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the company's next generation OS and said that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is expected to be released near the end of 2006 along Microsoft's Windows Vista. The delay could allow Apple's Mac OS X Leopard to upstage the consumer release of Microsoft's next-generation operating system.

by MacNN Staff

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diamondsw
Senior User

Joined: Apr 2000

0

03/21, 10:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
WPF/E - WTF?

So they're going to release their API for other platforms so everyone will just code to one simple API and they'll crush their competition!

Hmmm.... Yellow Box, anyone?

numero
Junior Member

Joined: Mar 2000

0

03/22, 12:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Acronym

Has the acronym changed and nobody told me?

V ery I naccurate S hipping T ime A pproximation

These guys are so much fun! :)

JulesLt
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2005

0

03/22, 04:22am | report spam | close Reply |
R&D

Apparently the Vista R&D won't be complete on time :

'said that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is expected to be released near the end of 2006'

kw99
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2001

0

03/22, 04:48am | report spam | close Reply |
Everytime I hear...

"Vista," an image of a Vista Cruiser comes to mind... that's an over-weight mid-70's station wagon (an Olds) that my parents had when I was growing up. Bloated old technology - how appropriate :)

Perhaps MS can rename IE7 "Vista Cruiser" and complete my nostalgic picture.

If Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard beat Vista to the general market, it's a very sad situation for Microsoft. But I'm sure they are very glad they stopped putting the intended release year as part of the Windows product name.

whelkboy
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Joined: May 2003

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03/22, 06:46am | report spam | close Reply |
First delay

I'm sure we'll see another delay in Vista's launch date. I'm not MS bashing, I work in software development... there's always things that could be tweaked, added and fixed. Finding a cut-off date where there's a satisfactory level of performance is a difficult task and with something the size of Vista, I'd be amazed if it was released in Q1 of 2007.

dozx
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Joined: Nov 2005

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03/22, 07:45am | report spam | close Reply |
for the first post

It is not an API. It is just a GUI tool so you can "skin" your OS to look like Vista, not run windows apps.

dozx
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Joined: Nov 2005

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03/22, 07:49am | report spam | close Reply |
wpf/e

It allows for graphical elements from vista to be used in any of the supported os's. Not really all that big a deal.

beeble
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Joined: Mar 2004

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03/22, 08:39am | report spam | close Reply |
wpf/e

Why on God's green earth would any mac user pay for an app that looked liked it belonged on a Windows machine and required a shower after use? Why would a developer create such an app for the mac market when Apple provide an incredibly rich OS experience that has been well ahead of Windows for about 7 years in terms of graphics? I had to use an XP machine the other day and I immediately noticed the coarseness of the graphics compared the anti-aliased, pleasant look of OS X. urghhh!

dozx
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Joined: Nov 2005

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03/22, 08:53am | report spam | close Reply |
I totally agree with you

You are right no Mac user in his or her right mind would want an app that looked like windows. I can see what Microsoft is trying to do though. They are trying to make Window users feel at home on anything they use. Just as we Mac users try to make everything we use look like a Mac. I also believe it has to do with Microsoft trying to unify the windows experience and leverage the branding of Vista Graphics to get more people use to using Windows and hopping they will enjoy that experience and buy a Windows running PC next time.

pmalos
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Joined: Jan 2005

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03/22, 09:49am | report spam | close Reply |
A good thing really

WPF/E is more like Macromedia/Adobe Flash than a traditional application programming environment. The little apps that will be produced with WPF would not be windows apps, but neutral looking graphic-rich apps like you see with Flash today. This is Microsoft's Flash killer, not a move against Mac. It's good that we'll have a WPF player, in the same way it's good to have the Flash player and PDF reader - making the Mac platform more universal.

mkbhatia
Administrator

Joined: Dec 1998

0

03/22, 09:56am | report spam | close Reply |
testing

testing

benhur
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Joined: Jan 2001

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03/22, 10:25am | report spam | close Reply |
Apple has to take. . .

advantage. Haven't seen a good Apple ad in ages.

chrisco
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Joined: Jan 2005

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03/22, 10:37am | report spam | close Reply |
*Not* the 1st delay

Vista is just "Longhorn" renamed. Longhorn was announced in 2001 (just after the initial release of Mac OS X) and expected in 2003. But then it got feature bloat and release was pushed back several times. Then in 2004 Microsoft scrapped all that and basically started over, without many of the major new features, causing Windows developers to call it "just a bloated xp service pack". Microsoft apparently declared Vista "code-complete" in February, but they're still trimming back features and even so, still needed to delay its release date. Again.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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03/22, 11:45am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: wpf/e

Why on God's green earth would any mac user pay for an app that looked liked it belonged on a Windows machine and required a shower after use?

Funny. Sorry, but most people don't live in a world where we think using windows is so nasty it requires the theoretical 'cleansing'. But maybe here's why someone would do this: a) It doesn't look like a windows app b) Its the only version available c) You need to run it.

Gee, that was tough.

Another way to look at it: Why would anyone want to run Windows on an intel mac, or run Virtual PC, or run VMWare? Don't they all require the same bathing experience afterwards? Yet people keep saying they want it. Must be a reason....

Why would a developer create such an app for the mac market when Apple provide an incredibly rich OS experience that has been well ahead of Windows for about 7 years in terms of graphics?

Well, how about these reasons: 1) money. Why spend extra money writing two sets of software, supporting two OSes, etc, when you can just write one that works on both? This, BTW, is what's going to happen when VMWare or WINE become truly usable. Mac specific versions of some software will disappear more and more. Especially those in the niche markets.

2) Time. (And time is money). What's quicker? Writing and testing one app for one OS, or doing it for two OSes. (Which, BTW, require two different code bases and development environments).

What more is there? Oh, how about for internal business apps. This would actually make it easier for companies to use other platforms but windows, if they knew the software they wrote for their use could be used on other platforms.

I had to use an XP machine the other day and I immediately noticed the coarseness of the graphics compared the anti-aliased, pleasant look of OS X. urghhh!

You HAD to use a Windows box? OMG! I'm sure you poured kerosine on your hands and eyes and set yourself on fire to make sure you got all the cooties off of you, right?

And there's lots of people who complain about the blurriness of apple's anti-aliasing.

Oh, and we can all say that Apple releases stuff on-time (relatively), but, seriously, if they were MS, they would have gotten slammed for releasing an obviously buggy OS before it was ready (yeah, I'm talking 10.3, 10.4, probably 10.5). But, as Apple users and devotees, everyone just genuflects, pays the yearly subscription price for the new 'features', and learns how to work around the problems.

Me, I'd love it if Apple could just solve their existing issues. Or their stupid inconsistent interfaces (why does Mail look different than anything else???). h***, I'm still waiting for a version of the finder to remember that I said "Calculate all sizes" for All windows. But, no, it keeps getting reset somewhere along the line. Or having a finder not lock u

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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03/22, 11:59am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: wpf/e cont'd

Me, I'd love it if Apple could just solve their existing issues. Or their stupid inconsistent interfaces (why does Mail look different than anything else???). h***, I'm still waiting for a version of the finder to remember that I said "Calculate all sizes" for All windows. But, no, it keeps getting reset somewhere along the line. Or having a finder not lock up waiting for info from a network share. Or a find command that will find a file by name, even if you've turned off spotlight for that directory. Or where you could see changes to folder permissions without having to log off and log back on.

But, hey, who cares about that. We've got FrontRow!

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

03/22, 12:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
Features and release

Also keep in mind MS is hindered by several other factors:

1) Trying to make the software as backward compatible as possible. And with all that crappy code out there, that ain't as easy as it sounds.

2) Keeping IT departments happy. Several features that were going into Vista have been pulled separate so they'll run also on XP. Reason, most IT departments won't upgrade immediately.

3) Keeping OEMs happy. They have to have Window's 'their way', so they can make sure they can litter the desktop with useless apps and offers.

Apple doesn't worry about stuff like this.

They don't have OEM's, so #3 is ignored.

They don't care about IT departments, so they ignore that too. (Hey, if they did, they might tell them how long they plan on supporting an OS with bug and security fixes. Or, when releasing new hardware, like the intel stuff, make sure their management software actually works on it).

So they only spend time on #1. And, really, we sometimes wonder how much they worry about that.

Mr. Strat
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

0

03/22, 03:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
the marketing slogan

I think they're sticking with "And you thought XP sucked!"

debohun
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 1999

0

03/22, 06:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Skinning Mac

This is a very interesting development because it mirrors something that I would have done with the Mac at the start of OS X. If Apple where to create an OS X Lite, basically an Aqua-based desktop/windows manger for Linux, it would get Linux people used to the intereface, secure with it, craving it. After awhile they would realize that while the interface is nice, they still lack the Apple services that lay beneath the surface. Et Viola! A mac sale. And, I'll still scream from the heavens that abandoning Yellow Box was one of the craziest things I've ever seen a company do. This far into Mac OS X, if Yellow Box had at least survived at the developer level, would have seen the whole world programming on a Mac. The Intel transition provides a unique opportunity to fix that mistake. Sometimes I think Apple is afraid of success, so afraid of failure that they actually prefer to stay the sole fish in a very small pond.

Mr. Strat
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

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03/22, 07:56pm | report spam | close Reply |
OS X Lite??

Who cares two squats about Linux. Let the penguins play with their geek operating system.

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Windows Vista delayed, graphics for Mac

updated 11:40 pm EST, Tue March 21, 2006

Windows Vista for Mac

WPF/E - WTF?

Acronym

R&D

Everytime I hear...

First delay

for the first post

wpf/e

wpf/e

I totally agree with you

A good thing really

testing

Apple has to take. . .

Not the 1st delay

Re: wpf/e

Re: wpf/e cont'd

Features and release

the marketing slogan

Skinning Mac

OS X Lite??

Login Here

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Windows Vista delayed, graphics for Mac

updated 11:40 pm EST, Tue March 21, 2006

Windows Vista for Mac

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WPF/E - WTF?

Acronym

R&D

Everytime I hear...

First delay

for the first post

wpf/e

wpf/e

I totally agree with you

A good thing really

testing

Apple has to take. . .

*Not* the 1st delay

Re: wpf/e

Re: wpf/e cont'd

Features and release

the marketing slogan

Skinning Mac

OS X Lite??

Login Here

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Not the 1st delay