I am hearing so much stuff about Vista but I am considering buying it soon to run on my iMac. Mac is my platform of choice for development and using applications etc so I'm not likely to spend a lot of time as a `user` of Vista, but I do mainly want it as a compilation platform for BlitzMax software. Coming from this vantage point I figure you really have to go with the most recent Windows so that you can make sure your programs work with it. At the moment it might be more of a question of `it likely works with XP but does it work with Vista?` - but in future it's going to be `it works with Vista but does it work with XP?`.
Whether we like it or not Microsoft has all the strings pulled to make sure that everyone eventually upgrades or their o/s becomes obsolete. It's quite a clever trick to first of all tell you that you really need something, get you to buy it, then basically take it back by making it obsolete so that you have to buy something else. It drives you crazy but that's what they call `progress`.
XP looks like it will do ok for a few years since it's a `fairly` comfortable o/s, but I doubt Microsoft is going to bring out another significant new o/s in that timeframe. From a developers vantage point I need to know that I'm supporting current technology as best as possible and then trying to support legacy systems as a second priority.
Leopard on the Mac already has some backwards compatibility issues where BlitzMax stuff may not even run on Tiger anymore, or pre-Tiger. What can you do? You can't really have seven different versions of an o/s on-hand to make versions specific to them, at least not within my budget. It's not much of a choice - between an increasigly obsolete o/s or a new rough-around-the-edges o/s.
Having not owned Windows before, ever, I don't have the issue of it having to be better than XP, so long as it is not `too much worse`. I'm sure after a service pack or two things will iron out. And you don't need a lot of drivers for older software if you're not planning to use the o/s as your primary environment.
Whether we like it or not Microsoft has all the strings pulled to make sure that everyone eventually upgrades or their o/s becomes obsolete. It's quite a clever trick to first of all tell you that you really need something, get you to buy it, then basically take it back by making it obsolete so that you have to buy something else. It drives you crazy but that's what they call `progress`.
XP looks like it will do ok for a few years since it's a `fairly` comfortable o/s, but I doubt Microsoft is going to bring out another significant new o/s in that timeframe. From a developers vantage point I need to know that I'm supporting current technology as best as possible and then trying to support legacy systems as a second priority.
Leopard on the Mac already has some backwards compatibility issues where BlitzMax stuff may not even run on Tiger anymore, or pre-Tiger. What can you do? You can't really have seven different versions of an o/s on-hand to make versions specific to them, at least not within my budget. It's not much of a choice - between an increasigly obsolete o/s or a new rough-around-the-edges o/s.
Having not owned Windows before, ever, I don't have the issue of it having to be better than XP, so long as it is not `too much worse`. I'm sure after a service pack or two things will iron out. And you don't need a lot of drivers for older software if you're not planning to use the o/s as your primary environment.