Microsoft has announced Windows Vista will not be supporting EFI (extensible firmware interface). Mac OS X uses EFI for its booting sequence, while Windows XP uses BIOS. Microsoft sights a low number of 64-bit desktop systems. Since EFI does not support 32-bit systems, which make up a large majority of today's desktop computers. Once there is a substantial increase in the amount of 64-bit systems, Windows Vista will have EFI added. I don't doubt this would be in the near future.

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>Microsoft has also rebuilt the networking stack for better security,

That network stack rewrite (at least in an indirect way) is finding its way into Windows Server 2K3, and then into IIS. The manifestation of the change in WS 2K3 is in the fact that HTTP and HTTPS handling are now separate services, wherein IIS used to handle it all. (We found this out tracking down a problem with a bug in client buffer sizes we knew how to fix in earlier versions of the OS

As far as which will be dominant? I think it may be the wrong question. I don't think you'll see one, single vendor emerge as the dominant manufacturer or vendor of the software tools that we use to interact with electronic devices. Devices are going to be too numerous, too fine-grained, too different for any one vendor to master them all. I think other vendors' models of non-browser-centric use of the 'net make all manner of different devices - some we haven't even thought of - an unwritten future.

As far as the desktop goes, here's an important prediction - I think that, despite the growth of the web, you're going to find in certain sectors a trend back towards applications with a non-browser-based client interface. There are many things about the web interface that are inherently limiting or are tricky to do, but are simple in a "conventional" interface.

Microsoft's biggest challenge to the desktop is itself; how many more times can it refine the idea of a spreadsheet or a business letter in a manner sufficient to convince people to buy a new version of Office? That has been MS's cash cow for years, and I think that financial artery is losing pressure. In that regard, MS is anything but an innovative company; geez, how many different ways are there to perform a "search and replace?" Reminds me of financial analyst Malcolm Berko referring to MS as a bit of a lumbering giant in the same way IBM was a few decades ago.

Geez, I'm rambling. Sorry, guys..

-SoonerDave

FYI,
Vista Beta2 has been released yesterday (along with betas for Longhorn server and Office 2007).

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I will probably use dual boot on dual hdd's. Sadly, desite all of Windows' shortcoming it is the only OS compatable with many of the programs I use. I don't like Mac because you can't build your own. And I do LOVE the feeling of letting the processor slideinto its socket. But anyway, Windows stability is an issue, but so is cost. Windows has always set their prices way too high. But really, I don;t really know. I would like to see the finished product and if they can get the home edition to under $150, I might consider it. Oddly enough though I NEVEr hae any problems with viruses or other malware....

Amen, brother! I myself am a PC guru.

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Windows Vista will introduce a new picture format that Microsoft says will have twice the definition of jpeg. Meet .wmp, a new high-definition picture format with better editing capabilities. Will this replace the long-lived and well-known .jpeg format? What do you guys think?

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I never had any hardware problems and have installed avid on more than three systems. I work with it everyday. There is a reason it is the industry standard.

Avid is the industry standard, at least in those expensive turn-key systems for TV stations, video production studios and movie production.

Final Cut Pro is the current leader for mainstream personal computer based video editing. However, there's been a few things happening lately on the PC side that have been putting chinks in Apple's armor.

I thought it was actually kind of cool how Eyeon Software's Fusion application (which runs only on Windows) pretty much killed Apple's Shake. Both programs are node based video effects compositing programs. Fusion simply blew past Shake and delivered great results on movies like Sin City.

Recent mergers have me wondering if Apple's grip on creative computing is starting to slip. Adobe gobbled up Macromedia and has, for a number of years now, earned more money selling Windows-based products than Mac-based ones. Autodesk acquired Discreet and then recently acquired Alias. Even Avid has gone on a spending spree, acquiring Pinnacle and Softimage.

Simply put, there is a lot more competition happening on the Windows side. There's more going on with the PC platform in 3D, video, print and web development. More companies are making a much wider variety of hardware for the platform.

There used to be a lot of creative applications that were Mac-only. Now Apple seems to be the only one making creative programs exclusively for the Mac.

All of that competition may eventually take its toll. Just as Fusion 5 ruined Apple Shake, Adobe's new Lightroom program (currently in beta release) is head and shoulders better than Apple's Aperture program. Lightroom runs faster and demands far less of system resources. Unlike Aperture, Lightroom will be available for both Mac and Windows and will integrate well with Photoshop.

In the end, I'm just going to sit on the fence awhile longer, and perhaps wait for those new Core2 Quad CPUs to proliferate.

Noticed it has been a couple months since anyone added anything here, so I thought I'd add a few things I discovered and thought were VERY interesting, even bordering on cool:

* Vista's version of NTFS will support Unix-style symbolic file links.
* Vista's loader will randomize the load-points of various critical core images, thus defeating viruses that rely on entry vectors based on static module load locations under XP
* Certain processes will only be able to see virtualizations of various key file system areas, such as \windows, \windows\system32, and parts of the registry.
* Vista will support IO cancellation notification, eg no more hangs on a File..Open to an offline network share..you'll be able to cancel it.

There are lots of other geek-level kinds of changes, but these were some of the top-level ones I'd read about. The Unix-style file links is *very* cool, not to mention long overdue..

-soonerdave