Windows Vista CTP 5231
So, I downloaded the newest CTP (Community Technology Preview) of Windows Vista. My apartment complex has such a narrow pipe to the Internet, it took forever (literally, several days at a high of about 20K/sec, and lows of 5 K/sec or less). But I wanted to play with some of the features of Vista that were left out of Vista Beta 1, so I endured.
Now, after having endured so much pain when installing Beta 1, I thought I had learned enough to make this installation relatively painless. I was wrong.
Dual-Boot Pain
I first tried to just boot from the DVD and install the OS directly. This did not work very well. Installing this way only installs as a single OS, without recognizing any other OS's on the current computer. Unfortunately, installing from Windows will fail because I cannot install the drivers that allow Windows to deal with my RAID controller correctly. As a result, I had to install from Windows XP so that it setup itself for dual-boot. Then I had to install by booting from the DVD. Not too much of a pain, but still obnoxious.
This time, however, it came with LDDM (Longhorn Device Driver Model) compliant drivers for my video card, so that I did not have to install them explicitly. Thank goodness I have a nicer card that I know is compatible. MS is targeting Video Cards with 64 MB of Video RAM, but it will probably be a while before they are completely ready for it.
The News
So, after reading around on places like the Windows Super Site, and Longhorn Blogs, I realized how CTPs are different from Betas. When MS releases a Beta, they disable a lot of their cool features that are not stable enough. Sometimes their features are just introductions to the system's potential, and as a result, are not complete in stability or functionality. As a result, they just throw a few compiler switches, and BAM they are all turned off. Compilers are wonderful that way.
Well, the CTP has them all turned on, so that they can be seen in all their glory (albeit flaky). For example, the "Windows+Spacebar+Tab" feature is pretty cool-looking, but as of yet, it does absolutely nothing. I had heard that it was "Windows+Spacebar" and tried all sorts of combinations of that and "Alt-Tab" before I figured out it was actually "Windows+Spacebar+Tab". I really like how it lines the windows up: they just fly from where they currently are into a neatly-stacked formation. You can really see what you are looking at, even though you can only see each window at a slant: current Video Card processing power is awesome.
Free Cell
Also, this CTP has new versions of all the classic games provided with Windows. They look and feel much nicer: being smooth instead of pixelized. My favorite game provided with Windows is Free Cell (It is available for the Pocket PC, but nor for free...at least not when I got my Pocket PC). So I played it...It looks great, feels great, finally moves slow enough to see on a real computer, but is still missing some features. It still enforces the requirements of FreeCell, but it does not show any intermediate animations like the previous version does. I'm sure that those will be added in time.
Mine Sweeper
I also played minesweeper. That got a much-needed make-over, too. Finally, Windows has made it easy and straight-forward to make stunning, appealing, easy-to-use applications. I can't wait to get used to playing with Avalon so that I can create applications that take advantage of those new powers.
Release Date
Reading around, it sounds like Vista Beta 2 is supposed to be out this December. I'm not sure I can believe these reports, but it would be nice. This would mean that Vista might actually be released next Summer, instead of next December like I had thought...but I'm not holding my breath. I would much rather get a solid solution, than one leaking at the seams.