On 07.08.2024 05:55, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
I keep seeing all these bad comments about Vista. Just what was supposed to be wrong with it? I ran it for more than a decade and only stopped when MS deliberately broke it with the final update. It was a hell of a lot better than the crap that followed it.
One issue I have not seen others mention is that Vista moved to a compositing window manager, in which the window manager composed the display from multiple off-screen buffers rather than having the apps paint directly into the framebuffer. This required decent a decent 3D-capable GPU while XP could get along fine without one. In a sop to OEMs that were shipping the then-crappy Intel integrated graphics, Microsoft allowed very underspec'd hardware to make the official compatibility list. Much of the later success of Windows 7 (which added even more compositing eye candy) was simply due to the HW market having moved on to accommodate the new requirements.
--Bill
