Windows 7

[Squirrel]

Heh, you're right. I certainly didn't know that. But I guess you learn something new everyday.

Every browser has bugs, but IE has more bugs than most people realise, and that's not just security bugs neither. Of course, they're are things that IE have an advantage over. One of them being zoom in/out. Sure you can zoom in on a page in Firefox, but, if you are accessing a rather complicated site, the pictures in the table (if any) become distorted. With IE, you don't get that. Of course, that's only a minor advantage, but when you do web design you have those things to consider. Not alot of people take these things into account. I mean, why should they? Overall, Firefox is a heck of alot better than IE. Plus, IE is so far behind other browsers it's not even funny (tab browsing for example and even that is only a small example). The thing that grates me is that IE cannot simply be deleted, if you have a Windows OS. I mean you can, but alot of applications may cease to function or crash.

On a humorous note, when I first downloaded and installed FF on my parents PC, my dad thought that what I had installed was a chatroom. Ed and I were like wtf? We had to sit down with him and actually show him that it wasn't. He was "confused" because his mate Gary (who's supposed to be good with computers because he is a tech support, but he works for MICROSOFT and Ed knows more computers than Gary and is an amateur) said that FF is a chatroom. I know my Dad isn't the brightest tool in the box, but seriously, I had to tell Dad that just because Gary gets paid to fix computers, does not mean he actually knows anything about how they work software wise.

Johnny, a Mac is more or less really for those in the creative industry. Also, there aren't that many games available for the platform. http://themacgamer.com/ has some funny articles though. The blogger has a Mac, but he obviously prefers the Windows platform in terms of gaming. This is another issue why I won't buy a Mac.

[Chewi]

Actually the zoom function was the same as IE's until Firefox 3. IE does it by changing the font size but it doesn't work on sites that set their font sizes in pt or px - and most do. You can actually make the entire structure of a site resize if it was built using the em measurement but extremely few sites do this because a design where everything except the images change size can be tricky to work around. That's why Firefox eventually copied Opera's method and just zooms everything now. I'm undecided as to which method is better. Sizing a site using px measurements does seem wrong when screens come in all shapes and sizes these days but coming up with a fluid design that works and keeps the clients happy is almost impossible.

I wanted to get my Dad onto Firefox but I knew he'd moan so I downloaded an IE skin for it, changed the icon to the "blue e" and renamed it Internet Explorer. The plan worked! He had no idea and he didn't even seem that bothered when I told him two weeks later. He's got a new machine now though so no doubt he'll be back on IE.

[kaos]

Proof of mind control.
IE pretty colors.

I passed on a webdesign job just recently.
I just don't want to bother with the stuff until the browsers are a bit more unified in their demands.
its a real bitch to get a kick ass design working and finalized, only to find out it looks pretty bad in some other browser.

Fuck other browsers.

Actually, thats not really why I passed. I passed cuzz I just hate dealing with web design clients, they never know what they want, nothing is ever good enough, and they think flash is free/easy or something.
and besides I took a long vacation from that stuff, and the development methods seemed to grow exponentially before I got back on.


Yeah see, the Mac for creativity but not for games idea is what I just don't understand. it doesn't make any logical sense.

In school they told us, develop on a mac, but develop for pc.
simply because the mac is loads better art side.
and I agree, it really is.

but see, this is where I'm confused.

If its a creative powerhouse....
Why is their such a lack of creative end product?

See if most things actually are developed on a mac, then that must mean that they are also running or at least good parts of them are running on a mac....and doing so unoptimized at that.
If the mac is a viable platform for game creation, then it is without a doubt a viable platform for game software.
But it seems like everyone chooses to toss logical sense out of the window when the subject of playing games on the mac comes up.

Its good enough to develop unoptimized raw games on....but not good enough to play optimized games on?

What is the world smoking?

as for games on linux...
I know something you don't know!

[Chewi]

There's nothing wrong with the Mac as a gaming platform, or Linux for that matter. They (almost) released UT3 for Mac and Linux. Don't ask me why they didn't in the end. They'd practically finished it, but something's held it back and no one knows what it is. I suspect legal bullshit. If you target one platform, you should include the other because they're fairly similar in development terms. If you use the right libraries (like SDL and OpenGL instead of DirectX) then you the amount of platform-specific code you have to write is very small, even when you include Windows.

[Squirrel]

Actually the zoom function was the same as IE's until Firefox 3. IE does it by changing the font size but it doesn't work on sites that set their font sizes in pt or px - and most do. You can actually make the entire structure of a site resize if it was built using the em measurement but extremely few sites do this because a design where everything except the images change size can be tricky to work around. That's why Firefox eventually copied Opera's method and just zooms everything now. I'm undecided as to which method is better. Sizing a site using px measurements does seem wrong when screens come in all shapes and sizes these days but coming up with a fluid design that works and keeps the clients happy is almost impossible.

James dear, isn't that the other way round? Am pretty sure IE magnifies and Firefox increases the font size, and table widths. As I said though, it's only a minor thing. Firefox, for me, is a stunning browser. I wish more people would be open minded to the idea and not be put of coz IE is prettier. ><

Ed hasn't tested his website on other browsers yet (like Opera or Chrome etc) so meh.

This is where web designers are going wrong, pretty much all of them are doing half arsed stuff. Why on earth make a pretty Flash site and then for only half of the fucking world can see that site?

[Chewi]

Heh, I'm pretty sure, but IE might have changed it lately without me noticing.

Chrome uses the same (more or less) engine as Safari so it's worth testing in one of the two. They exhibit the same behaviour the vast majority of the time. If you need to choose one, go with Chrome. It's a ridiculously featureless browser but I find Safari on Windows to be quite temperamental. I had to install it several times to get it to work at all and I have seen it crash a couple of times since. Having said all that, the engine is so standards compliant that it almost always gets it right anyway.

[Mik]

I got used to IE7 it's not that bad, for some reason most of the stuff I use in work hates firefox

[Melana]

Window's ME was the worse i had ever had. I don't know if it's because i had a laptop...but it was THE most difficult thing to use ever.

BTW i had not heard an ioata about Windows 7...interesting. Does this mean i'll never had to get vista

[Chewi]

Yes.

[Matt]

Nah, my XP was fine. It just tripped up on itself more often than not. Try do a few things too many and explorer would just shit it's pants and crash. You CTRL ALT and DEL and close it and sometimes it'd just never open again.

I remember XP would not play Tiberian Sun, at all, every snow map meant a crash. EA specifically state that Vista SP1 will work, and they''re not wrong. I can play my Tiberian Sun that I bought about 5 years ago, now!

Therefore in my opinion, Vista is by far miles better than XP. It's a vast improvement. And I'm enjoying my experience with Windows 7.

And my mate's PC has a 3ghz CPU and 1GB of RAM. XP only "needs" 256mb of RAM. They're using 4 times as much as that and it still crashes. At least Vista works well on it's recommended 2GB.

And I don't think I'm just lucky just because my Vista doesn't crash unless I cause it by tinkering in the MB BIOS. My PC never crashes unless I overclock too much. Jo's PC never crashes unless I mess about in the BIOS. I recently got my mate to switch from XP to Vista (it was hard work, I initially convinced him to just try it and also try some DX10, seeing as he had a HD4850) And his PC never crashes randomly anymore.

I haven't had to run Anti-virus software for almost two years. I haven't been inflicted with spyware for the same amount of time. If you remember, James, I complains constantly about it way back when, on XP (when you showed me Firefox!)



So, I'm a very, very opinionated person, but none of this is pure opinion and goes directly off experiences and Vista is better than XP, anbd Windows 7 is better than Vista (not liking the Mac OS attempts, though, want a mac? Go pay twice as much as the machine's worth)

i cant believe theres someone out there that actually likes vista.... it's like a windows attempt done by kindergardeners. i cant stand bill gates but atleast he has his damned standards although they were too low as it was....... how about that functionality, we have a sidebar. buy it. oh and lets not forget the top notch security, we'll ask you 50 freaken times before you do absolutely anything. cant get more secure than that. it's really just xp with a lag enema

I can't see where you're coming from, to be honest. Especially the lag thing.

Bill Gates isn't in charge of Microsoft anymore, it's some dude called Steve Balmer. Sounds like a fat bald guy, to me.

[Chewi]

Bill Gates probably has some redeeming qualities but Steve Ballmer is just a raving lunatic.

[EchoPark]

I knew Bill left but i never knew they left Ballmer in charge ... the guys crazy. No wonder why windows 7 looks like what it is. I always think he is pretty funny but no sense what so ever.

[kaos]

VISTA SUCKS

gotta brand new laptop not even 30 days old. and I cant access the control panel or any of the usual config type things for that matter.

they just refuse to open.

and apparently this a common problem....guess what the solution is?
reinstall.

WTF!?

i have a fucking presentation to do in a few hours, I cant deal with this shit!

[EchoPark]

wow shit! i've never heard of that problem

[Matt]

That seriously sucks. But in over 20-30 installs of Vista I've never had that problem. I think you should blame your manufacturer.