MS admits Vista is bloatware

[King Harold]

Yet for all these nice little things (IMO nothing you mentioned is really major) there appear to be only a few people who actually like it.

Maybe because all these nice little features slow it down after all?

what apps does XP break though? is it just coincidence that I've never had an app that worked on, say, WinME but not on XP?

How come games like Knights and Merchants work fine on XP but not at all on Vista?

Because it is significantly faster on a PC that cost me £500 than XP ever was on a PC that cost me £900 five years ago; not to mention the reasons above.

Except that XP would work faster still on a PC that costs £500 now (if we are to believe benchmarks)

No don't give up yet, you may convince me, if there is something really great on Vista

[benryves]

Yet for all these nice little things (IMO nothing you mentioned is really major) there appear to be only a few people who actually like it.

All those little things add up, this is why I find XP frustrating to use. Most people I talk to on IRC and fora outside of this community that use it seem to like Vista.

what apps does XP break though? is it just coincidence that I've never had an app that worked on, say, WinME but not on XP?

Stop running as an administrator (running as admin is a really bad idea anyway; ask any *nix user whether they run as root or not) and wait for things to stop working. This includes any app that saves its settings in system directories or protected registry keys.

How come games like Knights and Merchants work fine on XP but not at all on Vista?

I don't know. I don't really play many games, but the ones I do (the most recent ones being Quake 4 and DOOM3) run flawlessly. This could be helped by the fact that I use ATi cards, and ATi have been very good at pushing out decent Vista drivers.

Except that XP would work faster still on a PC that costs £500 now (if we are to believe benchmarks)

Yes, but so would DOS. My point is that it's worth it for those upgrades, which brings me on to:

No don't give up yet, you may convince me, if there is something really great on Vista

I don't think I will, as you seem to be convinced that the new features aren't for you. That's fine, if you're happy with XP then so be it. I use Vista's new features on a daily basis and as such would not refer to them as "bloat". I'll therefore link you to this and this, though you seem to have made up your mind already.

[King Harold]

It took a while to read..
Still, there isn't anything that makes me think: "Cool I must have that!"

I really don't like how their speech-recognition support all western european languages except dutch, how is that fair?

[Timendus]

Dutch is probably too difficult

[DJ_O]

post deleted

[Timendus]

It is said that Dutch is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn as a second language (along with proper Japanese I believe). Of couse that's only valid for humans, I don't know about computers

[CoBB]

It is said that Dutch is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn as a second language (along with proper Japanese I believe). Of couse that's only valid for humans, I don't know about computers

Well, most people believe their own language to be the most difficult. But it really depends on what one’s native language is. For instance, I’m sure most of you would find Hungarian quite difficult, while a Finn would likely consider it easier than other European languages.

[133794m3r]

<Bump>
The hardest language to learn is English. The hardest for a computer is Base64

[Homestar]

... and I still have trouble speaking piglatin

[King Harold]

<Bump>
The hardest language to learn is English. The hardest for a computer is Base64

English?
Come on.. everyone speaks English these days..
Now Japanese or Chinese.. or Dutch.. they are hard (dutch has funny words like zeeeend (sea duck, yes that is 4 e's) and regent (raining) and regent (regent) (and they're pronounced differently) and the plural of huis (house) is huizen (with a z), and it's "helaas pindakaas" but never "jammer pindakaas" )

[CoBB]

dutch has funny words like zeeeend (sea duck, yes that is 4 e's)

Estonian has tööööööbik.

[King Harold]

Estonian has many crazy words, it keeps popping up in "weird word" sites
That word appears to mean "workaholic", how many ö's belong to the first part? 3?

[CoBB]

That word appears to mean "workaholic", how many ö's belong to the first part? 3?

It is composed of three parts: töö - work, öö - night, ööbik - nightingale.

[Timendus]

I stick to Dutch... try making a computer understand how to type "verschrikkelijk" or "schoenenreus"... you people probably can't even pronounce it

But of course, CoBB has a very good point. It depends on your first language. Germans probably wouldn't have as much trouble with Dutch as French people (or Hungarians for that matter ). So, seeing that binary is a computer's first language, which natural language would be closest?

[CoBB]

I stick to Dutch... try making a computer understand how to type "verschrikkelijk" or "schoenenreus"... you people probably can't even pronounce it

What is so special about these words? Indo-European languages don’t really have a complex morphology, as opposed to, say, Turkic or Uralic, let alone Native American ones.

And if you think your language is hard to pronounce, let me introduce Ithkuil.

So, seeing that binary is a computer's first language, which natural language would be closest?

What language is this ‘binary’, huh? Any kind of information composed of a finite set of symbols can be represented in binary, which includes all natural languages. Tim, you’re disappointing me with this nonsense.