As if there wasn't enough going on with Vista RC1 and Longhorn build 5600, the IronPython team decided to release 1.0 final! Go grab it here. I've been thinking about having a look at Python for a little while now, so I'll probably have a bit of a look. It may well turn out to be a tough choice for the administrative scripter looking to ditch VBscript - use something like IronPython, or learn C# and leverage the cmdlets functionality of the new shell (which I refuse to call by the name Microsoft gave it).
In the meantime, my Vista RC1 VM (on Virtual Server 2005 R2 x64) just finished installing, time to check it out! Will post up something about that in the next few days...
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Monday, September 04, 2006
One word for Vista RC1... sweeeeeeeeeeet!
It's definitely an RC... still quite a few little annoyances and bugs, but it's definitely out of Beta. Beta 2 was so unusable I installed it, used it for a few hours, then promptly blew it away. All while taking Bill's name in vain, and convincing myself that Microsoft was about to lose massive market share on the desktop front. But Vista Build 5600 is going the extra mile on my machine. On first impressions, it rocks!
Sure, there are a few niggling things about parts of the interface. And talk about bloat - it was chewing up ~520Mb or RAM while idling. But to be honest, I don't care. As a gamer, I understand the concept of software built for the next generation of hardware all too well. And that's exactly what Vista is. I don't give a damn that I could get a fully functional Linux box running in 1/10th that amount of memory utilisation - I've got 2GB of RAM in my box, what is the point of not using it!!! In a year or 2's time, when Vista adoption is really hitting it's stride, 2Gb of RAM will be standard on a new machine, maybe even sub-standard. And with terabyte drives for the home just around the corner, I don't care about the 11Gb of disk the OS takes up either.
I've taken a bunch of screenies that you can all check out. Over the coming weeks I'll be getting stuck into some application testing, and no doubt giving the ACT 5.0 beta a workout. Just like I did with earlier versions back when I was a desktop engineer doing packaging and compatibility testing for the early XP rollouts. I'll run it up in Virtual Server for that, it will be a good chance to see what Vista is like without Aero, how it runs as a VM, and whether the beta 2 Vista VM addtions do anything.
And speaking of XP, although Vista is very cool, I don't think there will be widespread adoption for a few years. I also predict XP will become another Windows 98 - favoured by gamers and those who want an OS with less overhead. But then again, Xp still has another 6 years of life before support runs out. I'm sure the successor to Vista will be out by then.
And with regards to my previous post, I've never been so happy to be proven so utterly wrong. I was fully prepped to switch to Linux on my desktop (but stick with Windows servers - it's what I know). But after a few days with Vista RC1, I won't be looking at Linux anytime soon, if ever (not counting the service console of ESX ;-)
Sure, there are a few niggling things about parts of the interface. And talk about bloat - it was chewing up ~520Mb or RAM while idling. But to be honest, I don't care. As a gamer, I understand the concept of software built for the next generation of hardware all too well. And that's exactly what Vista is. I don't give a damn that I could get a fully functional Linux box running in 1/10th that amount of memory utilisation - I've got 2GB of RAM in my box, what is the point of not using it!!! In a year or 2's time, when Vista adoption is really hitting it's stride, 2Gb of RAM will be standard on a new machine, maybe even sub-standard. And with terabyte drives for the home just around the corner, I don't care about the 11Gb of disk the OS takes up either.
I've taken a bunch of screenies that you can all check out. Over the coming weeks I'll be getting stuck into some application testing, and no doubt giving the ACT 5.0 beta a workout. Just like I did with earlier versions back when I was a desktop engineer doing packaging and compatibility testing for the early XP rollouts. I'll run it up in Virtual Server for that, it will be a good chance to see what Vista is like without Aero, how it runs as a VM, and whether the beta 2 Vista VM addtions do anything.
And speaking of XP, although Vista is very cool, I don't think there will be widespread adoption for a few years. I also predict XP will become another Windows 98 - favoured by gamers and those who want an OS with less overhead. But then again, Xp still has another 6 years of life before support runs out. I'm sure the successor to Vista will be out by then.
And with regards to my previous post, I've never been so happy to be proven so utterly wrong. I was fully prepped to switch to Linux on my desktop (but stick with Windows servers - it's what I know). But after a few days with Vista RC1, I won't be looking at Linux anytime soon, if ever (not counting the service console of ESX ;-)
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Last chance, Microsoft (anticipatory thoughts on Vista)...
With the Vista RC1 bits flowing through the tubes to my pc as I write this, I'm wondering how much effort I'll put into getting everything working on it... when I could probably get most stuff working on Linux with the same effort (and feel a little bit better about it).
After a string of pretty woeful beta releases, I am hoping build 5600 is all Vista is cracked up to be, otherwise I'm switching to Ubuntu (and will run any non linux stuff I need in an XP VM).
So I'll build up a Ubuntu 6.06 box and stick on VMware Workstation with an XP VM, and then build up a Vista box (thankyou to whoever invented removable HDD racks!) and see which one gets more usage over the coming months until Vista goes RTM (by which time a newer version of Ubuntu should be out, will will probably have XEN built in!)
Watch this space...
After a string of pretty woeful beta releases, I am hoping build 5600 is all Vista is cracked up to be, otherwise I'm switching to Ubuntu (and will run any non linux stuff I need in an XP VM).
So I'll build up a Ubuntu 6.06 box and stick on VMware Workstation with an XP VM, and then build up a Vista box (thankyou to whoever invented removable HDD racks!) and see which one gets more usage over the coming months until Vista goes RTM (by which time a newer version of Ubuntu should be out, will will probably have XEN built in!)
Watch this space...
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
The end of the monolithic kernel is nigh...
There seems to be a bit of conjecture around the net regarding the whole 'hypervisor' / microkernel architecture thing at the moment. And I have to agree with a lot of it. I can see most OS's splitting off into microkernel architectures, running on hypervisors.
My interest was sparked by this video on Channel9... very cool. And now Microsoft going at lengths to interop with XEN makes so much more sense. Who gives a damn what hypervisor is running underneath... you're still going to need a license for every OS you put on top. And with widespread adoption of virtualisation making the hardware, power and cooling costs drop like never before, I'm sure the number of OS 'instances' is set to go through the roof. I can see it happening already where I work, and I'm sure my company is fairly typical in the large enterprise space.
It's also kind of funny to see the squabbling between Novell and Red Hat with regards to XEN support. Novell will only support SLES on XEN, and Red Hat will only initially support RHEL. Cmon babies, that's no way to promote XEN as an enterprise class hypervisor. Even Microsoft officially supports running certain versions of Linux on Virtual Server 2005 R2 (an application), it's hard to swallow that Linux companies won't support competitor distros running on a hypervisor. Hopefully XEN Source will step in and offer some kind of across the board support for any OS running on XEN, like VMware does with it's products.
And I'll bet when the Microsoft hypervisor drops, they'll be providing support for non-Microsoft OSes too!
My interest was sparked by this video on Channel9... very cool. And now Microsoft going at lengths to interop with XEN makes so much more sense. Who gives a damn what hypervisor is running underneath... you're still going to need a license for every OS you put on top. And with widespread adoption of virtualisation making the hardware, power and cooling costs drop like never before, I'm sure the number of OS 'instances' is set to go through the roof. I can see it happening already where I work, and I'm sure my company is fairly typical in the large enterprise space.
It's also kind of funny to see the squabbling between Novell and Red Hat with regards to XEN support. Novell will only support SLES on XEN, and Red Hat will only initially support RHEL. Cmon babies, that's no way to promote XEN as an enterprise class hypervisor. Even Microsoft officially supports running certain versions of Linux on Virtual Server 2005 R2 (an application), it's hard to swallow that Linux companies won't support competitor distros running on a hypervisor. Hopefully XEN Source will step in and offer some kind of across the board support for any OS running on XEN, like VMware does with it's products.
And I'll bet when the Microsoft hypervisor drops, they'll be providing support for non-Microsoft OSes too!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager...
Following on from that last post, Microsoft have released Beta 1 of their VirtualCenter competitor, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (yes, crappy name). I'm downloading the bits now, and will write up something here in the next week or 2... things are going to get very interesting in the near future, especially when Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 ships with full support for Intel VT / AMD Pacifica. Of course I'm sure VMWare server will at least match it in performance, but I'll be interested to see if the gap closes at all on ESX.
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