Well, I'll be yet another person to link to
this preview for Longhorn at winsupersite.com, but it really covers a lot of new details about what's in Longhorn. Especially interesting for me were the bits about the new graphics engine. I really enjoy using GDI+ (much more than GDI at least), but the DCE sounds really cool.
"To fix these problems, Microsoft has created the Desktop Composition Engine, a new low-level graphics engine that works in an entirely different way than GDI/GDI+. In the DCE, each application renders Each application renders to a back buffer instead of directly onscreen. Windows then composes the desktop on every frame using these back buffers, and effects are applied to some windows where appropriate; these effects include, but are not limited to transparency, 3D transforms, and visual effects like re-coloring (which will be nice for the high contrast modes used for accessibility). "We use DirectX to render the desktop," Hammil noted, "and it will run on the version of DirectX that is included in Longhorn." This version is currently code-named DirectX/LH."Yeah, I'm gonna have to try my hardest to make to to the PDC:
"Hammil said the APIs will debut this fall at the PDC and will include 2D vector graphics, 3D graphics, digital imaging, ClearType text, and video capabilities to developers."
Looks like Don is
considering purchasing one of the new
17" PowerBooks(AKA "Lapzilla"). I have to admit that I'm right there with him. My girlfriend has had a 15" PowerBook for around 9 months now and I try to steal it whenever I can. The hardware is very slick. The PowerBook's slot-loading cd-rom is a great idea. I always feel like I'm going to break the tray of my laptop's cd-rom. I really like using OSX, too. There's just something about a UNIX-based system that "just works." If the .NET Framework is ever ported, it'll be hard to hold me back. Oh, and as my girlfriend says "It's pretty."
I've used VPC on my girlfriend's PowerBook a few times. I've not used VPC on my PC so I cant compare the speed directly, but I estimate that VPC running on the 800mhz PowerBook runs about like my 400mhz laptop (I know, it's old). Using Visual Studio .NET was quite painful. This may be due to the fact that VPC was only giving 160mb ram to Windows and once it starts swapping it's all over... I'm sure you can give more ram to VPC and the PowerBooks can go to 1gig.
I've not used RDP, but VPC on the PowerBook does not use the full screen. If you fullscreen VPC you get some black areas on the sides because the screen is widescreen and can do 1280x854 but Windows is running in 1024x768. I did not mess with the resolution in VPC too much so it might be possible to run at the same resolution. But if not, a lot of the 17" screen would go unused. I'll test this out next time I find the PowerBook unguarded.