Vista and WinFX

I got a spare machine recently, so I tried to install Longhorn beta 1 (now called Windows Vista). Same as old beta versions of Windows, installation is painfully slow. It’s a Dell GX280 with 3GHz CPU and 1GB RAM, but I only partition 10GB hard drive for it. Vista took a whooping 7 something GB after installation, so I kind of doubt if the slowness comes from not having enough swap space. 

Then I install the WinFX SDK and see how the Avalon samples work. Well, they work with some glitches. I can feel the ATI X300’s 3D accelleration is now used (thanks to ATI LDDM driver). But, it’s not smooth enough. You can see flickering everywhere. Move window around? Flickering. Adjusting column width in ListView control? Flickering. Play the WinFX 3D demo? Flickering. I tend to blame that it’s driver’s fault.

Vista’s new look reminds me the good old Enlightment in GNome though. LOL. However, we should give the engineers some whitles and cheers because it’s damn right to have a better looking desktop, period.