@Log1c: Yeah but they say it was able to play DVD for an hour longer?! A DVD? I would think that the power to spin the disc and light the display would be MUCH more compared to the power needed to do the processing. Like 80%/20% split respectively. Something's fishy....

future-proof

@thailion: not really going backwards, just tweaking and improving efficiencies. do you really want to work from an antiquated operating system? if you want more support for more robust functions, you're going to have to up your hardware/software. those applications might not be there now, but they will be. when xp came out, no one liked it, it took a crapload of time for people to finally be on board with it.

Anonymoose

@bandit: Code optimization and battery management techniques.

Basically better managment of processes that aren't running are turned off, disc is accessed less randomly, perhaps processor throttling. And so on.

Log1c

How is this possible? Someone please explain.

bandit

If there's one thing Vista was missing it was streamlining. Hopefully, Windows 7 cuts it's bloat or at least makes a lot of that bloat optional.

anonymousryan

And for us who may dual boot it on a Mac, hopefully it will bring this sort of benefit too. Using either XP or Vista has the thing churning out worse battery life normally.

Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine

So I wonder how this would compare to Windows XP? From much (not all) of the news so far, it sounds to me like MS is moving backwards in many ways (which as a Vista user, is a good thing).

thailion

Just in case you guys didn't know how to read the chart. "Taller bars are better."

Rabid Penguin

Sweet, I want this

the_sidewinder

No I do not need an all natural way to make my battery life bigger.

stupid spam emails...

Ibelieveinsandwitches

@future-proof: Yeah that is true. We don't know the exact testing details and marketing numbers are usually fishy (our product is clearly better than X, just look at our graph!)

But still, turning off background processes as well as removing bloat I'm sure doesn't hurt battery life.

Log1c

How hard would it be for microsoft to write on big bold letters at their homepage: "we are sorry, we screwed up, windows vista is a horrible experience. What is even worse, we have stopped selling windows XP to try to look better at investors. Windows 7 will be free to all vista owners, and in the meantime, XP is back worldwide"... Bill is no longer there, so they've got to make some new good reputation...

iam.gmo

@Kaiser-Machead's Cookie-Powered LEGO Machine: Insanely worse...

Lite

@anonymousryan: I agree. Wouldn't it be nice to have an extremely streamlined/unbloated Windows with all the bloating freely downloadable? That way you only add what you do want! Instead of having to remove everything you don't want. Err... somewhat like Linux...

RayLast

(Taller Bars Are Better)

lol

MikeyDay

Of course taller bars are better, they represent battery time life. Taller bars = more time.
I like, however, how XP is not included in this chart. ::raised eyebrow:: Just another reason to completely skip Vista - it's like the new ME.

ShadowBottle

"Taller Bars Are Better"- Surely the tech group is capable of correctly interpreting a graph. Now, the general public......

mykalt45

@RayLast: Linux. who has the time?

Johnny Chimpo

@Rabid Penguin: bigger staff is always better ;)

UofITom

Of course on and on with the lame Vista jokes...just like the new Mac commercials about not putting money into "fixing Vista". Vista doesn't need to be "fixed". It runs fine. I mean Apple controls their hardware and they have issues all the time. MS doesn't control hardware and because you can pick any hardware you want some people and graphics companies felt they didn't have to meet the specs so they had issues...it wasn't the OS. I have had it since release and have had NO PROBLEMS.

Those that prefer Macs? Good for you, but why do you feel the need to repeat sound bites that aren't even true...those Mac commercials actually brainwashed you?

max11221

I'll believe it when I see it.

rdowty

Oh, now I see where my new MacBook Pro (Late 2008)'s battery life while playing DVDs went... to Windows 7!
Pft. Stevie baby, you need to get cracking on these fixes, kk?

hologon

@max11221: Yeah for real. I love macs but I dont have anything shitty to say about vista. It works fine for everyone in the office that wanted to upgrade, so whats the big deal? The Mac commercials are just flamewar starters and I think only serve to make newly converted mac buyers feel secure with their purchases. Old mac guys hate em, windows guys hate em, what the hell is the point!?!

ON TOPIC: Vista is fine and all, but holy shit, Windows 7 looks like a breath of fresh air on every front!!! I'm getting excited to pick it up.

ALT

@bandit: The improvements are done via behind-the-scene changes. However, as future-proof stated, spinning the disk and lighting the display (along with everything necessary to do those 2 things) would make up the bulk of the power usage. Codec improvements can help somewhat along with less bloat, but those numbers definitely seem fishy...or vista was actually far worse at power savings than even its critics stated.

geowrian

@hologon: @max11221:

no, im sorry. My computer crashed three times, today. Vista noticeably sucks. I'm a developer, I work with many OS's all day, from Windows to Linux to Mac (mainly windows) and Vista, well just sucks. It's unreliable and now going i'm to switch back to windows 2003 64, just cuz it sucks so much. Wish it didn't, it does.

Mig255

@mykalt45: yeah, like stupid liberals

cheese3915

Yeah I just wish they would give it a rest. I still hear BSOD diggs when anyone that uses a MS OS hasn't had them from the OS itself in years. Sure you can get it if you are tweaking your system or put in bad hardware but the OS is stable and secure. Macs have kernal panics, bugs in the OS as much as MS does but all you hear is "it just works"...well no it doesn't. ANY problems with vista are HARDWARE problems and MS doesn't make the hardware..

I own an iPhone (hacked), and three iPods...every single one of them has quality issues...BUT I still like them...if I wanted to act like one of the people that bust on vista all the time when they probably don't even have a vista computer...I would say all kinds of crap about the iPhone (and there is PLENTY to talk about there....3G? Hello?...Hello?...can you hear me?...I can't hear...what?...let me call you from someone elses 3G phone...) Smarmy MADE UP crap is just pathetic and irritating.

max11221

im gonna call it train computing. Usually operating systems operate with resources working on a numerical basis (i.e. time), but take away resources that check every 2 seconds, 2 minutes, etc etc, and make it so that it flows with your "natural" work habits, hence the "train" and you have a system that wastes less time, less processing resource, and then less juice.

when you're doing nothing, basically the system should do the same. when you're loading something, let the system load it as fast and as efficient as it can, and when you have a movie running.. dot dot dot, youre just watching, so embed system tasks appropriately with that mpeg4 decoding..

AlanIn4D

@Rabid Penguin: that's what she said!

unkpku has a really long fucking screenname because i saw some other people do it

I realize software is very different from hardware but it's interesting to see a tick/tock effect with the Windows OSes, no?

I mean we get a new OS (new design/architecture) which has improvements upon the old one, for sure, but not without its own mess of problems. Then they take that new OS (design/architecture) and learn to trim it and make it run faster (akin to a die shrink) and better.

Just a thought.

Usama

FYI, the target of the "pile of reasons" link is []

Nickzor

@Anonymoose: What exactly about xp is Antiquated again?

RamV10