Windows Vista Overcooked

I just read an interesting article about Windows Vista and why it’s ultimately doomed to failure. For those who don’t know, Windows Vista is Microsoft’s new GUI subsystem in Longhorn. Wheras most GUI systems in operation today utilize old 2D methods for composition and display, Vista will instead use the 3D hardware to shove things out to screen, making it very pretty. So far so good; after all, we have this hardware available, why not use it, right?

The article however, brings up a point I hadn’t considered; currently, computers use the least amount of power when idling. It’s still monsterous, but it’s less than when doing something productive. But with Vista, the 3D card, by far the most power-sucking component in the computer (upwards of 150 Watts at peak!!), will be on ALL THE TIME, even when idling! That’s a lot of power being sucked up just to make things a little marginally prettier.

It gets worse, of course. All that power also leads to lots of heat. Lots of heat means more fans needed. More fans mean even MORE power. Forget laptops, in other words. While one has never really been able to game satisfactorally on the go, now you won’t even be able to type stuff up or just search the Internet without having the laptop hooked into a wall socket! Batteries won’t last more than a few minutes. And all for a little eye candy.

Now consider that laptop sales have outpaced desktops, and one has a reciepe for disaster. If they’re smart, Microsoft will have Vista disable-able. Then again, maybe Microsoft has invested a lot in battery manufacturing stocks or something.

Unless Vista presents some serious improvements in usability (which I doubt, but I could be surprised), it’ll likely be oohed and ahhed over for a few hours before being disabled. If it doesn’t crash and burn.