Muy buena Vista!

I recently upgraded my Dell laptop to Windows Vista Ultimate and have been running it for the past 11 days. I have used the betas and release candidates in the past but always in a dual boot configuration. This time, I took the plunge and decided to make Vista my primary operating system.

After backing up my files to my home network, I put in the DVD and let Microsoft take over. The install was smooth and painless, and in within the hour I was up and running. I had to install a few updates, and that was it. A brand spanking new OS on my old Inspiron 8600.

Now, my laptop is a few years old, but when I got it, it was pretty sweet. I have now upgraded it to 2GB RAM, but the rest is the same...a Pentium M 1700Mhz, 60 GB 7200 RPM hard drive, and ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 with 128MB RAM. Not too shabby, but definitely not a power gaming machine. Vista rates my laptop a 3.5 on the Windows Experience Index, a scale from 1 to 5.9, where the lowest number your PC gets in any of the five categories (Processor, RAM, Graphics, Gaming Graphics, and Primary Hard Disk) becomes your overall score. In other words, it's not an average. It's a "long pole", or "bottleneck" rating. In any case, I think a 3.5 is not too bad for a laptop. It allows me to run all the bells and whistles, including the Aero UI.

I was concerned about ATI drivers that supported OpenGL properly, since none have been seen with any of the betas or release candidates, and I need to be able to run Second Life, an OpenGL application. I decided to take the leap anyway, since I could still login to SL with my desktop machine if I couldn't get it to work in Vista.

The good news is that ATI had upgraded drivers, and OpenGL support was part of the update, but the bad news is that they still caused SL to crash on startup. After searching a bit, I found VistaSL, a homebrew version of the SL client that had removed some of the offending OpenGL calls to get it to run in Vista. Works like a charm! Granted, this is a temporary solution, and updated ATI drivers and a proper SL client from Linden Labs would be best.

In any case, in the 11 days I've been running Vista, I've managed to do a few things:

• Get a working version of Second Life
• Install Virtual PC 2007
• Get Windows XP SP2 to run in a virtual machine
• Get Linux (Ubuntu v6.10) to run in a virtual machine
• Install a sidebar gadget called Vista Hot Corners that provides Exposé-like window shuffling
• Install Outlook, Photoshop, Firefox, VNC, SnagIt, Trillian, Notepad++, and TweakVI
• Burn a DVD (with Windows DVD Maker) of short video clips I had laying around, complete with animated menus and scene selections.

And so far, it's been a treat! Being able to run Windows XP is great since I can still have access to IE6 if I need to test any web pages. Also, it's fun to play with Ubuntu as well. Windows DVD Maker was drop dead simple, and the result was very professional looking.

It seems to me that everything is running just as well or better as with XP (with the exception of Second Life, which seems a bit choppier, but that may be the result of ATI's bad OpenGL support mixed with an unoptimized SL client).

All I have to say so far is that Vista is a definite step up from XP, but could benefit from better driver support from ATI. Hopefully that will come in time.

Bottom line: Muy buena Vista!

Second Life forums closing...

Yes, it looks like Linden Labs is phasing out the community forums in favor of blogs and in-world forms of communication. This has, of course, started an outcry from some residents, while others are praising the decision.

Personally, I think this could be a good thing if newer forms of communication make it easier for residents. Discussion boards are one of the first community driven communications mediums used widely on the Web. With Web 2.0 sites pushing the envelope on social networking and communication, I think it may be time to update and move into the new century for many sites.

Second Life has a huge social aspect to it, and using a dated out-of-game discussion platform feels a bit odd to me. Let's hope newer and more interactive forms of discussion are in the works!

P.S. I think there is still a place for discussion forums, but more along the 3rd party route. Fan sites, help sites, group sites, etc, are the perfect place for niche discussions. Just sayin'.

Second Life's creator answers protesters

Philip Rosedale, Linden Lab CEO and creator of online virtual world Second Life, writes in his blog about SL's third birthday, the protesters, and the future. He makes some interesting points, which make me think he's either a true visionary, or a little bit on the crazy side. Probably a bit of both.

Second Life turns 3 today...amidst protests from residents

The online virtual world of Second Life turns 3 years old today. Unfortunately, in-world protesters promise to bring the festivities down a notch.

Recently, Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, changed their policy of requiring a credit card as age verification to sign up. Many residents are concerned that this is going to let in a rash of griefers and script kiddies that frequently cause problems by scamming people and causing grid crashes.

The protests today are designed to get Linden Lab to rethink their new "no credit card" policy to minimize the influx of teen sign ons. Linden Lab also runs a teen only grid for Second Life, and that's where the teens belong, according to the protesters.

To me, this is a case of art imitating real life. When large groups of people get together, there are always conflicts, and the vocal protest. In this case, they may just have a point, but I will not support the protests during SL's birthday. It's supposed to be a celebration. Let's make it one and save the whales another day.