Vista draining laptop batteries, patience

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6181366.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn

Some of Microsoft's most important customers aren't happy with the battery life offered by notebooks running Windows Vista.

"It's a little scary," said John Wozniak, a distinguished technologist in Hewlett-Packard's notebook engineering department, referring to the work HP needed to do on making Windows Vista more suitable for notebooks.

Vista, while touted as having improved power management capabilities that would make it easier for users to extend battery life, isn't to some living up to that promise. The main culprit appears to be the Aero Glass interface, a spiffy new user interface that makes Vista more pleasing to the eye with transparent windows and animated transitions when moving from one application to another.

When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP.

Microsoft made some important changes in Vista that do improve some aspects of battery life, such as smarter hibernation modes that override applications that want to keep running, and simpler options for choosing a power management setting. But laptop users who spent extra money on powerful laptops to handle the graphics requirements of Vista and the Aero interface are forced to run the aesthetic equivalent of Vista Basic, the low-cost version of Vista, if they care about battery life.

[Deja Q]

1. 5 years in the making and yet the offshored or nixed the QC department entirely...

Quality Control. I've noticed a lot of things they could have improved on and I certainly don't give information for free. That's as bad as buying a t-shirt with a corporate name on it that's sold for 4x its worth because of the corporate name and then go about wearing it. If corporations want advertising, they can pay for it like they already do via every other venue.

Microsoft ought to hire me. Or am I too much a pasty honky-ass yankee expensive American for their liking?


(Though, that stated, there are things in Vista I sincerely applaud... but still...)