The eval Microsoft corporation gives away something for free

[Viking]

What great evals are they up to this time? A great effort to sample all your credit card data? A pro-Vista stunt? Maybe, maybe...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

God, what a delicious program. It is better than chocolate and sex combined.


Here's the url of the magnificent feat: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

[Beirut]

I just posted this in the Backroom, but I really feel like this is MS playing catch-up with Google.

[KukriKhan]

My big take-away from this is that Viking runs Windows Vista, and I'm surprised to see that MS dropped the word "Start" from the Start-button. How is a newbie supposed to know where/how to begin?

[Andres]

My big take-away from this is that Viking runs Windows Vista, and I'm surprised to see that MS dropped the word "Start" from the Start-button. How is a newbie supposed to know where/how to begin?

But is it really a start button? After all, it only appears when your PC is already started up.

Instead of removing the word "start" they should have replaced it with something like "button".

[Husar]

Well, I tried this and I'm not too impressed, tried to zoom in on Jupiter as well as Earth or whatever planet it was and neither had any great detail. Google Earth has a lot more detail when zooming in and what's the point of zooming in on Jupiter when I cannot even plan where to build my future starbase because there's absolutely no high-quality footage?

I mean I could get a book about planets and some magnification and spot more details.

The Vista button is obviously called "Windows" because it shows windows and it's also opened by the Windows-button on a keyboard. Calling it "Start" was obviously outdated and confusing for people because when a windows-button on a keyboard activates a button called "Start" then mistakes are bound to happen which is why some keyboards allow to disable the windows-button.

[KukriKhan]

My 82-year old mother-in-law will be confused by the new desktop look when she gets her new machine. I guess I'd better get ready for the long-distance phone calls now.

It took a week of explanations to get her to understand how to copy/paste text.

[Viking]

Well, I tried this and I'm not too impressed, tried to zoom in on Jupiter as well as Earth or whatever planet it was and neither had any great detail. Google Earth has a lot more detail when zooming in and what's the point of zooming in on Jupiter when I cannot even plan where to build my future starbase because there's absolutely no high-quality footage?

Well, good luck setting up your base on a gas planet.

Try a close and water rich neighbour instead:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I mean I could get a book about planets and some magnification and spot more details.

But now you don't have to get your book.

BTW, I find the resolution of Jupiter to be pretty decent, did you select "Planet" from the the "Look At" drop down menu at lower left? (in fact, the data set used is the most detailed ever obtained )

My 82-year old mother-in-law will be confused by the new desktop look when she gets her new machine. I guess I'd better get ready for the long-distance phone calls now.

It took a week of explanations to get her to understand how to copy/paste text.

To me the new "Start" navigation is pretty awkward (well, apart from the new "start" button, which looks good ); but then again, I use my laptop with XP installed just as much as I use the Vista machine, so it's probably just an adation issue.