The upcoming CS3 version of Adobe Photoshop will not include 64-bit version of this popular image-editing software. According to Photoshop co-architect Scott Byer, “at some point it will make sense to do a 64-bit version”.
“It’s definitely a ‘when’ question, not an ‘if’, and there are a lot of factors involved,” Byer said in his blog.
The 64-bit version of Windows Vista operating system is for about 10.9 percent faster than 32-bit Vista, according to the GeekBench benchmark for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows platforms.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit tests were done on a budget AMD Sempron 2800+ powered desktop PC, featuring Asus K8U-X motherboard with 512MB of main memory.
You can join Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates for a live webcast celebrating the worldwide launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System.
You can watch the webcast here:
http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx
Old page version: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer today announces business availability of Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, and Exchange Server 2007 at a press conference in New York City. The webcast begins at 7:35 a.m. PST / 10:35 a.m. EST.
You can watch it in your Media Player by clicking here:
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Although both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista versions are released to manufacturing, there is still no 64-bit Flash Player, making it impossible to view Flash content in 64-bit web browsers. Adobe says its developers are working on Flash Player support for 64-bit platforms as part of company’s “ongoing commitment to the cross-platform compatibility of Flash Player”. But, Adobe hasn’t yet announced timing or release dates.
The company says users currently must use 32-bit Flash Player in 32-bit browser to view Flash content on a 64-bit operating system. In 64-bit Windows Vista both 64-bit and emulated 32-bit Internet Explorer are installed by default. Linux users must install 32-bit browser and 32-bit Flash Player plug-in on their 64-bit operating systems.
Since 64-bit Linux users downgrade their browsers for years in order to use Flash, and since Microsoft’s 64-bit Vista (retail) and Apple’s 64-bit Mac OS X Leopard operating systems are scheduled to ship in January and spring 2007 respectively, we hope that 64-bit Flash will be released by then.
Windows Vista, the new Microsoft’s operating system, is no longer available for pre-order via Amazon.com.
“Because of a Microsoft request, the many versions of the Windows Vista operating system are not currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com. They are estimated to be available January 30, 2007, and you can sign up at right to be notified via e-mail when Vista becomes available for pre-order. If you’ve already pre-ordered Vista at Amazon.com, your order will be fulfilled when the software is available”, the Windows Vista product pages at Amazon.com say.
With Windows Vista release to computer makers this week, Microsoft starts a harder push on the 64-bit version of the company’s new operating system, said Barry Goffe, director in the Windows client product management team. He said that in order to use the Windows Vista logo, device manufacturers must provide their drivers in both (32-bit and 64-bit) versions. “We’re really making sure that 32-bit and 64-bit are equally good choice[s] for a customer,” Goffe said.
The forthcoming Microsoft Windows Vista is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. The Vista will be released on January 30, 2007, according to Amazon.
Here is a simplified list of listed Windows Vista versions.
| Windows Vista Version | Full | Upgrade |
| Windows Vista Home Basic | $199 | $99 |
| Windows Vista Home Premium | $239 | $159 |
| Windows Vista Business | $299 | $199 |
| Windows Vista Ultimate | $399 | $259 |
See full list here: Windows Vista Pre-Order
After Microsoft Senior Program Manager Steve Riley announced that HD DVD and Blu-ray will only play in 64-bit version of forthcoming Windows Vista, because Microsoft intentionally crippled HD DVD and Blu-ray support in Vista 32-bit, Microsoft PR manager Adam Anderson said to CNet that the original statement made by Riley is partially incorrect.
“Any next-generation high definition content will not play in x32 at all. This is a decision that the Media Player folks made because there are just too many ways right now for unsigned kernel mode code [to compromise content protection]. The media companies asked us to do this and said they don’t want any of their high definition content to play in x32 at all, because of all of the unsigned malware that runs in kernel mode can get around content protection, so we had to do this,” Riley said during the TechEd 2006 in Sydney.
But, Anderson says “it is up to the ISVs providing playback solutions to determine whether the intended playback environment, including environments with a 32-bit CPU, meets the performance requirements to allow high-definition playback while supporting the guidelines set forth by the content owners”.
“No version of Windows Vista will make a determination as to whether any given piece of content should play back or not”, Microsoft PR manager tells CNet.
While the 64-bit Windows Vista installation will come with a 32-bit emulation layer called Window on Windows (WOW) which will allow you to run your old 32-bit apps on your 64-bit Vista via emulation, the 32-bit hardware drivers will not work on new Microsoft’s operating system. Opposite to that, recently previewed Mac OS X Leopard will come with 64-bit and full non-emulated 32-bit support.
Dean Pullen in his article for The Inquirer sees Leopard’s non-emulated support for 32-bit applications and drivers as a great advantage compared to 64-bit version of Windows Vista.
“Note that the non-emulated support in OSX is for applications and drivers. 32-bit programs on Vista 64 need to work on WOW emulation to run in Vista, and 32-bit drivers are a no-no. Lack of driver support is the main reason Windows XP x64 hasn’t been widely adopted, and why the Vista fudge will ensure hardware incompatibilities between the two Windows versions remain for sometime to come.
This is quite a boon for OSX, and one that should be highlighted frequently and often,” says Pullen.
ActiveWin reviewed AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ processor. They also installed Windows Vista 64-bit edition on PC featuring Athlon 64 X2 5000+. Here are some quotes from this review with links to its pages.
AMD has been the king of 64-bit computing for some time now and no matter what Intel has attempted to throw in front of them, AMD have hurdled over it. With the release of the new AMD AM2 Motherboards and processors AMD are now not only pushing the envelope on the 64-bit and Dual Core front, they are reducing the amount of energy and power that the processors take up, thus producing quieter and cooler PC’s. The big question is, has the wait for the new AM2 processors and motherboards been worth it? Do we see any benefit from using DDR2 memory compared to the old DDR2 on the previous Socket 939 processors, read on and we’ll find out. This review will also concentrate on the future impact the processor will have when used with Windows Vista, we’ll be putting it through its paces on the newly released beta 2 version of the upcoming Microsoft operating system.
ActiveWin: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Processor- Review
One major enhancement in Windows Vista 64-bit edition is that they provide much improved security features over the plain 32-bit versions. thanks to the No Execute (NX) technology and Data Execution Protection (DEP) which help to try and prevent buffer overflows that are the most common used attacks around today. So all in all everything looks very promising for Windows Vista performance on the latest AMD based processors, personally I can’t wait for the new operating system to come out.
If your computer is a workstation, then Cinebench is a great reference benchmark. The faster your CPU can render the image, the higher the score. The 64-Bit version of the program was used under the 64-Bit OS’, and made a very noticeable difference. Between Vista and x64 though, the performance difference is rather minute.
Super Pi calculates a specified about of digits past the decimal place. In our case, I ran the 8 Million test, which turned out to be in x64’s favor. Overall, x64 shaved 12 seconds off what the 64-Bit version of Vista could do. For minor multi-media benchmarking, I used Nero Recode to recompress a DVD video. I first extracted the video, in this case “Bad Religion - Live At The Palladium”, and used Recode to compress it so that it could be burned to a standard 4.5GB DVD.
The results are odd here. There was a huge hike in 64-Bit Vista with 2GB, but that didn’t happen with 4GB installed. In the end, x64 proved to compress the video more than 2 minutes faster than Vista.
Here is a part of Windows Vista x64 review with link to full story. Vista was installed on 64-bit laptop and 64-bit desktop PC.
I have been running Windows Vista for the last couple of months now on my main work laptop (64-bit AMD Turion, 2Gb ram, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics), which I am typing this up on now, and it’s been running on my Dual Opteron workstation (Dual 2Gz Opteron, 2Gb ram, NVidia 6600 Graphics) at home since I got it and 3 months ago. Since then I have had some minor issues with different builds, but the system works without flaw 99% of the time, if not more. There are some driver issues (namely lack of a sound driver and card reader for my laptop, and I think the issues with the noise from the Opterons may be caused by an older system driver), but this is to be expected for beta software. I haven’t had my system Crash fully in a while now with it running. I have had one or 2 graphics driver crashes, but this did not cause an issue because the graphics driver was unloaded and reloaded and the system stayed up, and everything where I left it.
There is not a lot about x64 (64-bit) I can tell you that you probably don’t already know, but the thing that interests me most about it is the fact that Vista is fully supportive of x64 (64-bit). With Windows XP, x64 did not ship at RTM time, and it was a different kernel to XP. XP was version 5.0 of the kernel, but X64 XP was 5.1, the same kernel as windows 2003 server. This is not a bad thing, as Servers are generally more stable then client machines, but it caused some issues. Also drivers where a problem. Now I know I just said I had driver issues, but if all goes to plan, these will go away. At the moment there are a lot of machines selling with x64 (or EMT64) processors, but a lot of these ship with Windows XP 32 bit edition. I hope that the release of vista will solve this problem and give us some proper support for X64 as a platform.
Tiernans Comms Closet : Windows Vista Review: Part 1: Stability, performance, x64
Windows Vista Beta 2 download is now available. The download is an ISO file of Windows Vista Beta 2, which is about 3.5 gigabytes (GB) for the 32-bit edition or 4.4 GB for the 64-bit edition.
There is also option to have the Windows Vista Beta 2 and RC1 DVD kits sent to your home or office. This option requires payment to cover DVD production, shipping, and handling costs.
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Buying systems with 2GB of RAM and a 128MB-256MB video card isn’t a big deal. The question mark happens when you consider CPUs. Purchasing a a 32-bit CPU vs. a 64-bit CPU is the issue. 32-bit silicon is enough to run Vista, but we definitely like the 64-bit performance. Only trouble is, if you buy a 64-bit CPU today, you’re either wasting it on Windows XP 32-bit, or you’re dealing with loads of driver issues if you opt for Windows XP x64.
My advice is to buy the 64-bit CPU now, run it in 32-bit mode and then move up to a 64-bit OS with the swap to Vista.
It was once uncommon to see servers running Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Opteron processors in IT shops that heavily favored the Windows operating system. But Windows managers no longer rely exclusively on machines with processors made by Intel Corp. Joan Goodchild met with Barry Crume, AMD’s Microsoft Alliance director, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, for his perspective on new trends in Windows hardware, Vista and virtualization.
SearchWinIT.com: Your job, as you describe it, is to make sure AMD and Microsoft products work together. What have you been collaborating on recently
Barry Crume: We are helping Microsoft make all their products with a clear bias toward 64-bit and dual core processors. Recently a lot of the emphasis has been on Vista and it has been exciting to have the challenge of solving some of the complexities of developing an operating system. Developing complex code takes engineers a lot of time and [a lot of testing]. Million-line code problems are tough to solve. It may have complexity on the back side, which means you need a lot of computing horsepower. But at end of day, if it is easy to understand, then we have solved the problem.
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