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Microsoft pans vLite
THE GLORIOUS empire of the Vole, upon which the sun does not set, is miffed that people would want to slim down its flagship operating system, Vista.
Earlier this week we mentioned a third party application, called vLite that offered to turn Vista from an over-bloated slug into something a bit closer to British Medical Association guidelines on obesity.
Speaking to News.com, a huffy SpokesVole did not bless such changes that strip out applications from Windows Vista prior to installing it on your system.
He hinted darkly that one day you might need one of those applications and your cut down operating system will fail you in your hour of need.
Future Windows updates and service packs could be impossible to download and your system will become unstable.
Apparently, the Vole does have a project as part of its Windows 7 development process, to create a slimmed-down Windows kernel called MinWin. Pity about the name as any Goon fan knows Min was an ancient crone who seems on the verge of breaking down. In ancient Egypt the God of fertility, Min, also had huge gonads.
More here. ยต
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All we need now is a DRMLite, HardwarePollingLite, and PhoneHomeLite versions of VLite!

Why doesn't Microsoft allow a custom install on Vista in the first place?

And when are they actually going to come clean and tell us how many services Vista phones home with?
I think if an OS is so slow, bloated, and resource-intensive that is sucks worse than its predecessor then making it "slimmer" by removing chunks of its core applications seems like a waste of time.
Formatting your hard drive and installing XP, or a Linux distro, takes far less effort and is much less interesting - and you get to keep the built-in email app!!
Vista is not slow and bloated due to poor programming -- it is slow because it was not desgined for the comsumer (aka "buyer" aka "person out 400 bucks." It's made with Microsoft's, the MPAA's, the RIAA's, anyone BUT the buyer's interest in mind.
Microsoft, you can stick this one up the ole' pipe-hole.
When you remember the basics of business ethics and customer satisfaction, let me know.
>>MinWIn
Ok, author, get this straight for the freaking LAST TIME. There are two versions of MinWin. 

The first one is the insternally used one MS uses to design and profile the kernel portion of ALL NT OSes, it was also used in creating WinCE, as WinCE is a variant of NT4's fork but is striped of layering and most of the kernel API features that are not needed in an appliance OS. It has been around forever and isn't much different than the demoed MinWin.

The second MinWin is the one demonstrated by the Microsoft employee in a presentation. It IS NOT Windows 7, NOR A precursor to Windows 7. It IS a compiled version of the Vista NT kernel (slightly newer build is all) that is absent of the Subsystem API interfaces to the kernel and these are replaced with a basic HTTP server handling User I/O. What this means is that the MinWin that YOU and other think is 'smaller' or WIndows7 is actually NO ANY DIFFERENT than the NT kernel in Vista. The Vista NT kernel is also VERY TINY, and if the subsystem APIs were removed would be exactly the MinWin you watched in the demonstration. Get your facts straight as this makes any subject or insight comments discredited and worthless.

To repeat, MinWin is just the kernel portion of the NT os without the subsystem API interfaces or the subsystems. (Thinked a layered OS with a client/server hybrid kernel = NT)

So Windows 7 is just like Vista, using the same NT kernel technology and architecture. PERIOD. This is nothing new. 

What people see as 'bloated' in Vista is all the subsystems i.e. Win32, compatibility,and duality. For example Vista has BOTH the new WDDM video driver and subsystem model and the XPDM. 

Both are completely different, render different, different drivers models, and provide a completely different set of features. YET Vista supports both of these driver models without people even realizing they are different (a testiment to the compatibility MS pulled off in Vista).

So when you provide two sets of technology then the OS size grows. 

Drop two Video subsystem driver models, Audio, Printer, intercomminication systems, conversions (GDI-XPS) etc into any OS and it will be significantly larger. (PS other OSes can't even do this, it takes something like the NT kernel technology to split the driver models like this. Trying to implement two video subsystem on OS X or Linux would simply not work.)

So these 'dual' systems for new technology and legacy take up HD space, but they aren't running at the same time so they aren't slowing Vista down.

Back to the Vista Kernel and MinWin, go look up information on Inside NT. The original NT HAL was 64KB back in 1992. In Vista it is STILL under 256KB. (XP was under 150KB). And this is the low layer that has to deal with all the new technologies and providing compatible interfaces to hardware.

So the presented MinWin is a slightly newer build of the Vista NT kernel, but it isn't any different other than having the upper layers removed for the sake of presentation and internal testing, and Windows 7 will AGAIn tack all the Win32 subsystem and all the other NT kernel interface APIs back on when it is shipped.

Understand?


>>Why doesn't Microsoft allow a custom install on Vista in the first place? 

They do and have had forever. Ask any OEM or IT person that deploys Windows. In fact the tools the vLite author is using to strip the OS are MS's customizing tools to create a new slipstream install. The trick is most people don't know what 'other' features can be removed without breaking the OS, and the vLite person/people is trying to figure out what does what and removing what THEY believe to be unecessary. However by doing this, you are breaking the OS even if you don't realize it. 

Takeing out features even like the picture viewer is only going to PO users and saves SO little in HD space. Also removing the backup of the Vista DVD on the HD reduces Vista's internal repair systems that allow it to keep the OS running even if an authorized program or corruption messes with system files.

Home users truly have no need for custom installs 99% of the time, and anyone that has ANY tech knowledge knows how ot create a custom Install DVD.

mate, you seriously need to calm down. and you seem to have missed the point completely.

this isn't about saving a few megabytes of HD space or a few CPU cycles. this is about CHOICE. the fact is, i don't care how little resources these components take up, some people just don't want them there on principle. vLite provides a very convenient way to remove those unwanted components without having to learn how to create a custom install DVD.

and so SP1 might break Vista when you install it thanks to vLite. well, if you're smart enough to use vLite to remove components in the first place, you're also smart enough to use vLite to slipstream SP1 into a new install as and when it arrives, and create another custom install... hence breaking nothing.

MS are issuing this warning not because of support issues generated by your mum creating her own vLite installations. this warning is coming out to supress vLite's popularity which is further reinforcing Vista's already appalling reputation as a bloated and inefficient OS.
Are you sure linux only supports 1 video subsystem?
@TheNetAvenger demonstrates typical FUD from M$. LINUX, BSD, UNIX, etc. have *always* had the ability to run multiple video ( and other) subsystems. I do it at work *constantly* with 4 video card of different vendors and thus drivers, running to a pair of monitors each.

Running different brands, and thus drivers of network cards is prevalent also, thus routers.

I solved the VISTA bloat by dual booting FreeBSD and XP for the crap like Flash videos that constantly change their compatibility.