Vista and 3D driver quality (failsafe)

[wireframe]

With previous versions of Windows we have basically had Direct3D and OpenGL installed on top of the OS to add some extra functionality. In some cases the the API or the driver installation have failed so that 3D rendering could not take place or wasn't done properly. With Windows Vista the whole system relies on the funcationality of the Direct3D API and the driver and it won't just be games launching with a black screen to later crash back to the desktop. Everything needs it. So, how has Microsoft set up the failsafe in Vista? Is there a pure 2D mode and still a console to fall back on to repair things when they go (very very) wrong?

With the introduction of Windows XP, Microsoft made some presentations about its (re-)commitment to console command equivalency. Has this moved forward to the point where we can expect some sort of UNIX-like equivalency in Vista or was this just a small sideshow? It seems to me that a powerful console interface would come in very handy the further technology raises the bar for the default desktop.

 

[Goragoth]

There is a GDI fully 2D fallback mode for old systems in Vista and I would imagine that a boot in safe mode would result in getting this GUI mode. This would allow you to fix any driver problems. Additionally, the graphics drivers are no longer in kernel mode and thus can be restarted easily without causing a BSOD when they crash (not that this helps if your driver install is entirely borked).

As for the commandline (code name Monad) this will ship seperately from Vista at a later date but should finally hopefully provide a decent commandline for Windows (currently I run Cygwin on my machine to at least get some of the nice Unix commandline goodness, how Monad will compare to this is still uncertain). I am pretty sure that there will not be any true command prompt only mode (there was a talk of a Windows Server version that could run in commandline only mode but AFAIK this has been scrapt).

 

[Frank]

Well, as you could run programs on any computer in the network on *nix more than 10 years ago, and could manage it all from any place whatever and however for more than 20 years, and coinsidering that you really need to use RDC or VNC to take over the desktop to manage any Windows server, which is only possible for about five years or so, I think the best advice would be:

Don't hold your breath.