The net effect of these concerns may constitute the real Vista revolution as they point to an unprecedented loss of consumer control over their own personal computers. In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user.
Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge. During the installation process, users "activate" Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/175801
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on January 31, 2007]
Note: http://www.thestar.com/...
What You Need To Know About Windows Vista . . .
Posted on Monday, January 29 at 10:36 by drcalebContributed By
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There is a solution for those who don't want the upgrade. Don't! There is a solution for those who don't want Vista to check their copy. Don't buy it. One may ask how Vista would work on those computers not on the internet.
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Expect little from life and get more from it.
It won't. It must periodically check for valid licensing, and the normal home user not on the internet will have to phone Microsoft and validate their copy ocassionally, or whenever they upgrade their hardware. Business clients can set up a licensing server that checks validation.
Personally, I don't care that I have to register it. It's the other stuff I don't like. I haven't installed Media Player 10 or Windows Defender on XP because I don't agree with the part of the EULA where it lets them remove software from my computer at their discretion. IT'S MY FRIGGEN PC!! Why is Media player, a utility to play music and video files, telling me it's going to delete things I've put on my PC?
I *paid* money to use their software, I will use it on my PC in the way that suits me.
And, to be honest, I only use if for games and things that don't work right in Linux. I've got an XP image running in a virtual environment at all times. Vista won't allow me to use it in a virtual environment. Nothing I've seen or used makes me want to upgrade. I just bought a new PC, and for shits and giggles I put the Select version of Vista on it. It wasn't all that great, and it takes away my freedom to use products I purchased in the manner I deem appropriate.
Some have called Vista "The longest corporate suicide note in history". Install Linux, or buy a Mac.
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden
“The European Commission has added its voice to the debate about the use of open source software. A report funded by the Commission concludes that the software could offer considerable savings to organisations with little effect on their business. The report found that in "almost all" cases long-term costs could be reduced by switching from proprietary software produced by firms such as Microsoft”
The above from a BBC report last week, we hope that this includes OS, I have long wished I had an alternate OS that ran software designed for Windoze having been forced to switch from DOS (yes, I held out until I had to change). Linux is out there but it hard to know whether to switch given all the “windows” software that we are almost forced to run, no one has been able to fully answer my question “if I dump MS Windows, can I still run software designed for same?” As a long time computer owner I once in a while dig out an old DOS program and run it on our modern computer and cant believe the speed, most “modern” software is (in my non geek but long user opinion) so “inefficient”. What those old programmers that were limited to 640K (or less) memory would say I just can’t imagine. The decline of user friendliness brought on by Windoze by trying to be all things to all people is probably irreversible as users have been “taught” that the current operating system that more often than not comes with the computer is what you must learn to use a computer, and few know any different.
I really hope that this information make folk really question the OS that comes preloaded with their next new computer, I for one might tolerate Win 2000 but will never purchase a unit with Vista on it. I note that MS has been doing this sort of thing with their other software for some time, I for instance had to go thru the third degree to reload MS Office after a crash. That one may have to actually be on line or call in regularly in order to maintain your OS is totally unacceptable, but most folks will not be aware of that until AFTER they have bought that new toy!
The article ends saying “To continue this uptake, the report recommends "correcting current policies and practices that implicitly or explicitly favour proprietary software". As well as providing incentives to the open source industry it also recommends that schools start to introduce more of the software.
Maybe there is life after Microsoft!
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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp
What files does it remove? I use defender and it did help me remove malware. You can set your media player to not connect and/or check for licensing update.
I agree, that if you don't like MS, Linux and Mac is the way to go. I have no reason to change to Vista but wonder about seniors I know, that never did connect on the Internet. Perhaps the upgrades are only relevant if you do.
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Expect little from life and get more from it.
No, it's not Linux, and yes I do use Linux when I want to do funky stuff.
My two current favourite versions of Linux are Ubuntu and Knoppix.
And when I want to go retro I use my 866 with a stripped down version on 95C on it. It's stable, faster than a bat out of hell, and with Opera browser installed and the appropriate java version can do pretty much anything I can do on my Athhon, only faster.
Vista will probably prove to be the ultimate resource hog, and just between you and me anyone who actually trusts it deserves what they get (or don't get).
Just one question: why does the latest and greatest from Microsoft never seem to outrun an old 386 running Win3.11 when it comes to booting up, and running applications?
I paid for speed, but I sure don't get it running stock.
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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"
"The Weapon" - Rush
I don't have to buy a Mac since I already have one.
Screw Microsoft and their invasion of privacy rubbish
software.
The license states anything it (Microsoft) deems 'harmful'. So, anything Microsoft doesn't like, as 'harmful' is not defined. I've had WinDefender remove .DLL's for Norton Antivirus, and Distributed.net. Both things I really liked.
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden
<br />
Don't be. Unbuntu is quite pretty { <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">http://www.ubuntu.com/</a> }. Knoppix has a 'live CD'. { <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html">http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html</a> } where you download the CD, reboot and you can try it out. It installs nothing, so it leaves your system the way it is.<br />
<br />
If all you need, like most people, is a web browser and some basic office functionality, Linux is for you. <p>---<br>"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden<br />
Crappy programming techniques. Need for backwards compatability. Laziness. A combination of those.
I used to write programs for 1kB microcontrollers, with 16 bytes (!) of ram. You learn some real tricks when you are confined by such space. When you have up to 2G of ram, you don't care about optimizations.
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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden
If you applied MS logic to other common household items, we'd need a TV for every family member; be unable to have more than one person wwatching at the same time and the TV would let us know what was 'good' for us to watch; our toasters would accept only 'approved' bread and no darker/lighter dial would be required, as the toaster would be best fit to determine what we 'need'; our car would have to contact the manufacturer to determine whether the oil we were putting in it was 'acceptable' and spew it into our driveway if not, we'd be unable to read stories to our children because more than one user of a book at the same time would be verboten, etc., all in our 'best interests' of course.
In some ways seems to be a corporate parallel to the 'statist' nightmare world that haunts some of the 'right' persuasion. Like I really need my printer frantically informing me that it 'can't guarantee good results' when I stick in a generic ($5 rather than the printer manufacturer's $30) ink cartridge or some corporation monitoring my behaviour to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Geez, if some companies are so worried about copyright infringement, why not just lower the price on their products to one most consumers see as fair; cut a few executive salaries to defray the price decrease and stop using business practices that strike many simply as 'I do it because I can' monopolistic greed? Treating most consumers like they're fraud artists waiting to happen is a dubious business model at best, which may in the long run be a good thing for consumers who wise up and walk away.
With open source Linux distributions like PCLinux, Ubuntu, etc. that provide an 'Windows' environment in KDE and Gnome, easy installation; ease of use for the non-techy and all the office (with ability to save in MS format), graphics, multimedia, etc. software anyone could want without making you shell out hundreds of bucks on top of your MS Windows purchase to get it, there's absolutely no reason for the average home user to put up with the MS way of doing things. Except for of course games, and Cedega lets you play most of the popular ones in Linux anyway.
Or you can buy a Mac (and that commercial with PC in a hospital gown in preparation for his 'upgrade' is hilarious.).
On the other hand, while there are undeniable benefits from computers, I still think the whole office computer (running Windows) enhancing productivity will end up being the greatest 20th century con jobs, as all they generally end up 'enhancing' is the ability to generate meaningless, timewasting crap. e.g., 'high priority' email. that most would never have bothered back in the typewritten memo days.
Not to mention all the blackberry type gizmos that only further enslave folks to their jobs in the name of 'productivity'.
And who really needs to watch TV on a cell phone?
Good place for us little guys to strike a blow is just to say no to MS and live a healthy open source life, giving some donations along the way. Just looking at some of the effort that's gone into the open source stuff is an interesting rebuttal to the argument that most will only 'perform' when motivated by financial profit.
Mumble, mumble mumble (and here endeth the sort of off topic rant)
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"When we are in the middle of the paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm" (Adam Smith).
<br />
To add you your car analogy; if you don't take your car in for approved service, the manufacturer will spray paint all the glass black, except for a small patch so you can safely park it in a designated spot.<br />
<br />
ie: if you don't register Vista, it will revert to browser only funtionality until it is registered.<br />
<br />
More on Vista vs Mac Vs Linux:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6309425.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6309425.stm</a><p>---<br>"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden<br />
<<Cal! Another long lost user returns! Welcome back!>>
I've been lurking around from time to time however, haven't had much to say. Found the last year of Canadian politics to be at best rather discouraging.
Reading the Windows reviews, I can't help but fondly think back to the days (not so long ago) of MS DOS and neat little games and other applications that came on 1.4M floppy disks. The days before you needed a gig of RAM and 'upgraded' components, or a whole new PC, to 'optimally' run a disk operating system.
Anyway, KDE still looks better than XP, not that I'm a graphics type of guy, and Linux does the trick for me.
Interesting how in the open source 'grub' world an OS can be one of many and in the MS world 'there can be only one' (unless you installed Linux first and made Win co-exist.).
Have to confess though that I did break down and buy a used XP loaded celeron awhile back. If you're doing stuff on the web it's amazing how a great looking site in Firefox can look like crap in IE and this is a good thing for anyone putting up a site to know and check out before seeking visitors. Was never able to figure out how to run IE under Linux, though apparently it's possible, so had to travel to the dark side, again.
Off topic, is it just me or is it a lot more quiet here without the anons and an emphasis on derailing pointless insult laden discussions before they start? Can't help but notice that web forums that allow boneheaded bickering and abusive conversations seem to see a lot more 'commentary' (not that I miss that here). Says something about the state of web 'discourse' amongst keyboard warriors, I guess.
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"When we are in the middle of the paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm" (Adam Smith).