The Vista Brick... your old PC?

[Cyberman]

Things are about to get interesting! Remember Vista is here. Everyone jump off the nearest cliff to get it.

More seriously read this, before considering using Vista.
Also of interest Vista Pricing.


And remember Buena Vista!

Cyb

 

[ScottJC]

Too late, i'm already using Vista - and I love it... besides I don't ever buy songs online or videos

 

[thepreserver]

As long as Vista plays DivX encoded movies well, then I'm fine with it.

 

[t0rek]

Too late, i'm already using Vista - and I love it... besides I don't ever buy songs online or videos

RC1 or RTM? Legal one or cracked one? Just curious. BTW everyone will end using Vista after all, every single windows release comes with the same people whining

 

[Cyberman]

I didn't whine about Win2K .. Xp yes.. Vista.. well things could get interesting. Don't forget that they now have control of your PC.

Literally.

I wonder if I can get Scott JC to learn to tap dance

Cyb

 

[ScottJC]

RC1 or RTM? Legal one or cracked one? Just curious. BTW everyone will end using Vista after all, every single windows release comes with the same people whining

RTM of course, and i'd never dream of cracking it.

As for 'they have control of your pc', uhh, no they don't - that's paranoia... you need to see a shrink buddy.

 

[t0rek]

Well indeed is somekind of paranoia, and I have some authority to say that

 

[Cyberman]

People make lots of plans. My current plan is no Vista. I suppose we'll find out soon enough. Although I do see the death knell of win2k on the horizon.

I guess that only means I need to stop using windows for playing games

Erstwhile I'm not fond of control freaks. We have too many of the like ... I guess it's how they can feel like they have some control of there lives. Vista is too far off. Now things as I said will get interesting (as in the Chinese proverb interesting).

Cyb

 

[t0rek]

I'm not getting Vista yet, but I know I'll get it sometime

 

[Toasty]

Copy-protection is just so stupid. Savvy copyright infringers will always find a way to circumvent any content protection scheme, so all it really does is rack up prices and hassles for the people who actually pay for the content and equipment. They encourage piracy this way. The entertainment industry could simply sell unencrypted content; honest people would buy it and pirates would steal it.

Now, they throw in this ridiculous copy-protection technology; pirates still steal (both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have been successfully cracked already), but the honest customers start thinking, "Hmm, I can spend a small fortune on new, HDCP compliant equipment/software and then have to shell out even more cash for the actual movies or... I can use the perfectly good computer that I already have (which is perfectly capable of playing unencrypted HD content) and acquire unencrypted copies of movies from my buddy down the street with the 10Mbps connection - all without paying a dime."

They claim that copy-protection is here to keep honest people honest, but it has exactly the opposite effect. It's more the entertainment industry's fault, but Microsoft is doing an outstanding job of cooperating with them. I can live without Vista and plan on doing so until I can watch whichever HD format wins on it - without upgrading my PC (aside from a new optical drive, since that's the only thing that I should have to upgrade). Unfortunately for the entertainment industry, they are much less willing to sell the people what they want than the hackers, who will give the people what they want for free.

 

[Doomulation]

Well, you know... if Microsoft doesn't agree to do DRM, they could simply ban PCs from playing the content. And who gets the blame? That's right - Microsoft. And they don't want that. The blame isn't entirely on Microsoft. I'm not saying DRM is good and that it should be in Vista, but I think the entertainment industry forced it down Microsoft's throat.
And DRM is here for one purpose only - companies want CONTROL over how you use their material. It isn't here to prevent copying it (they know it will be cracked), but more to limit honest customer's abilities on using it. Gimme $10 each time you watch that movie, j00!

 

[WhiteX]

Windows' anti-piracy component, WGA (or in Vista's case its successor Software Protection Platform, SPP), is tied to system hardware components. Windows allows you to make a small number of system hardware changes after which you need to renew your Windows license (the exact details of what you can and can't get away with changing has been the subject of much debate)

They want to own us, a dude can´t have his PC fried without having to "renew your license", now what is the cost of that?

Vista's content protection requires that devices (hardware and software drivers) set so-called “tilt bits” if they detect anything unusual. For example if there are unusual voltage fluctuations, maybe some jitter on bus signals, a slightly funny return code from a function call, a device register that doesn't contain quite the value that was expected, or anything similar, a tilt bit gets set. Such occurrences aren't too uncommon in a typical computer. For example starting up or plugging in a bus-powered device may cause a small glitch in power supply voltages, or drivers may not quite manage device state as precisely as they think.

This is to shut down cheap PSU´s manufacturers and not allowing used hardware.

“Company shall promptly redesign the affected product [...] if such redesign is not possible or practical, cease manufacturing and selling such product”.

WHAT IS THAT? They want to tell ppl how to build their products.

Again, it is important to note that this could only occur in the case of watching the highest-grade premium content, such as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. In practice I doubt it would ever actually happen.

The M$ dude dobts anyone will ever watch premium content on Vista!

Sorry about the big block of text but the cost of that is passed to the consumers....

 

[Miretank]

I tried Vista, it's cool. Even with 512mb of RAM, it runs well. This thing about DRM and stuff is not a nightmare. I guess you can turn off that shit by tweaking some services. Vista is, definately, a good choice.

But...

As the doc says, vista has decreased playback quality. But i guess it's not to be worried about. Our currently hardware won't even handle vista at it's max. So, for me, that's not a prob.

And the other thing that scares me is Vista performance with games. I didn't try games on it, but I heard they'll slow down, comparing to XP. Since my PC is for gaming too, I feel afraid of updating to the new OS and getting fucked to play games.

So, right now, I'd/I'll stick up with windows XP. It's satisfying my needs, both in performance and gaming. I might install Vista in some small partition (if you can say that 15GB is "small" for an only 40GB HDD) to try out the new DWM and Aero.

 

[t0rek]

Windows' anti-piracy component, WGA (or in Vista's case its successor Software Protection Platform, SPP), is tied to system hardware components. Windows allows you to make a small number of system hardware changes after which you need to renew your Windows license (the exact details of what you can and can't get away with changing has been the subject of much debate)

That was the originally planned issue with the license, MS fixed that for RTM AFAIK

 

[Stezo2k]

I myself wont be upgrading to vista for a long time, XP has been great for me and I havent had a problem with it. I cant think of anything new that would attract me to vista

 

[BlueFalcon7]

Well I did find OEM copies (yes, legal) of Vista x64 ultamate for about $220 at my local computer store. But personally, Im happy with my legally cractivated copy of windows XP x64.

About this whole "legally buying" business, I think its BS, all that stuff that they tell you is what they want you to think. The truth is, everything has a failsafe, and there is nothing thats completely safe from being cracked. Pretty much all the music/movie industry does, is sue people for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They want their money, and thats all they care about. I dont support that.

 

[ScottJC]

As the doc says, vista has decreased playback quality. But i guess it's not to be worried about. Our currently hardware won't even handle vista at it's max. So, for me, that's not a prob.

And the other thing that scares me is Vista performance with games. I didn't try games on it, but I heard they'll slow down, comparing to XP. Since my PC is for gaming too, I feel afraid of updating to the new OS and getting fucked to play games.

Nope, my system handles it flawlessly, almost no speed difference from XP - very fast, I have 2gb of ram mind you that might have something to do with it - Games are identical for me, I never noticed a single difference; The only problem is ATI and Opengl not supporting opengl so I can't play games like Prey yet.

Vista for games is just as good as XP is if not better. (DirectX 10)

 

[Hexidecimal]

That pricing is inaccurate, Newegg has Vista Home Premium for 119. OEM.

I'll probably being using Home Premium on my living room Media Center, and Enterprise on my main rig.

 

[Hexidecimal]

Running Enterprise now, runs a lot smoother then Home Premium or Ultimate, what with none of the EHShell.exe stuff and all its required files continually running.

 

[Miretank]

Installed Vista. It's AWESOME.

But this rig I'm on now is not thaaat powerful. 512MB of ram is not enough and I can't run much things simultaneously. And I'm having probs with my video card, GeForce 6200. Can't get any nVidia forceware that installs/works properly.

Nope, my system handles it flawlessly, almost no speed difference from XP - very fast, I have 2gb of ram mind you that might have something to do with it - Games are identical for me, I never noticed a single difference;

I see, your rig is better than mine. 2GB is more than enough for Vista. No wonder why you've got a nice performance with it.

What I will do is to make a vista partition and a XP partition (XP for games, Vista for desktop/internet).


But in overall, Vista OWNS XP.