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Windows Vista

Rconectn

King of Scotland
Joined
Dec 6, 2003
Messages
463
Location
Miami,FL
I have a laptop that is Windows Vista compatable and was wondering is it worth purchasing $150 for the Home edition upgrade? I'm content with my XP home edition, is it necessary to upgrade or could I wait a year or two?
 
I have a laptop that is Windows Vista compatable and was wondering is it worth purchasing $150 for the Home edition upgrade? I'm content with my XP home edition, is it necessary to upgrade or could I wait a year or two?

I intend to wait as long as is possible. Which knowing me could be a very long time.

There is a very real difference between the XP and the Vista EULA. Under XP's, you own the software, you own the computer and you get to make the decisions. Under Vista's you don't own the software, you don't get to make the decisions and Vista can willy nilly shut down your hardware, even if it works fine, because its not officially licensed by Microsoft. And I say to hell with that. Oh right and Microsoft can give the rights to companies to go snoop around your hard-drive and disable your files so Vista won't play them. Got a ripped copy of your favorite movie on your computer? Your CD? Might not work once you connect to the internet or in the future.
 
Exactly - they are calling it DRM - Digital Rights Management.

Also, consider whether you play games. Vista is using Direct X 10, but is NOT compatible with DX9 or lower. Any game you have that is not Vista Compatible will be a shiny CD you can do nothing with. I'm sure this will be hacked eventually, but was one of the more stupid decisions among very stupid decisions by MS.

There are other reasons to never ever use Vista until you have no choice, but you get the picture....
 
one word...NO
after the 700th patch, maybe..but now....no.
Microshaft is trying to cram this o/s down everyones throat, and XP isn't even close to being secure/finished.
I think Microshafts mantra is "start somthing, but never finish."
Rob
 
There's zero benefit to upgrading, imo. I have yet to see a single feature that would entice someone to upgrade other than a pretty interface.
 
I still don't understand why anybody would not switch to a Mac after hearing all of the complaints about MS.



Apple-logo.png
 
There's zero benefit to upgrading, imo. I have yet to see a single feature that would entice someone to upgrade other than a pretty interface.

* grabs lame mac book and beats JH until apple logo is imprinted on his forhead * LOL There are many reasons to switch, all of which you will defend with the honor of a pious heart, so alas, we will agree to disagree...And kind sir, who here aint a sucker for a pretty (inter)face?

edit: am coffee absent; sentence syntax screwy!
 
Geez Cheekie, you scared the hell out of me. I pulled up CP and see the last post in the lobby is a thread called "Windows Vista" and it has your name as the last poster. My first thought, "Oh no, Cheeks has gone over to the dark side. That bad hard drive must have put her over the edge. We'll have to do an intervention!"

ha, ha, ha

Whew...that was a close one.
 
I'm not going to upgrade to Vista for a long time. Having said that, there is a bit of misinformation here. To be sure, I'm not a Micro$oft apologist, but let's stick to the facts.

< snip>....There is a very real difference between the XP and the Vista EULA. Under XP's, you own the software, you own the computer and you get to make the decisions. Under Vista's you don't own the software, you don't get to make the decisions and Vista can willy nilly shut down your hardware, even if it works fine, because its not officially licensed by Microsoft. And I say to hell with that....
First off, you haven't "owned" your operating system since Windows came out. Every EULA I've ever read says "You are granted an exclusive license to USE this software...blah, blah but Microsoft Corporation retains ownership and the rights that accompany ownership, blah, blah, blah....." The practical effect here is that you aren't supposed to reverse assemble the software, among other things. Most software you buy today is the same way.

As far as "willy nilly shut down your hardware", it's a bit more predictable than that. Vista won't work with hardware drivers that aren't digitally signed. Install an early release of the nVidia reference drivers, and you'll usually get a message before they install warning you that these drivers aren't "certified" and asking you if you want to proceed anyway. In most cases, Vista won't give you that choice. Ever since Windows NT there has been an aspect of the OS called the "hardware abstraction layer". The problem is that some hardware tries to operate directly on memory (DMA) or other hardware which is very fast and normally a very good thing, unless it operates on memory addresses that belong to some other hardware. If the OS detects the hardware doing something it isn't supposed to, it can disable the hardware and prevent it from operating. But, that's been around for some time.

< snip>....Oh right and Microsoft can give the rights to companies to go snoop around your hard-drive and disable your files so Vista won't play them. Got a ripped copy of your favorite movie on your computer? Your CD? Might not work once you connect to the internet or in the future.
Exactly - they are calling it DRM - Digital Rights Management.

....you mean like Google desktop? XP searches and indexes your files today, unless you disable it. And, DRM is with us now. Windows Media Player won't rip most copyrighted CD's. Most software won't rip a new DVD. If a file has DRM content, you bet XP will operate on it, and so will Vista. Sure, there are ways around that.... :whistling: If you don't think XP or XP applications "phone home" now and then, you are wrong. Put a packet sniffer on your broadband port and be amazed at the number of software applications that phone home and ask for permission to run and operate on files on your hard drive. I don't like it either, but Microsoft isn't the only guilty party there, to be sure. Preventing it isn't impossible, but there's a lot of software that disables itself if it can't phone home now and then. That's going on today.

Also, consider whether you play games. Vista is using Direct X 10, but is NOT compatible with DX9 or lower. Any game you have that is not Vista Compatible will be a shiny CD you can do nothing with. I'm sure this will be hacked eventually, but was one of the more stupid decisions among very stupid decisions by MS.
Not true. DX10 is fully backwards compatible with DX9 and earlier. DX10 games are supposed to play just fine on DX9 hardware, but you don't get the "eye candy" that DX10 brings to the table. I suppose a "DX10 only" game isn't out of the question, but it's hard to imagine a game author wanting to limit their target audience so severly. Your games should play fine.....but maybe slower. Tom's Hardware Page did some benchmarking and found Vista to be slower than XP in certain operations.

I guess it depends on how "paraniod" you are. Micro$oft really has their balls in the vise over this one. XP is viewed by many as "virus prone" and "fragile" and "a prime target for spyware and worms". Well, sure it is - its the most widely used OS on the planet. With a little over ten times the number of users that OSx has, it's where the script kiddies and virus authors are most likely to play. FireFox was very secure until they developed a decent sized user base. Now, there are viruses targeted at FireFox. OSx's day will (...has?) come as well. What M$ is trying to do is batten things down, and prevent many of the problems they've had in the past. You can debate if they are doing it the right way or not, but I believe what they are doing is trying to respond to the issues they've had in the past. That, and Balmer needs a new yacht.... :laugh:

Having said all that, you have to understand that I'm not "gung ho" on Vista, either. I like XP a lot. I haven't had spyware or virus issues, but I keep the OS patched and run active virus scanners. I know how to defrag my hard drive, and don't install every download tool and icon library I find on the internet.... :cool: XP does everything I want it to, for now, so it's plenty good enough. I suppose once the first couple of service packs for Vista come out, and once DX10 video hardware comes down in price, and we get a couple of killer DX10 games released.....maybe it'll be a different story. Maybe not.

Cheers - B.B.S.
 
I still don't understand why anybody would not switch to a Mac after hearing all of the complaints about MS.
Simple answer - the apps I use and games I play everyday haven't been ported over to the Mac.

Mac Vs. "WinTel" is a no win argument. It's like arguing over chocolate vs. vanilla and which one is better and why. Both have upsides and downsides.

I think that because the Windows users outnumber the OSx guys at least 10:1 (last survey I saw) you have a lot more "unpaid Beta testers" out there. You'll find more problems, folks do more "creative" things, and you hear about more horror stories that you do with OSx. Nothing is perfect, despite what Mr. Jobs would have you believe..... :cool:

Regards - B.B.S.
 
I still don't understand why anybody would not switch to a Mac after hearing all of the complaints about MS.
Simple answer - the apps I use and games I play everyday haven't been ported over to the Mac.

Mac Vs. "WinTel" is a no win argument. It's like arguing over chocolate vs. vanilla and which one is better and why. Both have upsides and downsides.

I think that because the Windows users outnumber the OSx guys at least 10:1 (last survey I saw) you have a lot more "unpaid Beta testers" out there. You'll find more problems, folks do more "creative" things, and you hear about more horror stories that you do with OSx. Nothing is perfect, despite what Mr. Jobs would have you believe..... :cool:

Regards - B.B.S.

Exactly the reason I sold my mac after two weeks. There is just too much I do on a PC that I simply can't do on a mac. If Jobs would release the OS and allow it to be installed on a PC (where I can have FULL control of my hardware), I'll be the first person to go out and buy OSX. Jobs needs to stop being such a control freak and release OSX to the PC environment, then he'll expand his market share quite a bit, and really compete with M$.

I have no plans to upgrade to Vista, at least not anytime soon. I have the ultimate version running here at work, and there's nothing special about it. OSX blows it away. I also don't like all the DRM stuff. M$ is pro DRM, and from what I hear Apple is against DRM. The next few years should get interesting. I hope Apple makes the right decisions and will allow OSX to run on the PC platform.
 
...truth is, I have a machine in the garage currently running a Linux distro (openSUSE 10.2). It's very compelling, in many ways..... :cool:
 
Geez Cheekie, you scared the hell out of me. I pulled up CP and see the last post in the lobby is a thread called "Windows Vista" and it has your name as the last poster. My first thought, "Oh no, Cheeks has gone over to the dark side. That bad hard drive must have put her over the edge. We'll have to do an intervention!"

ha, ha, ha

Whew...that was a close one.
There are a few things in my life I KNOW- I know that I have a wonderful man, a beautiful family, I have an inate talent to piss some people off and still not care if I do, and I AM A MAC ELITEIST! ( SP?)
If given the option I am all mac all the time- I learned mac- lived mac- loved mac- there is little else when it comes to electronics to me.
When it comes down to PC- I think they serve thier purpose and people love them- MS is well not My personal choice. I would however do linux- Since E is the tech by trade, I let him do what he does uninterupted and with out question... Unless it pertains to MY machine :)
 
I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I'm a long-time PC guy (owned an IBM XT back in the early 80's and have owned a PC ever since). I just recently converted to a Mac (bought my Macbook in Dec '06)...so I've only been using the Mac for a couple of months.

We bought MS Office for the Mac because it was easy (I already know how to use it).

I converted by email (Thunderbird) from Windows to Mac by copying the datafiles (it was that easy!).

I am synching my Treo 600 using the Treo software and desktop.

The digital camera synchs with iPhoto automatically.

The only peripheral that I have problems with is my iPod (it occasionally refuses to synch). What's up with that?

The only application that I haven't yet migrated is my financial app (MS Money - not avail on the mac)...I've been playing with Quicken, but not sure I want to spend enough time doing duplicate work to get used to it.

I bought the small Macbook on purpose...it's easy to carry, very mobile. I've traveled with it and used it at the house, in the car and couple of different hotel rooms. Sometimes I don't turn it off for days at a time (I just close the lid when I'm done, then open the lid when I want to use it). I can put it to sleep at my house and wake it up at my Mom's...it figures out that it has been moved while it was sleeping and reconfigures itself to the new wireless network.

It's easy. I've only cussed at it a couple of times. A few things are retarded, but not as many as in Windows.

I like it.
 
The only application that I haven't yet migrated is my financial app (MS Money - not avail on the mac)...I've been playing with Quicken, but not sure I want to spend enough time doing duplicate work to get used to it.

.... you can always get Virtual PC software and run it in that eviroment.
 
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