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The Elephant in the Room - Vista Upgrades
Threepio
New Westminster, BCRegistered User regular
New Westminster, BCRegistered User regular
It's now 21 days until the launch of Windows Vista. When compared to the excitement generated by Windows 95 (incredibly high - I had a poster of the new desktop in my room - thanks PC Mag!), by Windows 98 (muted, but a relief after 95), and by Windows XP (oh, thank god we don't have to deal with Millennium anymore), this launch has been very quiet.
Since XP I've switched to an entirely Mac based setup (outside of my office PC), but it's an Intel Mac setup with Bootcamp and Parallels, so I've still got my finger in the Windows pie.
Vista's had a Sony-esque experience marketing their new flagship program. The Notebook Giveaway scandal was an unfortunate embarrassment; reactions to the operating system itself have ranged from high praise to outright condemnation. Chief among issues are:
The Hardware Requirements for the Vista Experience
The majority of reports are claiming you'll need a dual core machine with a gig of RAM and 256MB of video memory to enjoy Vista's features. Reality or CE publications doing what they do best - drumming up CE sales?
The Nature of Copyright Protection
Vista has DRM built-in to the core of the system, checking and re-checking for content leaks. It has been confirmed that Vista will not play HD-DVD or Blu-ray in HD resolutions unless your video card and your monitor support HDCP. There has also been speculation that this hardware polling could seriously decrease game performance (this has remained speculation up to this point).
Decreased Power Efficiency due to Aero
This article claims that power efficiency is decreased due to increased system requirements - however a rebuttal from Gateway is contain within contending that this is a spurious conclusion.
Vista promises some exciting new technologies in ReadyBoost, SideShow and DX10. Do these technologies outweigh the negative aspects of a new Rev A. Microsoft OS?
The question is: Will you switch to Vista? If not, why? If so, when?
Since XP I've switched to an entirely Mac based setup (outside of my office PC), but it's an Intel Mac setup with Bootcamp and Parallels, so I've still got my finger in the Windows pie.
Vista's had a Sony-esque experience marketing their new flagship program. The Notebook Giveaway scandal was an unfortunate embarrassment; reactions to the operating system itself have ranged from high praise to outright condemnation. Chief among issues are:
The Hardware Requirements for the Vista Experience
The majority of reports are claiming you'll need a dual core machine with a gig of RAM and 256MB of video memory to enjoy Vista's features. Reality or CE publications doing what they do best - drumming up CE sales?
The Nature of Copyright Protection
Vista has DRM built-in to the core of the system, checking and re-checking for content leaks. It has been confirmed that Vista will not play HD-DVD or Blu-ray in HD resolutions unless your video card and your monitor support HDCP. There has also been speculation that this hardware polling could seriously decrease game performance (this has remained speculation up to this point).
Decreased Power Efficiency due to Aero
This article claims that power efficiency is decreased due to increased system requirements - however a rebuttal from Gateway is contain within contending that this is a spurious conclusion.
Vista promises some exciting new technologies in ReadyBoost, SideShow and DX10. Do these technologies outweigh the negative aspects of a new Rev A. Microsoft OS?
The question is: Will you switch to Vista? If not, why? If so, when?
Threepio on
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And I'm getting Vista Ultimate I want all the features available to me.
Yup, I have a dual boot now with XP and Vista.
this is what I get from wikipedia.
Also, the DRM argument is retarded. Nothing will be able to play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray without a fully HDCP chain. That's not an MS decision, it's a Sony/Toshiba/whoever decision. The only decision MS made was "do we bother implementing these technologies for people who do have full HDCP, or do we just not support HD-DVD/Blu-Ray at all?".
And the rest of it is just rumour-mongering and bullshit, frankly.
Works great for me... all my programs work, games run nicely, and my machine isn't some expensive monster.
2ghz Athlon 64 (winchester)
1gb Mushkin ram
Radeon 9800 pro
I'll obviously be getting the retail version ASAP.
I love Vista goodies and it's focus on the "simple yet complex". It's great for power users and easy enough for people like my wife who just want things to 'work'.
I gotta say though, I liked Flip 3D. Though it's just a glorified alt-tab.
I have an amd athlon xp 3000+, gig of ram, and a 9800 pro.
You don't need a dx10 card to run it.
That system will run Vista and all of its features just fine. You might want to invest in some more ram though.
I could run Vista, but I wouldn't be able to run anything else. I seriously need to upgrade.
I shall be a Vista user in the near future, if, and only if, the free PC I get from my uni (I am dyslexic) comes with it, and this is only possible if it is out in hte UK in the next month really.
I can't quite put my finger on why I'm so put off Vista (aside from the fact that none of the new features really strikes me as anything exciting). I think it's because I make a point of avoiding DRMed formats that haven't been cracked, and the idea of content protection being built into the OS rubs me the wrong way. This does mean I'll probably be abandoning PC gaming, but fortunately I have a Wii, so I can still play FPSes.
DRM really isn't a concern for me. It doesn't add DRM to anything, it just is meant to let you play DRM'd content. It's the fault of content companies for putting the DRM on in the first place, not Windows's fault for letting you play it.
I might have to get a bit more RAM to run memory-hungry games on it well, but I can afford it and think it's worth the extra coolness Vista brings to the table.
You mean, other than the fact that they'd have to rewrite large parts of the OS from scratch?
translation: "A new way to buy crap!"
My only qualm about buying it will be whether to buy the OEM version and try and make out that my mobo died and I need to stuff it in a new PC or go out and get the update version which I can trasnfer to a new PC once I build it.
Still true, or have they toned it down at all?
Edit: This article seemed pretty explanatory.
ever.
I do not like the implimentation of DRM to the core...if it "thinks" you are attempting to or something else is attempting to gain control of your system it shuts down everything under DRM protection....not usefull things like say your personal information...just the damn music/videos.
I see Vista as what happens when Microsoft bends users over backwords to prepare for the MPAA/RIAA reeming.
Sidenote: I don't pirate music, and the most video pirating I do is watching crap on Youtube that's probably not legit. That being said I "often" bypass region codes *(I have an expensive love for Studio Ghibli) and my finance is a musicvideo making fiend... If I updated I have no doubt I would false positive. I've already seen WinXP false positive twice....on a corporate mass license...That was ghosted from the same source as every other system that correctly passes WinXP GA.
I urge you to stick with whatever works for you though. If you're not sure about whether something will work on Vista there will be plenty of people ready to tell you for sure if it does or doesn't once the OS is actually on the market.
To be fair, though, Apple will have to do something similar, if not the same thing, when they start putting HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray drives in their machines. It's the only way the movie companies will allow those devices to come within 10 feet of a computer.
Think about it: an HD-DVD (or Blu-ray disc) is as close to perfect as you can get for digital movies. They don't want us ripping that shit off of the discs. Microsoft, no matter how much everyone hates them, has to do this in order to have access to HD-DVD/Blu-ray hardware. Apple's going to have to do the same thing when they decide to support this stuff.
I'll switch eventually. I have a desktop acting as a file server that is running XP and it does what I need it to do. I don't game on my desktop and I use my Macbook for my daily needs, so I'm not in a rush to upgrade.
Currently you can hook up the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives to a WinXP machine and play the movies with the latest version of PowerDVD.
But none of the current movies have the HDCP protection yet.