I plan to buy Vista as soon as I can. Problem is, I can't get it at full price. I have to hope my brother can get it cheaper through college.
Do those discounts usually only come to students majoring in a tech field or can any student get it (assuming the college offers it)?
MSDNAA (Microsoft's Academic Alliance program) allows people to download certain software for no cost to them, as far as I have been told it is only available to people working on computer science related degrees. The downloads also have some other conditions attached to them (strict one time usage rule, if you need to reinstall you have to contact your administrator, AKA the head of the Computer Science department), you also can't upgrade I hear, but you do get stuff for free which is mega nice.
For all the questions on product editions, there's an in-depth Product Editions guide on Paul Thurrott's website. It should answer most questions.
IMO, Home Basic is crappy because it doesn't have Aero. A huge reason to upgrade to Vista is the UI, Aero. It offers things like Flip3D and live previews. That last thing is truly awesome. While alt-tabbing with Aero, you'll get a constantly-updated preview of the window. If a movie is playing in the window, the preview will reflect that movie in real time. Live previews are also present when you mouse over things on the taskbar and in Flip3D. Aero also has numerous other benefits that make Vista much more complete.
The only reason not to get Ultimate is the price, but that's a huge reason. At $400 (for the retail version), I can't see Ultimate being worthwhile except for the most hardcore of users. It doesn't offer much beyond Premium except for Business features, most of which are quite useless in a home environment.
Home Premium is the version to get. It has MCE (which is great), Aero, and everything else you need without the huge price of Ultimate (Premium costs $240 for the retail version).
How significant is the arrival of Windows Vista for you?
Gabe Newell: Right now I think we're sort of focused on how painful Vista is for our customers. SLI is not supported yet, there are no 8800 drivers, so even thought it's about DX10, the only DX10 hardware doesn't have drivers for it yet. Limited user accounts are very frustrating. It seems that in some wats Vista is very much a work in progress, so it's nice that there are going to be end caps for customers in retailer stores. However, for our customers, the sort of key features they already have in XP are going to make it hard for people to migrate over to VIsta at the moment. It really puts a drag on Microsoft's attempts to position Vista as a great gaming platform when there are so many nuts-and-bolts issues that it fails on in comparison to XP.
That's exactly the reason why as much as I want to switch to Vista, I'm going to have to wait. I suspect we'll have much better driver support by March/April and be much more stable. I just hope legacy (XP era) games will still run if they're more than a year or so old, because you know the developers are not going to patch them.
Last October, I bought a new Dell laptop. It came with a sticker that says "Vista Capable" - but that's not my question. I'm at college - does this mean that I can use my student discount to pay for an upgrade disc?
Rohan on
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
Last October, I bought a new Dell laptop. It came with a sticker that says "Vista Capable" - but that's not my question. I'm at college - does this mean that I can use my student discount to pay for an upgrade disc?
I don't know but having a "Vista Capable" and not "Vista Premium Ready" laptop means that you're not going to be able to use Aero very well. Basically, you're stuck with Home Basic or Home Premium with Aero turned off. More information is here on Microsoft's site.
...and I thought of how all those people died, and what a good death that is. That nobody can blame you for it, because everyone else died along with you, and it is the fault of none, save those who did the killing.
Hmm, my dad's new laptop gets a free upgrade to Vista when it comes out. Maybe I should steal it from him...
The upgrade path isn't the greatest choice to make... it's much better to just install it afresh.
I agree because on a reformat you'll have to do like double the work kind of
Vista doesn't have an archive and install option?
No, because its install files aren't text-based. That's not to say that you couldn't historically simply "overwrite" your current install, but then you're screwed if it doesn't work. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if it offers a similar functionality for SP1, 2, or the upgrade options (from home basic to more advanced versions).
Installation has a GUI finally, too, so hopefully won't be nearly as obtuse as the text-based ones of the past. I hope so, at least. For that amount of money, it better have no problems at all.
The upgrade version of Vista still lets you do a fresh install. It only requires that you have your XP CD on hand to prove that you own XP.
Right, but as far as I know, it doesn't allow you to do a fresh install w/o reformating, AND allow you to keep the old OS as-is and bootable (in case something weird happens or you just don't like it).
We use Vista Enterprise at work and when I did a Vista install on an XP machine without formatting (I think you need to choose upgrade from the menu) it puts all the old OS in a Windows.old folder. It's not bootable, but I think it's easy to revert since everything is still stored there.
I plan to buy Vista as soon as I can. Problem is, I can't get it at full price. I have to hope my brother can get it cheaper through college.
Do those discounts usually only come to students majoring in a tech field or can any student get it (assuming the college offers it)?
I'm a business major and I can get XP Pro for 10 bucks
*shrug*
I honestly don't know.
I need to go ask my college about this shit. I didn't know you could get it for that cheap!
Many colleges give them out for free, i.e mine is part of the MSDNA alliance so we get ms office, sql server, xp, server 2k3 etc for free, and they say they'll have vista ultimate up for us by mid february
I plan to buy Vista as soon as I can. Problem is, I can't get it at full price. I have to hope my brother can get it cheaper through college.
Do those discounts usually only come to students majoring in a tech field or can any student get it (assuming the college offers it)?
I'm a business major and I can get XP Pro for 10 bucks
*shrug*
I honestly don't know.
I need to go ask my college about this shit. I didn't know you could get it for that cheap!
Many colleges give them out for free, i.e mine is part of the MSDNA alliance so we get ms office, sql server, xp, server 2k3 etc for free, and they say they'll have vista ultimate up for us by mid february
Which college do you go to? Is it UC Berkeley, by any chance?
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
edited January 2007
Microsoft isn't lacking support for SLI configurations; ATi and nVidia haven't written drivers that support SLI in Vista yet on the new model, dispite the fact that they have had the new Graphics model for well over a year. That's ATI and nVidia's fault, not Microsoft's.
Also, why does Gabe Newell always shit on everything new, then later embrace it? I don't get him.
Multi Core Consoles are going to rape everything and suxxor!
Here is Half Life: Orange for the PS3 and 360! It is the best compilation we have done yet, including all of the half 2 chapters, portal, team fortress, etc.! At it looks awesome
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Won't Business have everything that Home Premium has, except Medie Center? I hope, since that's the version I'm getting for free thank's to the Powertogether workshop.
This is the same question I have... For the same reason...
Microsoft isn't lacking support for SLI configurations; ATi and nVidia haven't written drivers that support SLI in Vista yet on the new model, dispite the fact that they have had the new Graphics model for well over a year. That's ATI and nVidia's fault, not Microsoft's.
Also, why does Gabe Newell always shit on everything new, then later embrace it? I don't get him.
Multi Core Consoles are going to rape everything and suxxor!
Here is Half Life: Orange for the PS3 and 360! It is the best compilation we have done yet, including all of the half 2 chapters, portal, team fortress, etc.! At it looks awesome
Uhhh
You're kind of oversimplifying matters in a really stupid way
HL2 was going to be released on the PS3 and 360 no matter what because money is money. That doesn't mean he has to think multi-core consoles are a good design decision or beneficial to the industry overall, it just means that he wants his product to make him money.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Microsoft isn't lacking support for SLI configurations; ATi and nVidia haven't written drivers that support SLI in Vista yet on the new model, dispite the fact that they have had the new Graphics model for well over a year. That's ATI and nVidia's fault, not Microsoft's.
Also, why does Gabe Newell always shit on everything new, then later embrace it? I don't get him.
Multi Core Consoles are going to rape everything and suxxor!
Here is Half Life: Orange for the PS3 and 360! It is the best compilation we have done yet, including all of the half 2 chapters, portal, team fortress, etc.! At it looks awesome
Uhhh
You're kind of oversimplifying matters in a really stupid way
HL2 was going to be released on the PS3 and 360 no matter what because money is money. That doesn't mean he has to think multi-core consoles are a good design decision or beneficial to the industry overall, it just means that he wants his product to make him money.
I think he meant that multiple cores on the consoles did not stop Half-Life: Orange from being their best compilation.
That still doesn't mean that Gabe likes multi-core consoles, however; Half-Life: Orange may be their best compilation in spite of multiple cores.
Hmm, my dad's new laptop gets a free upgrade to Vista when it comes out. Maybe I should steal it from him...
The upgrade path isn't the greatest choice to make... it's much better to just install it afresh.
I agree because on a reformat you'll have to do like double the work kind of
Vista doesn't have an archive and install option?
No, because its install files aren't text-based. That's not to say that you couldn't historically simply "overwrite" your current install, but then you're screwed if it doesn't work. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if it offers a similar functionality for SP1, 2, or the upgrade options (from home basic to more advanced versions).
Installation has a GUI finally, too, so hopefully won't be nearly as obtuse as the text-based ones of the past. I hope so, at least. For that amount of money, it better have no problems at all.
The upgrade version of Vista still lets you do a fresh install. It only requires that you have your XP CD on hand to prove that you own XP.
What if I don't happen to have the CD but my "certificate of authenticity is emblazoned onto my laptop's undercarriage?
I'm pretty sure you only need the number on that "certificate", but don't quote me on that.
If you want to use an upgrade version of XP you need a disk or a partition with a previous version of windows on it. The serial number won't get you anywhere. Can't say for sure that it will be the same for Vista.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I think I'm going to stay on XP until years down the line where they start requiring it for gaming. It just uses less resources, more stable, and has all the proper drivers (and EAX) out now. I don't mind not having DX10.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
So, what are the compelling features of Vista compared to XP, and what will aeroglass do over the tard look?
Compelling features = aeroglass
What will aeroglass do? Force you to buy another gig of ram.
At least that's the impression I've gotten of Vista thus far.
I tried RC1 on my laptop. It was pretty much XP prettied up a bit, and with tons of random security road blocks... oh and it seemed to devour my battery.
So, what are the compelling features of Vista compared to XP, and what will aeroglass do over the tard look?
Compelling features = aeroglass
And a complete update of the kernel, including far better security and resource management (less paging! Finally!), implementation of metadata and virtual folders which, as far as end-user experience, gives you a relational database interface (similar to iTunes), better network support, and a much nicer UI overall, even without Aero.
I tried RC1 on my laptop. It was pretty much XP prettied up a bit, and with tons of random security road blocks... oh and it seemed to devour my battery.
You know, everyone talks about how they tried RC1, and it wasn't all that great, and it ate all their RAM, and their shit didn't work, and so forth.
Protip: Release versions of software are pretty much always better than Beta 2. Which is what RC1 was.
Yeah, drivers kinda suck right now. It's a new OS that isn't even availible to anyone besides very large companies doing mass upgrades. Three months down the road, the drivers will be far better. I wouldn't recommend buying it next week, but come March or April I absolutely think it'll be worth picking up.
I found www.winsupersite.com to give you a good account of what will be in Vista. He goes over all of the features and changes. You should be able to tell whether you want Vista or not based on his huge review. You need to take it with a grain of salt though, as he is pretty biased.
Cronus on
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
I plan to buy Vista as soon as I can. Problem is, I can't get it at full price. I have to hope my brother can get it cheaper through college.
Do those discounts usually only come to students majoring in a tech field or can any student get it (assuming the college offers it)?
I'm a business major and I can get XP Pro for 10 bucks
*shrug*
I honestly don't know.
I need to go ask my college about this shit. I didn't know you could get it for that cheap!
Many colleges give them out for free, i.e mine is part of the MSDNA alliance so we get ms office, sql server, xp, server 2k3 etc for free, and they say they'll have vista ultimate up for us by mid february
Which college do you go to? Is it UC Berkeley, by any chance?
Really now, I have Vista Pro available to me now, but I really need a version that is media center capable, so is there a possibility that theylll have another release of the other kinds of vista later on? That would be awesome, and would make sense because they have like every version of XP on my MSDNAA
FYI, in addition to being available to business customers, Vista is also available to MSDN subscribers. I'm using it and I really like it. Aero glass is pretty, searching is much improved, and there are generally a bunch of changes that I like.
dsplaisted on
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
You know what? I'm staying the hell away from Vista until it's able to run older games and until the above nonsense goes away.
That article is a load of FUD.
The only HD content that will be downgraded is content with a CIT or ICT token on it. to this day, not a single HD-DVD or BRD have had one.
I also think CableCARD is going to go that way as well for premium channels like HBO, but outside of that, not a single game, application, or download will be downgraded on you by this.
also, any other commercial os (like OSX) that wan't to play HD content from studios is going to cowtow to the exact same standards.
syndalis on
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
You know what? I'm staying the hell away from Vista until it's able to run older games and until the above nonsense goes away.
That article is a load of FUD.
The only HD content that will be downgraded is content with a CIT or ICT token on it. to this day, not a single HD-DVD or BRD have had one.
I also think CableCARD is going to go that way as well for premium channels like HBO, but outside of that, not a single game, application, or download will be downgraded on you by this.
also, any other commercial os (like OSX) that wan't to play HD content from studios is going to cowtow to the exact same standards.
Welcome to the lion's share of reporting on Microsoft.
I love how the guy completely ignores the fact that "premium content" simply won't play on XP - afaik one of the major, major reasons the graphics and audio systems went through an overhaul was to support the protected content path or whatever that Hollywood requested.
As you've been saying all along, syndalis, Vista's bringing a whole bunch of new, shiny and awesome; that chucklefuck is just FUD-flinging to get his name in the paper. Anyone who thinks that the digital media situation is worse on Vista is clearly misinformed.
Welcome to the lion's share of reporting on Microsoft.
I love how the guy completely ignores the fact that "premium content" simply won't play on XP - afaik one of the major, major reasons the graphics and audio systems went through an overhaul was to support the protected content path or whatever that Hollywood requested.
As you've been saying all along, syndalis, Vista's bringing a whole bunch of new, shiny and awesome; that chucklefuck is just FUD-flinging to get his name in the paper. Anyone who thinks that the digital media situation is worse on Vista is clearly misinformed.
Off topic: There's a Japanese translation of Baldurs Gate??? Does it have Japanese voices too?
You know what? I'm staying the hell away from Vista until it's able to run older games and until the above nonsense goes away.
That article is a load of FUD.
The only HD content that will be downgraded is content with a CIT or ICT token on it. to this day, not a single HD-DVD or BRD have had one.
I also think CableCARD is going to go that way as well for premium channels like HBO, but outside of that, not a single game, application, or download will be downgraded on you by this.
also, any other commercial os (like OSX) that wan't to play HD content from studios is going to cowtow to the exact same standards.
Welcome to the lion's share of reporting on Microsoft.
I love how the guy completely ignores the fact that "premium content" simply won't play on XP - afaik one of the major, major reasons the graphics and audio systems went through an overhaul was to support the protected content path or whatever that Hollywood requested.
As you've been saying all along, syndalis, Vista's bringing a whole bunch of new, shiny and awesome; that chucklefuck is just FUD-flinging to get his name in the paper. Anyone who thinks that the digital media situation is worse on Vista is clearly misinformed.
I thought that was just what was going to happen with WMP and WMC playback and that basically it's up to the program itself to be compliant with the HDCP standards? (As in, the OS would take no active role in doing this as it's up to the playback program to be compliant with the BD and HDDVD standards ... I think I read that somewhere at some point, but I haven't been following this much.)
Also, having used Vista beta for a while, I can tell you that aside from the beta being a little slower than XP, the media handling was excellent, especially if this is your first experience with windows media center or WMP11.
I remember getting XP day one years ago. Cant remember why but I think my Radeon 8500 had something to do with it. It was more stable than 98 so I'm hoping for the same experience with Vista but I'll wait for Crysis first.
I love how the guy completely ignores the fact that "premium content" simply won't play on XP - afaik one of the major, major reasons the graphics and audio systems went through an overhaul was to support the protected content path or whatever that Hollywood requested.
Ironically enough, Premium content will play on XP, just not protected premium content. There are already 1080p HD-DVD rips appearing on torrent sites, but the tools to do the ripping haven't yet been made available.
It may be the case that the tools won't be made available, since that runs the risk of them being disabled through key revocation. Which would be especially funny, because it would be impossible for the average person to make "fair-use" rips, but it would be possible for them to simply download it. Way to encourage mass piracy.
All the copy protection is really worrying me. I love ripping and storing my movies on my computer so that I don't have to fuss with DVDs, and I can watch in any room of the house thanks to home networking.
EDIT: not worrying me about vista, worrying me about HDDVD/BD
All the copy protection is really worrying me. I love ripping and storing my movies on my computer so that I don't have to fuss with DVDs, and I can watch in any room of the house thanks to home networking.
EDIT: not worrying me about vista, worrying me about HDDVD/BD
Seconded. At this point Vista has no compelling features to offer me that aren't available on other platforms for free. The media centre stuff is interesting, but that doesn't justify the price. Neither does DX10, at the moment, since I really doubt it'll be a requirement for at least another two graphics card generations. I'm not interested in either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray until I can rip them.
I'm not going back to having to put physical discs into a player, like some kind of savage.
I plan to buy Vista as soon as I can. Problem is, I can't get it at full price. I have to hope my brother can get it cheaper through college.
Do those discounts usually only come to students majoring in a tech field or can any student get it (assuming the college offers it)?
I'm a business major and I can get XP Pro for 10 bucks
*shrug*
I honestly don't know.
I need to go ask my college about this shit. I didn't know you could get it for that cheap!
Many colleges give them out for free, i.e mine is part of the MSDNA alliance so we get ms office, sql server, xp, server 2k3 etc for free, and they say they'll have vista ultimate up for us by mid february
Which college do you go to? Is it UC Berkeley, by any chance?
I know Berkeley's EECS students have access to the MSDNAA here. I don't know about other student discounts, but most of the software I've seen at the student store seems pretty pricey.
It's good to hear that Vista is supposed to be on MSDNAA soon.[/url]
Really now, I have Vista Pro available to me now, but I really need a version that is media center capable, so is there a possibility that theylll have another release of the other kinds of vista later on? That would be awesome, and would make sense because they have like every version of XP on my MSDNAA
When you say "Vista Pro", do you mean XP Pro? There is no "Vista Pro" edition, and Vista Home Premium (and Ultimate) have media center.
@superchewie: My brother isn't an EECS student and I'm not in college yet so I guess I'm fresh out of luck, unless my brother has a friend in EECS .
Really now, I have Vista Pro available to me now, but I really need a version that is media center capable, so is there a possibility that theylll have another release of the other kinds of vista later on? That would be awesome, and would make sense because they have like every version of XP on my MSDNAA
When you say "Vista Pro", do you mean XP Pro? There is no "Vista Pro" edition, and Vista Home Premium (and Ultimate) have media center.
@superchewie: My brother isn't an EECS student and I'm not in college yet so I guess I'm fresh out of luck, unless my brother has a friend in EECS .
He means Vista Buisness, which is the equivalent of XP Pro.
I'm trying out Vista now (let's just say CS student, MSDA advance copy) and it's not bad but certainly not something I'd shell out hundreds of dollars for if I have to. Then again, I haven't had to pay money for Windows by itself since 3.11. I've always put off upgrading until I get a new computer or a free copy somehow falls in my lap or something.
Posts
MSDNAA (Microsoft's Academic Alliance program) allows people to download certain software for no cost to them, as far as I have been told it is only available to people working on computer science related degrees. The downloads also have some other conditions attached to them (strict one time usage rule, if you need to reinstall you have to contact your administrator, AKA the head of the Computer Science department), you also can't upgrade I hear, but you do get stuff for free which is mega nice.
IMO, Home Basic is crappy because it doesn't have Aero. A huge reason to upgrade to Vista is the UI, Aero. It offers things like Flip3D and live previews. That last thing is truly awesome. While alt-tabbing with Aero, you'll get a constantly-updated preview of the window. If a movie is playing in the window, the preview will reflect that movie in real time. Live previews are also present when you mouse over things on the taskbar and in Flip3D. Aero also has numerous other benefits that make Vista much more complete.
The only reason not to get Ultimate is the price, but that's a huge reason. At $400 (for the retail version), I can't see Ultimate being worthwhile except for the most hardcore of users. It doesn't offer much beyond Premium except for Business features, most of which are quite useless in a home environment.
Home Premium is the version to get. It has MCE (which is great), Aero, and everything else you need without the huge price of Ultimate (Premium costs $240 for the retail version).
That's exactly the reason why as much as I want to switch to Vista, I'm going to have to wait. I suspect we'll have much better driver support by March/April and be much more stable. I just hope legacy (XP era) games will still run if they're more than a year or so old, because you know the developers are not going to patch them.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
We use Vista Enterprise at work and when I did a Vista install on an XP machine without formatting (I think you need to choose upgrade from the menu) it puts all the old OS in a Windows.old folder. It's not bootable, but I think it's easy to revert since everything is still stored there.
Wii code: 3958 1709 0590 7018
Also, why does Gabe Newell always shit on everything new, then later embrace it? I don't get him.
Multi Core Consoles are going to rape everything and suxxor!
Here is Half Life: Orange for the PS3 and 360! It is the best compilation we have done yet, including all of the half 2 chapters, portal, team fortress, etc.! At it looks awesome
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
This is the same question I have... For the same reason...
Uhhh
You're kind of oversimplifying matters in a really stupid way
HL2 was going to be released on the PS3 and 360 no matter what because money is money. That doesn't mean he has to think multi-core consoles are a good design decision or beneficial to the industry overall, it just means that he wants his product to make him money.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
That still doesn't mean that Gabe likes multi-core consoles, however; Half-Life: Orange may be their best compilation in spite of multiple cores.
If you want to use an upgrade version of XP you need a disk or a partition with a previous version of windows on it. The serial number won't get you anywhere. Can't say for sure that it will be the same for Vista.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Compelling features = aeroglass
What will aeroglass do? Force you to buy another gig of ram.
At least that's the impression I've gotten of Vista thus far.
I tried RC1 on my laptop. It was pretty much XP prettied up a bit, and with tons of random security road blocks... oh and it seemed to devour my battery.
You know, everyone talks about how they tried RC1, and it wasn't all that great, and it ate all their RAM, and their shit didn't work, and so forth.
Protip: Release versions of software are pretty much always better than Beta 2. Which is what RC1 was.
Yeah, drivers kinda suck right now. It's a new OS that isn't even availible to anyone besides very large companies doing mass upgrades. Three months down the road, the drivers will be far better. I wouldn't recommend buying it next week, but come March or April I absolutely think it'll be worth picking up.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
totes still sealed and inventory not taken...
but no ultimate
Really now, I have Vista Pro available to me now, but I really need a version that is media center capable, so is there a possibility that theylll have another release of the other kinds of vista later on? That would be awesome, and would make sense because they have like every version of XP on my MSDNAA
Damn Chinese pirates.
You know what? I'm staying the hell away from Vista until it's able to run older games and until the above nonsense goes away.
The only HD content that will be downgraded is content with a CIT or ICT token on it. to this day, not a single HD-DVD or BRD have had one.
I also think CableCARD is going to go that way as well for premium channels like HBO, but outside of that, not a single game, application, or download will be downgraded on you by this.
also, any other commercial os (like OSX) that wan't to play HD content from studios is going to cowtow to the exact same standards.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
And god has BBC News been posting some absolute shit recently
Great, Godwin's Law enacted on HDCP.
I love how the guy completely ignores the fact that "premium content" simply won't play on XP - afaik one of the major, major reasons the graphics and audio systems went through an overhaul was to support the protected content path or whatever that Hollywood requested.
As you've been saying all along, syndalis, Vista's bringing a whole bunch of new, shiny and awesome; that chucklefuck is just FUD-flinging to get his name in the paper. Anyone who thinks that the digital media situation is worse on Vista is clearly misinformed.
Off topic: There's a Japanese translation of Baldurs Gate??? Does it have Japanese voices too?
I thought that was just what was going to happen with WMP and WMC playback and that basically it's up to the program itself to be compliant with the HDCP standards? (As in, the OS would take no active role in doing this as it's up to the playback program to be compliant with the BD and HDDVD standards ... I think I read that somewhere at some point, but I haven't been following this much.)
Also, having used Vista beta for a while, I can tell you that aside from the beta being a little slower than XP, the media handling was excellent, especially if this is your first experience with windows media center or WMP11.
Ironically enough, Premium content will play on XP, just not protected premium content. There are already 1080p HD-DVD rips appearing on torrent sites, but the tools to do the ripping haven't yet been made available.
It may be the case that the tools won't be made available, since that runs the risk of them being disabled through key revocation. Which would be especially funny, because it would be impossible for the average person to make "fair-use" rips, but it would be possible for them to simply download it. Way to encourage mass piracy.
EDIT: not worrying me about vista, worrying me about HDDVD/BD
Seconded. At this point Vista has no compelling features to offer me that aren't available on other platforms for free. The media centre stuff is interesting, but that doesn't justify the price. Neither does DX10, at the moment, since I really doubt it'll be a requirement for at least another two graphics card generations. I'm not interested in either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray until I can rip them.
I'm not going back to having to put physical discs into a player, like some kind of savage.
I know Berkeley's EECS students have access to the MSDNAA here. I don't know about other student discounts, but most of the software I've seen at the student store seems pretty pricey.
It's good to hear that Vista is supposed to be on MSDNAA soon.[/url]
@superchewie: My brother isn't an EECS student and I'm not in college yet so I guess I'm fresh out of luck, unless my brother has a friend in EECS
He means Vista Buisness, which is the equivalent of XP Pro.
I'm trying out Vista now (let's just say CS student, MSDA advance copy) and it's not bad but certainly not something I'd shell out hundreds of dollars for if I have to. Then again, I haven't had to pay money for Windows by itself since 3.11. I've always put off upgrading until I get a new computer or a free copy somehow falls in my lap or something.