Professor Michael Geist on Vista's Fine Print

Russell McOrmond writes "With Microsoft's Vista set to hit stores tomorrow, Michael Geist's weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) looks at the legal and technical fine print behind the operating system upgrade. The article notes that 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. If you are a Canadian and think that the owner of computers should be in control of what they own, rather than some third party (whether virus authors or the manufacturer/maker), then please sign our Petition to protect Information Technology property rights."

That stampede sound you are hearing....

.... are former Windows users running to the Apple Store to buy a Mac.

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

.... are former Windows users running to the Apple Store to buy a Mac.

All three of them? I wouldn't have thought that three people makes a stampede, no matter how fast they run.

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

it's the weight of the runners...

"...Developers! Developers! Developers!..."

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

That is exactly what I did a few months ago. I dropped my wife's HP laptop and the screen broke. It would have been $600 to fix it so I bought an Intel Macbook. My wife loves it, and so do I. In fact she was always yelling at me for always taking it from her so I said the only way she could keep it is if I got my own Mac. A little later I got an Intel iMac and love it. I triple boot with WinXP for a few games, Visual Studio and MS SQL Server and Linux for my "fix".

There is just no reason to go to the junk that is called Vista. I hope WinXP will still allow me to do the few things I need to in MS Windows for the next 3-5 years, then I can see what the OS landscape is like.

As for others saying Apple is just as bad as MS when it comes to restrictions and DRM, they are clueless. I never had to do any "activation" on my two Intel Macs. The only DRM I have found is with iTMS, so I just don't use it or buy music. I did buy a few TV episodes from iTMS, however when I couldn't burn them to DVD to watch on my big TV, I stopped that as well. OS X is just far better than anything from MS. I get the juicy *nix that I love and a very good user experience for me as well as an easy to use experience for my wife.

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

So my new debate is whether to accept Vista and simply work around its limitations and restrictions

      According to Microsoft's EULA: "You may not work around any technical limitations in the software"

      I think they just helped you with your decision.

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

That stampede sound you are hearing....are former Windows users running to the Apple Store to buy a Mac

Amazon Software Bestsellers (January 29 12:45 PM ET)

2 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
4 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade
5 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade
12 Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Upgrade
13 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Full Version
14 Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
15 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Full Version

Microsoft has twenty titles in the top fifty.

I'd say these numbers suggest that Vista is going to do just fine in the domestic consumer market.

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

That stampede sound you are hearing....are former Windows users running to the Apple Store to buy a Mac
Amazon Software Bestsellers (January 29 12:45 PM ET)

2 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
4 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade
5 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade
12 Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Upgrade
13 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Full Version
14 Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
15 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Full Version

Microsoft has twenty titles in the top fifty.
I'd say these numbers suggest that Vista is going to do just fine in the domestic consumer market.
SHhhhhh. This is Slashdot, there's no place for money talk here. The POINT is that everyone will NOT buy it and only HATE it. I'll stick with BeOS thank you.

Re:That stampede sound you are hearing....

Windows Vista is, at least for me, the anvil that broke the camel's back. I have been planning a switch to Linux for about two years and Vista is the prefect opportunity to commit. In fact, Microsoft has practically made it mandatory. I wonder how many other users feel the same way? Regardless, Ubuntu, here I come :).

Futile petitions aside

Isn't the most effective way to "protest" it just not buy, to explain to your friends and workplaces why they shouldn't buy it, and most particularly, to aggressively pursue a refund for any bundled versions that you're forced to buy with hardware?

Re:Futile petitions aside

I think this is probably the best option we have, although I'm not sure how well it will work. Most people just buy a computer and use whatever software comes with it. And if you start to talk about why they shouldn't be using Vista, their ears turn off because you are being too technical (no matter how much you try and dumb it down).

Re:Futile petitions aside

And if you start to talk about why they shouldn't be using Vista, their ears turn off because you are being too technical (no matter how much you try and dumb it down).

"You shouldn't be using Vista, because it won't let you watch porn you downloaded from the Internet for free. It has this thing called DRM which will turn the good good parts to mosaic. We technical people call this downsampling. Oh, and it may even connect to Microsoft or the police and tell them what you're watching."

Re:Futile petitions aside

It is, but it's hard to boycott something that most people don't have a clear understanding of. Lets face it, 80% of the people have no idea what the difference between XP and Vista is, or even what Vista even is. Furthermore, even if they do know what Vista is, they would assume it's better because it's newer (that's what I thought when I upgraded from 98SE to ME, what a disaster). There's really no chance in informing the average customer.

But, if Vista pisses off businesses, then MS has a real problem on their hands. Businesses are already reluctant to change. They're definitely going to reject Vista if it makes them less productive. At least I'm hoping that's how it would turn out.

DingDingDingDing!

And here I thought that Vista would be a technical security risk. Heh, little did I know that MS would do something idiotic like this to go with the lot. I'd be strongly dissuading ANYONE who was my client to go do this "upgrade" because of this alone (never mind the potential and REAL security risks that the OS seems to have...).

Re:Futile petitions aside

Isn't the most effective way to "protest" it just not buy, to explain to your friends and workplaces why they shouldn't buy it, and most particularly, to aggressively pursue a refund for any bundled versions that you're forced to buy with hardware?

Not to buy. Have not given MS a dime since 1995.

Explain to friends and workplaces. I cannot recommend MS products over the alternatives. With my friends, I clearly tell them if they are asking my advice, my answer is to buy a Mac. None to date have taken my advice, and they still ask me about "Windows problems" when I politely told them that I don't do windows and that I could not help them with windows problems upfront. Workplaces. They seem to be MS dependant despite years of suggestions to change.

Refund? The principle of the thing is worth more than the money, and for most people, neither is that important to them.

All I can say is that this petition is a day late and a dollar short, but although I have fixed my microsoft problem. I still know plenty of people that don't care or just won't change from the MS problem.

I am _not_ brand loyal/disloyal. I treat all things as generic tools and will use what is best for the job at the current time, and things come and go on my shitlist, and I don't hold a permanant grudge until the company has gone too far. To date, only two companies have made my permanant shitlist, and I have brought one of them to court as well, and neither are Microsoft.

Macs were on my offlist before OS X, but they have seen the light :)

Re:Futile petitions aside

"Refund? The principle of the thing is worth more than the money, and for most people, neither is that important to them."

The cost, to Microsoft, of the Refund is not just a lost sale. It's also the time and money that went into licensing and de-licensing that copy, and returning the money. It's not cheap for them.

There's also the fact that everyone who does this can now tell everyone they know that they got their money back for their unused copy of Windows. Eventually, it'll stick in peoples' heads that they aren't stuck with Windows.

It also gives you the ability to defuse anyone who says 'Yeah, but I've already paid for it, so I might as well use it.' If you haven't actually received the refund, they'll say it's like a rebate and you won't get it.

Petitions are not futile...

The petition is to the Canadian parliament, and is on behalf of all owners of Information Technology -- not just those who choose any specific brand of hardware or software.

Our existing petitions have already had an important effect, letting politicians know that there are more constituencies in this issue than the incumbent industry associations. Our new petition tries to move away from the myths that DRM is about "content control" when in fact it is about "hardware control". This "hardware control" impacts your usage of hardware you own, regardless of whether you are using "premium content" or not.

This is also not a Microsoft and/or Apple issue, as these bad laws impact all users of technology whether or not they are ever a customer of Microsoft or Apple.

http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/ict/ [digital-copyright.ca]
"THEREFORE, your petitioners call upon Parliament to prohibit the application of a technical protection measure to a device without the informed consent of the owner of the device, and to prohibit the conditioning of the supply of content to the purchase or use of a device which has a technical measure applied to it. We further call upon Parliament to recognise the right of citizens to personally control their own communication devices, and to choose software based on their own personal criteria."

An internet petition, of all things?

How about you just don't buy it?

EULA's and click thru's

There is still a lot of debate on whether EULA's and click through agreements are completely binding. I won't get into all of the arguments on both sides, but I believe that companies are afraid to really go after anyone for breaking the asnine portions of these agreements because a court might rule that these documents are not binding contracts. They are handy for threatening people in certain situations, with cease and desist letters, and for making corporate users wary about potential law suits, thus restricting their usage and options. Of course, a court could hold that they are completely binding, and then the software companies would be free to attack an breach. So each side seems to be in an uneasy truce.

Re:EULA's and click thru's

How many people really read their 10 page mortgage application? Surprisingly few. And yet the agreement is legal.

The concept is referred to as a "contract of adhesion," where insofar as the terms in the contract are those that can be reasonably expected to be found in similar contracts for similar purpose, the contract is considered binding whether or not a "meeting of the minds" has occurred over the material details of the contract. I actually don't like contracts of adhesion at all, and wish they didn't exist. But they do.

In many states, and I believe now in at least one federal appellate district, EULA's have been ruled to be contracts of adhesion. You can imagine my alarm. So what I'm telling you is that that EULA you didn't read is likely legal. Evil, but legal.

C//

Re:EULA's and click thru's

The concept is referred to as a "contract of adhesion," where insofar as the terms in the contract are those that can be reasonably expected to be found in similar contracts for similar purpose, the contract is considered binding whether or not a "meeting of the minds" has occurred over the material details of the contract. I actually don't like contracts of adhesion at all, and wish they didn't exist. But they do.

In order to have a contract you need:
1) Offer
2) Acceptance
3) Consideration
4) Intention
5) Capacity to contract

Of most interesting is consideration. When you purchase an item from a store there's consideration. I offer my $5 for your pack of cigarettes. Their needs to be consideration on both sides to have a contract.

What I find interesting is that there is no consideration in a EULA; it's one sided. You've already paid for the license, and now you're being asked to agree to the terms after the contract has been made. At no point has any more consideration happened on your part.

Agreeing to an EULA IMO is like making a promise. If I promise someone a trip to Vegas for nothing in return, there is no contract, just a promise and it's unenforceable. I'm quite surprised no one has challenged an EULA under contract law asking where the consideration is when you agree to the therms? Simply agreeing to terms of usage without offering up any consideration is quite interesting because the money is paid to the store, and the store then sends money to the manufacturer.

Of course the problem lies in convincing a judge that a click-through agreement after a contract has been made is not binding, and who wants to battle Micro$oft? I for one don't.

Still missing some features.

I wonder if they included the blue-screen-of-death feature that I've enjoyed for such a long time.

Old and busted: Bill Gates New hotness: Steve Jobs

Am I the only one who is getting tired of reading all kinds of "Microsoft DRM is evil!" posts, and then seeing a post the very next day talking about how awesome Apple is? One company is buckling to industry pressure and including DRM, the other has a fricking Trusted Platform Module in every new computer it makes. The double standard is infuriating.

Re:Old and busted: Bill Gates New hotness: Steve J

TPM modules aren't inherently bad. It's how they are used that makes the difference. If the owner of the computer is in charge of the module, they are a powerful tool. If someone else is, then it's a problem.

Re:Old and busted: Bill Gates New hotness: Steve J

Am I the only one who is getting tired of reading all kinds of "Microsoft DRM is evil!" posts, and then seeing a post the very next day talking about how awesome Apple is? One company is buckling to industry pressure and including DRM, the other has a fricking Trusted Platform Module in every new computer it makes. The double standard is infuriating.

So if I buy a mac, how does the DRM affect me? Do I have to worry about my computer becoming unusable if I change hardware? Do I have to worry about re-registering? Do I have to worry about registering in the first place? The answers are, of course, no, no, and no. So is there a chance Apple will delete software off of my computer without my permission as MS's built in security will? No. So what, exactly, is the issue? There is a chip with an encryption key on it in the box? Okay, so why should I care? I'm a pragmatist. If my files were being DRM'd so I could not move to something else or if Apple was restricting me in any way, maybe I'd care. Apple does put DRM on their music files, they sell, but I generally don't buy from them. I did buy a few songs once that I could not find elsewhere, but I legally stripped the DRM off with a freeware program and backed them up as a regular audio CD with no DRM. What's the problem?

I use Windows and OS X and Linux on the desktop. Currently I favor OS X because it gives me the best feature set for general tasks. If Apple starts implementing DRM in such a way as to inconvenience me, I'll migrate to something else. I'm not going to do so, however, unless the DRM does inconvenience me. I'm not being shortsighted either. Any use that prevents me from being able to move platforms would probably tip the balance away from Apple, as I value portability.

The only real restriction I've seen Apple implement with encryption is locking their software to their hardware (any Apple hardware not a specific machine). Since Apple only licenses their software to run on their platform the only people this inconveniences are people who plan to use the software but break the license, and that doesn't leave a lot of room for complaint. Would I prefer it if OS X would run on any hardware? Sure, it would be a great feature. The problem is Apple's main product would directly compete with an abusive monopoly, and that means it would die and we would not get to use it anymore. The traditional strategy for dealing with such a monopoly is to build a separate vertical chain of supply, which Apple has done. Breaking that chain before MS is stopped from their criminal monopoly abuse is not a real option for Apple, so I don't blame them at all for only licensing their OS for their hardware.

Good article

Thankyou. I regain a bit of faith in the world when mass media says stuff like this. What a pity it's in Canada. (No offense to Canadians, but it's the US where change needs to happen). But ... yeah I am sick of reading narrow-minded articles praising Vista. This article, while short, tells a much fuller story. Cheers!

Wow, this Windows Defender(TM) seems like a piece of work. It can delete any piece of software it wants. firefox.exe, for example. (Come on, with all the security holes, it's practically spyware!)

Market forces speak

Don't buy Vista, talk people out of buying it, and when they get a new computer insist on XP or Linux. (I would say Apple but they aren't much better)
If it doesn't sell corporations won't try to do this.

And make sure you get...

the 'upgrade' version of Vista too (see other /. post) Been using windows since dos days, but I guess it's finally time to join the *nix crowd when next time comes to upgrade.

Where's the buzz?

Is it just me, or is there a complete lack of any kind of buzz around Vista?

A search on Google News (UK) brings up loads of articles with negative titles "Buying Vista? Get a guarantee", "Windows Vista: Where Is The Wow?", "Windows Vista: the best reason to buy a Mac?", "Windows Vista disappoints, so get a Mac". And that's just in the first half of the results.

It really is quite amazing for a product that Microsoft has spend billions and many years to develop.

Of course the sad thing is that, because of its strangle hold on the market, it will still make billions and will be able to declare the launch a success.

It's all about marketing

And so far MS's marketing is sucking really bad from what I've seen.

Tried to open Office 2007 and got a message about a license key and if I wanted to enter it. I clicked "No," and the entire screen went black and wouldn't come back up.

I shook my head and laughed as I walked away.

Who owns what ?

If you are [...] think that the owner of computers should be in control of what they own, [...]

<sarcasm>
Well, Microsoft Corp. owns Microsoft Windows Vista, and by extension your computer (*), so, what's the point ?
</sarcasm>

(*) I mean, are you a computer user or a Microsoft OS end-user bound by license terms ?

how much it matters: ZERO

it matters not what the Vista licensing is. those that are going to get it are going to get it regardless of the license.

oh no, it's bad for consumers? but wait, it's good for consumers? you know what?

it just doesn't matter, it's what MS is providing.

deal with it and quit the endless WHINING

as I once heard Peter Tosh say "Lie with Dogs, wake with Fleas"

there are other options. no one forced anyone to buy those lousy Ford Pintos. but we know how that story ends too

"you may not work around..." Stunning!

"you may not work around any technical limitations in the software."

That's absolutely stunning. I wonder exactly how broadly that could be interpreted?

If I buy any kind of third-party utility... antivirus software, backup software, a defragmenter... isn't that "working around" technical limiations in the software Microsoft provides? Isn't Firefox arguable a "workaround" for technical limitations in Internet Explorer?

It's about time to stop calling it a "personal computer" and start calling it a "Microsoft corporate computer."

what does that mean?

Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user

Since when is a user in control of his user experience? Isn't the whole point of a user oriented system (operating or other) to provide a user experience?

Anyway, no matter how much it sucks, Vista doesn't steal your computer, and as such you don't need lawmakers or law enforcement to protect you. Download and burn an Ubuntu CD, and off you go.

In response to TFA...

I'd have to comment on TFA and excerpt that, while yes you pay money to receive an operating system from MS, you technically do not own it, and this is legally agreed upon when you accept the EULA after you purchase Windows. The operating system is licensed to you, and this is the MS business model. It doesn't make sense trying to petition a change in MS's successful (sales) business model, nobody in Corporate America would that, in fact it is against the corporate company charter. If you read the fine print of the EULA (I have, btw), MS would refund you the full price of their OS (e.g. license) if you do not agree to the EULA. They aren't forcing you to accept their license as this would be illegal. They are plenty on alternatives other than MS to use as an operating system. In closing: You don't purchase an OS from Microsoft you purchase a LOSS (licensed operating system scheme)

How's that again?

If you ... think that the owner ... should be in control of what they own, rather than some third party...

Hm. I wonder what this writer would say to the "intellectual property" owner who claims the same "right" with regards to his copyrighted music or software?

Anyone else find it amusing...

...that the petition is the PITR petition?

I wonder how much user freedom Pitr would want people to have once he takes over Google...

What is Microsoft actually selling?

When you pay money, weather it's a purchase, rental or contract, you are informed what you are buying and how long you are going to have use of it. With a purchase, you generally have at least a month to return it if it doesn't work, more time to get it repaired under warranty and thereafter you can fix it yourself.

I have no idea what Microsoft is selling when you buy a "Windows Vista Box". They are saying they can change or cancel functionality of the product at any time, even one day after purchase, and without a notice. Even if its a rental, they have to give a 30 day notice and then refund prorated rent fee. Contracts that ask for money without the other party having any obligations are generally considered illegal - see consumer scums and pyramid schemes.

I hope Windows Home sales are eventually ruled illegal as well, with Microsoft made to at least refund money if it messes up user's machine with Windows Genuine Check or content blurring. As for business additions, businesses that fall for that deserve what they get. Realistically, sensible companies can settle for a 5 year rental with partial refunds if functionality is interrupted.

Cutting through the fluff and fud...

Wow, he was pretty unspecific there about what he was talking about.

Maybe it's about the HD Content Protection tech again which we've seen stories on here at Slashdot ad nauseum by now. Why is the editors even still approving this stuff? We'll soon enough know ever Slashdot members' stance on the matter. :-p

Anyway... I agree DRM is stupid, but shouldn't these guys be barking at the paranoid media companies trying to enforce that junk, not Microsoft? Vista provides merely an implementation of the HDCP standards that are being pushed out. As long as these guys whines at Vista, nothing will change, because Microsoft will always be the kind of guys that wants to at least provide their users the option to use protected media if they really, really want to. (you aren't required to, and you're free to pirate DRM-less stuff and play it back on Vista perfectly fine) It's like he thinks Microsoft thought it was a good idea to arbitrarily limit users in how they can view protected media. In that case, he needs to provide a major part of his article giving convincing conspiracy-free details on how Microsoft would exactly profit from that. Please... Wake up and smell the fresh MPAA air. MS may be huge and bad and all, but isn't it obvious who's pulling the strings here? There's more than one behemoth developing Vista at play here.

And when you've got a more balanced view on the situation, maybe it's even possible to realize that Vista can play free media as freely and unrestricted as OS X or Linux, and actually see that Vista only provides the option to playback DRM'ed content, just like OS X provides the option to playback FairPlay stuff, or Linux provides you the option to install non-free libraries with truly draconian licenses that would make baby Gates cry. Is this the operating systems' faults?

How much computing power?

Moreover, he calculated that the technological controls would require considerable consumption of computing power with the system conducting 30 checks each second to ensure that there are no attacks on the security of the premium content.

That sounds a little over blown. Max video bitrate is 40 Mbps (or is it MBytes/s?). So every million bits or so you check to make sure all is on the up and up. This doesn't sound very computationally intensive. Am I missing something?

Refuse help requests from Vista using relatives ?

I'm considering refusing any requests to help anyone (friends, relatives) that uses Vista. In fact since I am not going to, and not able to, upgrade my Windows box (rarely used) to Vista I may not know about new features or methods anyway.

  I'd recommend Ubuntu but it's still only 95% ready as far as I am concerned, I can't picture an aunt using it there are some difficulties to overcome especially file permissions I can't imagine how to explain that to someone who is barley comfortable with just web browsing and e-mail.

Windows Defender...

There appears to be a lot of hubbub about Windows Defender automatically deleting things at will. However, the article is clear that it only deletes things it considers really bad "...by default."

While I'm not on Microsoft's side, that little phrase does temper the idea that everything has been taken away from the user. That implies that the "feature" can be disabled. I'd prefer if the entire thing could be removed, but the fact that many of these features can be disabled is a bit of a bonus.

I understand that the next step is to include features like this that cannot be disabled, but at this point, I'm more interested in the idea of Microsoft randomly requiring revalidation or reactivation. How many people have had false negatives for validation? How often will Vista decide to reduce my functionality because it did a random check in the background and determined that Vista was somehow not Genuine(TM)?

Survey at codeproject

The survey at codeproject shows a marked lack of enthusiasm(http://www.codeproject.com/script/surve y/detail.asp?survey=643)
and that is very MS oriented site.

I spoke with my wallet...

I spoke with my wallet some time ago and bought a Mac. Its not perfect, but there is certainly a philosphy that the user controls the system. If you can't control it, then the system doesn't make you think you do. MS-Windows is very much 'the you don't know what you doing' philosophy. An example of this is in Excel: try pasting a file:/// into a cell and see what happens - grrr - ok this is not Windows, but it is the same company and the same school of thought.

BTW Microsoft's Mac business unit seems to live in universe separate to the rest of the company, and is actually surprisingly capabale to putting out well thought out products, which aren't hindered by the above philosophy.

Can you vote a corporation out of power?

The property comprising the OS isn't yours in the first instance, so it's no suprise that it comes with a set of terms and conditions that will restrict your use of that computer to the ends of profit. Proprietary OS's are evolving into retail interfaces where products and services can be sold to the user, the hardware demoted to a strategically throttled support for this exchange. Like many, I have little doubt that once the OS proprietor sees sufficient return made from these 'secondary' revenue streams (via music/video from channel partners, anti-malware applications or whatever), OS's like Vista will be given away for 'free'. Put simply, to run Windows is more akin to renting your computer than owning it. The rent can be 'paid' in many different ways, but it will always be paid. The same goes for OS X, it's just that they actually work hard to make you feel good about this exchange.

If you use a proprietary OS you can feign grief at DRM lock-in and lack of access to the raw hardware (etc etc) but you can't really be outraged or surprised. Any corporation worth its shareholders will always work hard to redirect your better judgement and profit from it. Fighting it is all very well and noble but if you want real change, for you now, stop using the bloody stuff. Complaining about DRM in Vista is like whingeing that the hotelier doesn't let your friends stay over in your hotel room. If you can't switch because the software you need, or think you need, doesn't run on an OS that actually allows you to own your stuff - your supposedly Personal Computer and what is done with/on it- or if you are afraid of the work involved in changing OS, then you've just described the transformative scope of the sacrifice. You are then clear that if you really want freedom to do what you want with your stuff, then you can vote with your courage and switch to an OS allows for this.

Signing petitions is all very well but you know full well the modern Government is, in part, an administrative body managing the interests of corporations that operate within the economic territory known as a 'State'. They only work for you and your interests up until they have your vote and as long as it doesn't threaten the big guys that have the post-democratic influence. They're not idiots. Without smelling like patchouli, if you really want change, be prepared to make the change for yourself. If you don't think you can, or don't want to, then sure, fight on..

But what about performance?

Toms Hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista / [tomshardware.com] just published extensive Vista Enterprise benchmarks, comparing them to XP Pro. The result: At best, the computer won't run any slower. At worst, it will run software abysmally slow or not at all. OpenGL support seems nonexistant, judging from the horrendous drop in performance in UT2004 (>30% drop) and the rendering of 3D/CAD/CAE software unusable (80-90% drops in performance). This is idiotic on Microsoft's part. Now businesses will be even more opposed to upgrading to Vista, since either they're going to have to stop using their engineering/graphics software (at least until vendors work on their Vista support) or they're going to have to split their computer infrastructure and support both XP and Vista, while seeing, at beast, negligible gains under Vista. Businesses are not going to be sold on the promise of Aero glass, especially not when Vista's recommended system requirements are so high, relative to those for XP (I have a P2 450 with 384MB of RAM running XP Home passably, it certainly won't be able to run Vista).

The options

• Buy Vista. Put up with all the nonsense. Know that Microsoft will probably Tivo you at some point, taking away some functionality. Expect downtime due to authorization problems.
• Keep running Windows 2000 and retain control of your system. No support, not compatible with many new devices, won't play much content, but a solid system.
• Switch to a Mac, the other closed system. Everything from Apple works; third party software is kind of thin.
• Run Linux on the desktop. It's almost ready for the desktop, like it has been for five years now.

Those are the options. And they all suck.

This is an opportunity for somebody. Probably somebody in China.

My vist experiance

I loaded it on a twin dual core with 4 gig of ram.
It booted slower than 2k pro
It would not allow me to install sybase (vista said it was a virus)
I could not run Office 2000 on it. I would just crash if it opened at all
I was unable to load my custom written backup software, it did not have a valid certificate
      ( i wrote the software )

I unloaded vista and put 2k back on it

I support self-determination

Therefore, as such, unlike the FSF, I wouldn't flat out try to tell anyone not to buy Vista.

However, I will simply observe that if you *do* buy and use Vista, you'll not only be giving yourself the shaft, but you'll also be providing Microsoft assistance in persuing their goal of screwing everyone else on the planet who uses a computer.

Pointing out the consequences of somebody exercising their free will to make a given choice is not the same as trying to coerce them not to make said choice. You've got every right to make the choice...just realise that in this case it isn't going to be one that helps you, or anybody else.

Irrespective of what anyone else is doing, I'm not buying it myself. I know that much.

Or just go looking for the alternative

Or we could just let MS hang themselves, and keep working on sharpening the quality of the open software stacks we already have.

End of Infringement

It sounds like this guy is ticked because Microsoft closed up the core to its vendors. Symantec and McAfee were also up in arms over the model in Vista. So basically he is saying that Microsoft should put back in the very security holes and bugs that they set out to fix with this version. Does this mean the crackers need to get a day job? Either way they do it someone is going to have his sensationalist FUD and tell you how what-Microsoft-is-doing-is-wrong.

Waiting...

I am still patiently waiting for a Linux version to come out that can be used by someone with ZERO sys-admin skills. I'll be the first one in line when it comes out. Come on Ubuntu or some other flavor, just polish that last 10%.
*sigh* But then what about all my games? What a no-win situation this is. Guess I'll be stuck on XP forever. *sob*

I really wish that software could run independent of OS. No this isn't a vote for Java either.

My solution

I'm Canadian, and will sign the petition, but I have already found a better solution. I just bought a Mac. Vote with your wallets people.

I thought the transition would be difficult, and thought I'd rely heavily on Parallels to run Windows apps; I haven't had to fire it up in over a week (and even then, it wasn't because I really needed to). Have my hard-core Unix development at my fingertips under the hood, with the best commercially available GUI (in my opinion), is almost a dream come true. I think the switch Intel was brilliant, in that it allayed one potential fear (if MacOS doesn't do it for me, I can just put Windows on the unit; something I won't even bother to try now.)

I did try out a vista prevue/beta under Parallels to see what it looked like. It ran well, but looked a bit different and unfamiliar, and I couldn't really see anything compelling to it. So I deleted it.

Solly Cholly

I only sign one petition a year, and I already put my JH on a petition against women's suffrage. Although I believe this is a very important and extremely cool petition here, we gotta end women suffring. But once they're not suffring anymore, I'll be right beside you.

Re:This calls for some new legislation

requires citizens to hire a lawyer before purchasing an operating system.

      Or was that purchasing a lawyer before you hire/license an operating system?

You may be surprised to learn:

There is more than one person on the Internet and on Slashdot. Not all of them agree on all points. This does not make them hypocrites because, well, they aren't all the same person.

Did you know that the meaning of the word idiot, in the original Greek, is a private person, someone who does not engage in public life? Maybe you should get out more.