http://www.itv.com/news/britain_3e82...20e571515.html







Vista was launched in Japan last year and is already available to businesses

Microsoft Vista to launch
4.17, Mon Jan 29 2007



Following five years of development, Microsoft's cutting edge operating system Vista is due to hit the shelves and PCs this week.

It has taken 50 million lines of software code and billions of dollars of investment to replace XP, the Microsoft system powering over 90 per cent of the world's computers.

Vista was launched in Japan last year and is already available to businesses. It is geared for all of today's video, music and gaming multimedia demands making use of the latest technology available.

Microsoft has also teamed up with other major media companies to make sure they and their customers have got the edge.

The software also benefits from the best security to keep data and files safe, and new controls mean that users can't unintentionally make changes that could leave their system vulnerable.

Even if a computer should end up in the wrong hands, new BitLocker technology encrypts the hard drive and protects data from unauthorised users - the same device will protect information on lost computers, a key extra layer of protection as more users travel and use their laptops on the move.

New systems on sale from this week are likely to have Vista already included. Otherwise the software can be bought separately.

Dont rush out to get it yet... Babylon has its plan:

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/175801



Jan 29, 2007 04:30 AM


Michael Geist

Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, makes its long awaited consumer debut tomorrow. The first major upgrade in five years, Vista incorporates a new, sleek look and features a wide array of new functionality, such as better search tools and stronger security.

The early reviews have tended to damn the upgrade with faint praise, however, characterizing it as the best, most secure version of Windows, yet one that contains few, if any, revolutionary features.

While those reviews have focused chiefly on Vista's new functionality, for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vista's "fine print." Those communities have raised red flags about Vista's legal terms and conditions as well as the technical limitations that have been incorporated into the software at the insistence of the motion picture industry.

The net effect of these concerns may constitute the real Vista revolution as they point to an unprecedented loss of consumer control over their own personal computers. 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.

Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge. During the installation process, users "activate" Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft.

Even after installation, the legal agreement grants Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components. In addition, it sets significant limits on the ability to copy or transfer the software, prohibiting anything more than a single backup copy and setting strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software." The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.

Once operational, the agreement warns that Windows Defender will, by default, automatically remove software rated "high" or "severe," even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.

For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who is in control by providing that "this agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights." For those users frustrated by the software's limitations, Microsoft cautions that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software."

Those technical limitations have proven to be even more controversial than the legal ones.

Last December, Peter Guttman, a computer scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a paper called "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection." The paper pieced together the technical fine print behind Vista, unraveling numerous limitations in the new software seemingly installed at the direct request of Hollywood interests.

Guttman focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the ability to play back high-definition content from the next-generation DVDs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (referred to as "premium content").

He noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.

Guttman's research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain licences from third parties in order to access the technology that protects premium content (those licence fees were presumably incorporated into Vista's price).

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.

Microsoft responded to Guttman's paper earlier this month, maintaining that content owners demanded the premium content restrictions. According to Microsoft, "if the policies [associated with the premium content] required protections that Windows Vista couldn't support, then the content would not be able to play at all on Windows Vista PCs." While that may be true, left unsaid is Microsoft's ability to demand a better deal on behalf of its enormous user base or the prospect that users could opt-out of the technical controls.

When Microsoft introduced Windows 95 more than a decade ago, it adopted the Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" as its theme song. As millions of consumers contemplate the company's latest upgrade, the legal and technological restrictions may leave them singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

Surprise, surprise.....MS goes in for sharp practice....

Few people really need Vista - the average user wants to surf a little, send emails, maybe create documents......some are stepping into digital media handling (music/photos/movies)....but even with all that.....XP is more than adequate for most people's needs, so long as you have a decent processor and max out your RAM......

Wonder how long it will be before MS stops supporting XP, thereby forcing people to use Vista......the living scam :X

Microsoft to extend support for Windows XP for 5 years

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/301038_tbrfs25.html

And MS press release; http://snipurl.com/18kd3

@SoulRebel... exactly! like it or not... "you will buy Vista" says Mr Gates.

Apple does the same tactic with every release of OS, I was loyal to Mac until they made it nigh on impossible to keep up with loss of support (Panther and Leopard support disappeared with Tiger launch, then they launched dual format w/XP... so now what?)

Any Linux heads around?

YankeeJamaRican wrote: Wish I was one....will be one day......in the meantime, I avoid paying for software unless i absolutely have to, which is rare....plenty of free stuff around......and very little of it is MS so Billy boy doesn't see any of my money....plus a bit of basic pc knowhow.....does the job...

I read that you WILL conform to Vista within the next five years because they'll simplyrefuse toactivateXP any more.

:X



Where's my win98 cd? confused3

Saida.M wrote: Bill says....


[align=center][/align]

[align=center]Windows 98? We'll see about that.....[/align]

[align=center][/align]

The bottom line is CONTROL.

This is not just about Vista and Bill Gates.

We are headed for a future where people can't function without computers. The first one didn't become operational until 1945 and no one then could have imagined what we have now. What do you think is going to happen over the next 60 years? I have mentioned Black people standardizing on Linux a number of times on various websites in the last 4 years. I don't think I have had 6 people agree.

I think we need to take the social psychology of European culture into account on this issue. We are talking about people on ego-power trips with no limits. Almost all computers are von Neumann machines. I worked for IBM for 4 years. I never saw the term anywhere in that time. I didn't learn it until after I quit. To test the performance of computers you do benchmarks. The only time I ran across the term benchmark was when I used it. It didn't get to me unitl years later, How could I work for the biggest computer company in the world and never run across the term von Neumann machine?

If you want to hide information about something computers are a great technology to do it with. Then you make the ignorant pay thru the nose. This is about MONEY! Do we want to be techno-SLAVES for the next 1000 years.

The computer industry has a very peculiar problem. The technology is TOO GOOD. In 1978 IBM introduced the 3033 mainframe. The Singer Corporation bought the very first one. It cost THREE MILLION DOLLARS. Do you need the power of a $3,000,000 computer? My tests indicate it was about equivalent to a 300 MHz Pentium. And it maxed out at 32 megabytes of memory.

bighairlol

I wouldn't pay $200 for a used computer with those specs today.

Admittedly we are doing things now that need a lot more processing power than accounting and inventory for a multimillion dollar corporation. Ripping a CD and converting it to MP3s takes more processing power than plenty of companies used in a month back then. But Intel and AMD need software that wastes processing power on irrelevant trivia to get us to upgrade hardware. It's about the MONEY. So do we buy computers to empower us or do we buy them to put our heads in an economic noose for the palefaces?

umbrarchist

Vista will standalone for elite personnel. It is meant for select computers so if you work in a multicomputing environment maybe one or two computer with IT experts will be on it. Consumers are in debt and I dont think a 2 gig ram computer with CPU intensive high hard drive space will be on high priority.

I went to a pawn shop to get an old computer for a relative and the brother said they sold out all their towers on Christmas. So there is alot of XP going back systems out there simply not going to be Vista ready. And surprisingly there is still a strong demand for the low end used computer.

I have a contact in Japan who works in computer related fields and they are using much different software and if it is windows it XP or 2000.

Once a network is in place most businesses do not update their software (virus scans, operating systems, etc) because it takes too much time and it's a hassle. Time is money and reliability is highly regarded.

Bill Gates and his company as always doesnt think to well enough for his customers.


After all he did business edition first then the consumer. That already demonstrate where his priorities lay.