Posted on 05/03/2009 11:22:20 PM PDT by JoeProBono
How long does Microsoft plan to keep selling copies of its Windows Vista operating system after the upcoming launch of Windows 7? The company isn't saying. With previous versions of Windows, Microsoft used a transition period when old and new versions of Windows were available to help corporate customers manage their transition to the new version of the operating system. This time Microsoft aims to put the ghosts of its Vista troubles to rest as soon as possible, and could stop selling Vista as soon as Windows 7 is released. "We are still not sure if [computer makers] will be able to ship Vista once Windows 7 is made available. Having said that, an enterprise customer that purchases a PC with Windows 7 pre-installed is allowed to downgrade to Vista should they desire, similar to what we have today on Vista to XP," wrote Richard Francis, general manager and Windows client business group lead at Microsoft Asia-Pacific, in an e-mail.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
When will SP2 be available for Windows 7? I consider any version of Windows, prior to SP2, to be Beta.
WTF?
tech list PING!
> The continued availability of Windows XP during a transition period after Windows 7’s release will reassure users who have avoided upgrading to Windows Vista and may be wary of the new operating system.
Found this link right beside the thread article.
Alright.
I have XP Pro, and never used Vista: may have to pass on 7, too.
VISTA: glad I missed ya.
I love the 64 Bit XP and will probably not move to version 7 unless they prove it is not a crawling POS and their DRM is not from the age of Stalin.
It is actually much better than VISTA except for the DRM which is even worse.
The SP2 beta finally made Vista almost “comfy” for me. It fixed most of the worst bugs.
"It's been a long time since we've had a version of Windows that will actually run better [than the previous version] on the hardware that most customers have," Nash said. - Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Windows product management group at Microsoft
Thanks for the warning, Mike.
bump
I LOVE CTRL+ALT+DEL. Unfortunately my megalomaniacal security group seems to think that this is unproductive material and blocks it.
That being said, I use Vista Ultimate x64 edition at home for gaming. My other machines, including my server, all run some flavor of Linux (Fedora 10 for laptop, Ubuntu for server). I really don’t mind Vista. It takes FOREVER to get it configured in the manner that it most comfortable to your use, but with 8 GB RAM, 2 160 GB SATA disks in a RAID1, 2 512 MB PCI-Express vid cards in SLI configuration, and a Core i7 processor behind it all, Vista runs like it’s supposed to(all 6’s on the experience meter).
Vista will become the next ME: dustbin material. But it’s MUCH more functional than ME ever was.
DRM is why I won't buy Vista. Not that I want to steal content, but if they want me to pay for a product, it needs to be developed to meet my interests AND NO ONE ELSE'S. And then there's the hardware theft. All those hard drive sectors, bytes of RAM, and CPU cycles, the hardware for which and the power to run which I PAID FOR!!! and which they're willing to sacrifice for the benefit of third parties not a part of the transaction to buy the software. They shouldn't expect to steal from me, call it "Rights Management", as if my rights needed managing, and still expect me to line up pay them for it.
Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel about DRM.
![](http://www.geocities.com/quake95616/1989-003sr.jpg")
It’s a family forum. I’d probably get banned. You’ll just have to get by with inferences from my vague post. ;-)
That's not a big mystery really. Insiders admit Windows 7 is just Vista SP3 rebadged.
I hope they put the steering wheel on the left this time and remove the ignition switch from the glove box. It’s tough learning how to drive again every few years.
What does the DRM under Vista/7 stop me from doing?
I use Vista daily and have had zero DRM problems - what problems should I be seeing?
I haven't had any problems with my VISTA machine, but Win7 is awesome, and will have a Virtual PC addition for XP applications.
THAT, is one reason to go for it.
Your computer is more expensive and/or has lower performance than it would if it didn’t have DRM.
You can’t prove that.
The only time the protect path portions of the Video/Audio subsystem come into play are when protected content is being played. They aren’t used when non-protected content is played.
Hell, after Win 7 comes out, M-soft will claim that Visduh was put out by a bunch of pirates in Somalia, illegally using the Microsoft name, and that they are sending their geekiest lawyers to bring said criminals to justice.
I've been using Windows 7 Beta since it came out and have had 0 problems. Think I'll install the new version this weekend. If you have a second partition you can install it there and have dual boot with Vista although I've never gone back.
Even if that were true, you’ve still been forced to buy software a portion of the cost of which is dedicated to protecting someone else from the purchaser of the product. Microsoft has failed in their duty to you and every other purchaser of this “product”.
How is allowing me to play BluRay discs, Rhapsody music and videos from Netflix harming me as a purchaser?
I don’t believe that there isn’t some software stub of DRM not active when you’re not playing protected content, sucking performance from your computer and, indirectly money from your wallet, because you had to pay them to code this. Personally I’m not willing to make that trade. I would rather break the DRM to watch content I legally own (if I gave a rat’s butt about playing those kind of media on my PC), than pay them to babysit me. It’s the principle, which I’m sure is going to sound strange, but that’s what it is.
Your beliefs - when they are contrary to reality - don’t matter. I have ran multiple tests with multiple monitoring applications and the only time the DRM code is executed is when protected content is playing. The code isn’t even loaded into memory unless such content is playing.
In short - you are wrong.
I don’t see how. How would the DRM code know to execute unless there is some process sitting there waiting for you to start to play protected content? It may very well be a part of some otherwise innocent process that raises no suspicion, like explorer.exe or something.
When a user launches a player application and opens an ASF file that has a protected audio stream and a protected video stream, the following steps must be performed:
1. The application creates the ASF media source and the protected media path (PMP) session. Media Foundation creates a PMP process.
2. The application creates a partial topology that contains an audio source node connected to the audio renderer, and a video source node connected to the enhanced video renderer (EVR). For the renderers, the application does not directly create the renderer. Instead, the application creates in the unprotected process an object known as an activation object. The PMP uses the activation object to create the renderers in the protected process. (For more information about activation objects, see Activation Objects.)
3. The application sets the partial topology on the PMP session.
4. The PMP session serializes the topology and passes it to the PMP host in the protected process. The PMP host sends the topology to the policy engine.
5. The topology loader calls IMFInputTrustAuthority::GetDecrypter on the ITAs and inserts the decrypters into the topology immediately downstream of the corresponding source nodes.
6. The topology loader inserts the audio and video decoders downstream of the decrypter nodes.
7.
The policy engine scans the inserted nodes to determine whether any implement the IMFTrustedOutput interface. The EVR and the audio renderer both implement IMFTrustedOutput, because they send data outside the PMP.
8.
Each ITA confirms that it is running inside a protected process by performing a cryptographic handshake with a protected environment kernel module.
9.
For each stream, the policy engine negotiates policy by getting a policy object from the ITA and passing it to the OTA. The OTA provides a list of the protection systems that it supports, and the policy object indicates which protection systems must be applied, along with the correct settings. The OTA then applies these settings. If it cannot do so, the content is blocked.
I’m of pretty much the same view. Frankly, I don’t want a machine that supports DRM since I have no interest in encouraging the practice.
I like some of the new 7 features, but no way will I upgrade until they can prove to me their DRACONIAN DRM WON’T CRIPPLE MY ABILITY TO USE ***MY*** MACHINE.
It is MY machine. It is only THEIR operating system.
Not talking about doing anything illegal here, just copy a DVD for backup reasons etc.
From what I hear, 7 will be horrible and prevent you from basically doing anything Microsoft does not approve.
You’ll be missing a great experience by not going to Windows 7 ASAP. I’ve been using Windows 7 Beta since it was available. It’s so stable I’m not even going to use the Windows 7 Release Candidate which was made available today.
Why waste time downloading and installing the release candidate. Beta can’t be upgraded and I would have to reinstall everything. The original Beta version I’m using now is everything I would want in an OS. You should consider Windows 7 a Vista Service Pack 4.
I have a new Western Digital 300GB Raptor sitting on a shelf and I’m waiting for the retail version of Win 7 to hit the market so I can install it.
My first PC used Windows 95. It caused many hours of frustration and was so bad I almost left Microsoft, but it forced me to learn. I now build my own computers and repair those of my friends when they require it.
Just last night I backed up 2 separate DVDs on one of my Windows 7 boxes.
Not a problem at all.
Maybe the initial reports on the DRM are too harsh then. I was under the impression you couldn’t do anything without Microsoft phoning home.
Nothing shows up on my router running Tomato which has zero Microsoft code in it.
Me too. I've been a user since it's release. While it hasn't been completely bug free, I believe it's very solid and the best OS that Microsoft has released.
I'm going to upgrade to 7RC this afternoon and I'm hopeful that the few bugs that I've found have been fixed with this latest release. Someone should start a MS 7 RC live thread. The only reason I gave MS a second shot (switched entirely to Linux and Mac after the Vista debacle), was because several people on FR were so complimentary towards W7.
I dont know what you guys are doing, but I havent had any DRM issues with Vista, I am even using it to run a Home Theater PC. of course I am not trying to record a show a HBO(dont have any premuim movie channels) but I do rip dvd’s and store them on my hugemongus(soon to be tiny) 1t harddrive.
Vista is to computing what the interest only mortgage loan is to home ownership.
Microsoft by design makes the software that exhausts the hardware as boldly as they dare, which ensures near future sales of hardware, therefore every hardware producer favors Microsoft.
There is only one conclusion, Microsoft obviously needs tarp money and the government needs to prop up their monopoly. As this would least serve the taxpayer and consumer -it is the one obvious choice! You’ll get a $50 tax deduction off you next PC.
Don’t buck the tend.
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