Vista's Legal Fine Print Raises Red Flags (All your computer are belong to us.)

The Toronto Star ^ | January 29, 2007 | Michael Geist

[quidnunc]

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.

-snip-

[jdm]

Vista is the Zune of operating systems.

LOL.

[captain anode]

I'll stick with XP-PRO until it corrupts itself, and then maybe go to Xandros for $60. :)

I misplaced my Windows XP-PRO disk and product code so I should spend another $280 again. Registration is a one way street for MS.

[George W. Bush]

XP has a similar set up.

Slashdot: Professor Michael Geist on Vista's Fine Print

Includes a lot of varied comments from techies about why Vista is bad for business and bad for the home.

Some of the Vista crap is just inexcusable. What a bad joke.

[George W. Bush]

Oopsie.

Slashdot: Professor Michael Geist on Vista's Fine Print

[corlorde]

Yup, and there are a host of other problems as well. Even as I type this, there are dozens of programs that won't work with Vista and there is very bad driver support. I just find the whole thing highly annoying (won't work with some games, doesn't recognize some hardware, no hardware audio etc).

[dinasour]

A long and scary analysis of Vista's DRM.

Yeah, Vista is "secure", if you are the RIAA.

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

Originally linked from here:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/a_cost_analysis.html

[redgolum]

Had supper with a friend from out of town last night. He works on the installers for a major lab and control software company.

He basically said "Don't do Vista". There is going to be massive issues with this one.

[corlorde]

Remember when Sony infected millions of PC's with a malicious rootkit? I'm not crazy about giving any third party low level access to my PC.

[redgolum]

The issue with the Sony rootkit, and maybe with Vista, is that under current law you don't "own" the software or music. You own (or lease) a license which can be revoked under certain conditions.

[George W. Bush]

I had not heard this. Is this a perm. situation?

That's their intent. Looks like some lawsuits and legal wrangling are forthcoming from Norton (ugh-bad) and McAfee (only a little better). Norton's corporate stuff under the Symantec label is quite good though, nothing like the horrible versions for home users of Norton.

Norton and McAfee aren't popular with techies because they're slow resource hogs and don't do an especially good job at detecting viruses, no better than some of the free or lesser known AV programs. Norton is particularly bad because it can crash your machine permanently if you simply try to uninstall it.

I recommend AVG Free and Spybot Search And Destroy, both free. If updated regularly, they do as well as anything. Both free, both well-known, neither one a resource hog. Intel now owns AVG. For technical users, NOD32 is probably the finest AV software out there. But it requires more knowledge and tending than AVG with only a slight advantage in security for most people.

[Space Wrangler]

I misplaced my Windows XP-PRO disk and product code so I should spend another $280 again. Registration is a one way street for MS.

There are a variety of freeware programs that will extract the product code out of your existing copy of XP. Here's one:

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml

[George W. Bush]

He basically said "Don't do Vista". There is going to be massive issues with this one.

He's right. I'm no Microsoft fanboi but I will say that the Microsoft product people should consider is Office 2007. Despite trying to screw the open standards pooch (like they always do), if you're willing to learn their new layout, worker productivity does go up with it. It's more oriented toward what-you-want-to-do, a more user-centric design. So we have to give ol' M$ some credit in 2007.

Office 2007 is a product that shouldn't be ignored. Vista is.

[dinasour]

> Remember when Sony infected millions of PC's with a malicious rootkit?

It is also of some note that the company that wrote the software that discovered the rootkit, is now wholly owned by Microsoft.

Systems Internals had some really good "toys for geeks".

Now known as:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

I predict they will disappear completely.

[captain anode]

Hey, Thanks!

[George W. Bush]

I misplaced my Windows XP-PRO disk and product code so I should spend another $280 again.

If you want some help with that, let me know. You don't have to reinstall from your original media again. You can use any WinXP Pro (retail or OEM) that matches your original installation and then enter your license information at the appropriate point (right at the activation prompt).

Not hard to do. Perfectly legal because you own a license to WinXP Pro, not merely a license to that one disk that you lost.

[George W. Bush]

(won't work with some games, doesn't recognize some hardware, no hardware audio etc)

Many of those mass-market machines like the Dell's that people bought last year that were "Certified For Vista" turned out not to be. They don't have drivers, they don't work, they hose the existing WinXP installation.

This is especially true of the laptops.

Make sure that others with identical hardware have successfully done the Vista upgrade before you risk your setup. For Dell, check the Dell.com forums for info. Very useful before you jump off the Vista cliff with no parachute.

[Space Wrangler]

I'm really liking Office '07. As you said, there is a learning curve involved, but I think MS actually listened to its customers for a change. Once you get through the curve, it is very much an improvement in productivity.

Vista....well, what is there to say really? For the most part, it's eye candy. MS seems to be taking the marketing approach of hitting the home consumers on this one. I know of no corporate IT departments that even have evaluations scheduled for Vista. Server 2003 is still a long time in the pipeline, and without some major AD additions to take advantage of Vista, and Longhorn still at least a year away, there is no incentive at all to move the desktop environment over to Vista. Right now it's all downside...added hardware cost, productivity hits while users adjust to the learning curve, limited support, etc, etc. I think if we take the time machine to one year from today, we may start seeing some evaluations taking place, but after a year in the pipeline and XP will still be the predominant OS in the corporate world.

[Petronski]

Will sales zune too?

[George W. Bush]

Will sales zune too?

No. Microsoft will refuse to sell copies of XP to Dell/HP/Gateway or in retail packages. So they'll sell them because you won't be able to buy computers with XP and Vista will be included "free". Just like they've done before.

Microsoft is a damned monopoly. I hope the EU continues to go after them on it and on DRM. I noticed that the EU, led by Norway, is going after Apple for their far less intrusive DRM as well. It's all good.

On the DRM thing, it's clear now that M$'s draconian PlaysForSure DRM is a squalid failure and will never succeed. So now Microsoft is pretending to be anti-DRM (for audio CDs) to placate Europe and to hurt Apple's very profitable iTunes store. To make it even more fun, M$'s stupid Zune wireless thing of share-and-play-it-3-times policy has now been shortcircuited by some of their music suppliers so you can't even do their puny worthless filesharing thing.

Microsoft really needs to get some smarter marketing and design people. Geez.

[George W. Bush]

Once you get through the curve, it is very much an improvement in productivity.

Even all us rabid M$ critics have to admit it: Office 2007 was done right. And retraining is an effort but doable in short order. Then people love it and productivity goes up markedly. In a large organization with, say, 20 office workers, maybe it means you don't have to hire that new employee. Given its omnipresence in American business, Office 2007 upgrades are pretty much a no-brainer, a question of when to upgrade, not whether to. Vista is not so compelling though.

The only question is why they didn't do this in Office 2003/2004. Still, they did it right and deserve the credit.