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 ...
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.
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