Why Windows Vista Is Evil

[sparhawk]

I just found this article and I must say it's quite scary to read.

 

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

 

 

"... he example given in the link is particularly scary because the content actually includes a self-destruct after which it won't play any more, so not only do you need to re-purchase your content when you switch from XP to Vista, but you also need to re-purchase it periodically when it expires. In addition since the media rights can't be backed up, if you experience a disk crash you get another opportunity to re- purchase the content all over again ..."

 

"Elimination of Open-source Hardware Support

 

In order to prevent the creation of hardware emulators of protected output devices, Vista requires a Hardware Functionality Scan (HFS) that can be used to uniquely fingerprint a hardware device to ensure that it's (probably) genuine. ...

 

In order for this to work, the spec requires that the operational details of the device be kept confidential. Obviously anyone who knows enough about the workings of a device to operate it and to write a third-party driver for it (for example one for an open-source OS, or in general just any non-Windows OS) will also know enough to fake the HFS process. The only way to protect the HFS process therefore is to not release any technical details on the device beyond a minimum required for web site reviews and comparison with other products.

 

... A quarter of a century ago, IBM made the momentous decision to make their PC an open platform by publishing complete hardware details and allowing anyone to compete on the open market. ... This openness is what created the PC industry, and the reason why most homes (rather than just a few offices, as had been the case until then) have one or more PCs sitting in a corner somewhere. This seems to be a return to the bad old days of 25 years ago when only privileged insiders were able to participate."

 

I don't really think that this can be stopped. The Industry is pushing for it obviously, and there are to many Lemmings to follow without thinking of what it really means, as long as they get their next "cewl" game, while their rights and freedom of choise is witthled away with pretty promises.

[OrbWeaver]

I wouldn't touch Vista with a ten-foot pole. You'd have to be insane to spend money on an OS which serves the content owners rather than the users.

[sparhawk]

Problem ist hat enough fanboys will buy it anyway. And then there is of course the OEM bundling, which essentially forces it onto customers. That's why I anxiously wait for ReactOS to become mature enough to use it http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html. Linux is quite fine, but for some things it's not enough.

[OrbWeaver]

I think Microsoft could be overestimating the willingness of even the fanboys to be locked out of their own equipment. Even the non-technical columnists are writing about how restrictive Vista is, and once people start being prevented from doing what they want to do (even if this would have been illegal anyway) then they might start looking for alternatives.

[sparhawk]

MS is quite good at selling stuff that goes against your interest. And as long as the fanboys can do what they think is essential, that's enough to justify the buy. Even on TTLG I think David already posted that Vista is not so bad because you can make Thief work with some tricks. That's the worrysome part. As long as there are still loopholes to make it do what you want, you can live with it. Until it's permeated enough to close these loopholes.

[Crispy]

Someday, someone will break Vista's DRM and distribute the tools for doing so. Then the people will celebrate. (Someone did break the DRM already, but they're not releasing it because of the DMCA. Stupid, stupid law.)

 

Either that, or ReactOS will become usable and everyone will ditch Windows in droves, just like almost nobody uses commercial UNIX any more. That day will be a good day.

[Maximius]

This is grim news, anyone have any idea how long until Reactos comes into use? I don't have time to read their whole site right now.

[sparhawk]

The plan to become a kind of early alpha a the mid of this year and some beta by the end of it. Don't know how good they are with the traditional fortune telling of project planning, though.

[OrbWeaver]

I would be very surprised if Microsoft didn't find some way to go after ReactOS with their lawyers if it ever evolves to a state where it is a genuine threat to Microsoft. The chances that it is not "violating" some software patent or other seem pretty remote to me.

[sparhawk]

That's my worries. Stupid Software Patents. The already stopped work on it, to rehearse the code because of such threats. I hope that this is really all that comes from it though. According to their site they are 96% finished with this rehearsel.

On the other hand, if ReactOS get shut down because of it, then we are in a pretty similar situation I would say.

[Domarius]

MS has such a strangle hold, they can do anything. I fully expect them to hire hitmen to take out the ReactOS team if nessesary.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

Well, people agree to buy DRM media anyways now, and whatever vista offers is still better than Edison's talking machine. It's still a free market, and some people have a choice as to what OS to use. The IBM-compatibleness of everything now is kind of a luxury, but this will even out the situation by having macs, windowses, and open-source IBM-compatible *n*x's. Everyone knew a long time ago they'll need special secure monitors etc to have high-quality visual output in vista. My friends ran vista 2 years ago and also beta-tested ubuntu, guess what they prefer.

[Unstoppable]

I"m never buying Vista in the foreseable future. I think XP is just fine and dandy.

[OrbWeaver]

Everyone knew a long time ago they'll need special secure monitors etc to have high-quality visual output in vista.

 

I don't think everybody does know that actually. I suspect there will be lot of pissed-off customers when they realise that the new Windows they just splashed out on won't play their HD content because their perfectly good monitor doesn't have the required lockdown facilities.

[oDDity]

My sister bought a laptop last week and it already has Vista installed on it.

It's really just the same as XP anyway, the only possible reason to upgrade will be the new direct x versions.

The only problem is, you can't keep XP forever. It's already 6 years old as it is.

[Domarius]

Well I'm in no hurry - I'm the same as with all my previous OS upgrades - not buying untill it becomes totally nessecary to do so - when none of the new sofatware or games you want will run on the old OS.

[Nyarlathotep]

I'm hoping that by the time that happens, there will be at least one viable alternative to Vista. I don't want to have to curtail my gaming habits (and remove any and all prospects for a job in game development) because of an operating system that intentionally destroys my computer's stability and security on a hardware level for negligible gains in copyright protection.

[SplaTtzZ]

I actually have Vista running on one of my computers right now; I can't really see much of a difference between it and XP, beyond some superficial eye candy stuff. It has this gadget sidebar which I don't really see the point of, and the 3D switch between windows tool is nice but I still don't really use it.

 

Then it has some absolutely ridiculous features, like 'user account control', where it basically asks you every time you do something if that is what you actually wanted to do. Put a CD in, and you basically get a message screaming "ZOMG did you really, really, REALLY want to put a cd in your cd-rom drive!?1?! It could contain VIRUSES or NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES OR SOMETHING!!!!" before you have to tell it to shutup. This basically happens everytime you run a program, every time you install something, every time you change settings, every time you scratch your arse.

 

Ok so maybe I'm exagerating just a little bit, but that feature really pissed me off. It's useless, and I shudder to think what casual users who might not know how to turn it off would do. Also alot of my games either don't work or have become unstable. Added to this is the fact that Vista really seems to take more RAM to run itself than XP ever did; the nice bells and whistles which are basically useless probably add to this problem. It apparently doesn't like shutting down either, preferring to go into 'sleep' mode, another thing I find annoying.

 

IMO Vista isn't worth its price, at least not for the moment. In the future though I can see it and its API's and directX becoming pretty important for games and gaming. I'd like to buy a new realease game that supports Vista and see how it runs, I can't imagine there'd be many problems, cos it is at least as stable as XP with some games I run.

Edited March 14, 2007 by SplaTtzZ

[Crispy]

Then it has some absolutely ridiculous features, like 'user account control', where it basically asks you every time you do something if that is what you actually wanted to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n4mdcXa8B0

[OrbWeaver]

In the future though I can see it and its API's and directX becoming pretty important for games and gaming.

 

It's not the DirectX API which is important, it is the features of the next-generation of graphics cards, which Microsoft have chosen to only support with DX10/Vista. All of these features are available with OpenGL extensions in the usual way, so developers could take advantage of them without requiring Vista at all.

[SneaksieDave]

Is that right? Well that's certainly a good thing then; developers and buyers could lead a mini revolt by simply not using it. Too bad some have already embraced it. IIRC, at least id and Carmack's stance (stated in a recent interview) on it was that DX10 and Vista are just not necessary.

[sparhawk]

Valve will most likely support it, as they always have supported Microsoft.

[SneaksieDave]

Here is more on that very topic:

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?...;threadid=76140

[Unstoppable]

Fuck Vista. Once that reaction OS is good to go i'm gonna switch to that shit on my next cpu. Time to fight the monopoly.

[Nyarlathotep]

I'm personally very interested in WinE right now, as I find the whole process of dual-booting very distasteful. However, the possibility of being able to access ext2/3 or ReiserFS through "Windows" (or even just writing to NTFS in Linux) would solve some 70% of my issues with dual-boot setups.

 

If it were my choice, I'd be working on Doom 3 and TDM in Linux, using GCC rather than Visual Studio. If anyone knows a way to compile for Winblows with GCC, I'd be forever grateful.