Windows Vista Flow Chart

[XR Rob]

And, again, I return to my point that the average user doesn't even know what DRM is, nor can be bothered to find out! The computer is becoming an appliance for such people - even moreso when it comes to Media Center-based PCs - as a device that is turned on and turned off and "just works".

Personally, when I feel the need to upgrade, I'll run this copy I have here. But I won't be doing that until I upgrade my PC a little. What will it give me on top of Vista? Heaps of stuff. It's more stable, it's more secure, it will run the next generation of games an absolute treat. And they're just the points that I'm most interested in. I've sat through two Vista presenations to media and analysts so far (the first at the RTM launch to business in late November last year and the second at last Tuesday's consumer-oriented launch), and the OS has the goods to take us through the next five years. I'm quite comfortable in saying that.

And no, I'm not a M$ apologist. As I said, I'm in no rush to run it (or Office 2007 for that matter), despite having the copies sitting at home, ready to go. But when I run it, I know it'll be good.

[robs_ls1]

Originally Posted by XR Rob

And, again, I return to my point that the average user doesn't even know what DRM is, nor can be bothered to find out!

And, again, I return to my point that they will know when they get bitten by it. It isn't a matter of if, but when.

Do you honestly believe that Microsoft would spend millions of dollars developing their DRM technologies if they only affected the smallest minority of users? No, these moves are targeted at the dumb majority who'll insert a disc and be told that it can't be played on their computer or that they'll have to watch a digitally degraded version because their hardware is incompatible with HDCP. How amazed they'll be when they can't copy stuff. Not even for backup purposes.

Originally Posted by XR Rob

The computer is becoming an appliance for such people

Some appliance. Can't even copy movies!

Originally Posted by XR Rob

I've sat through two Vista presenations to media and analysts so far

So which are you? Media, analyst or vendor?

Originally Posted by XR Rob

and the OS has the goods to take us through the next five years. I'm quite comfortable in saying that.

You'd better be. You've got 5 more years of filesystem fragmentation to put up with. That being the case, you'd think that they could have at least included a decent defragger, but no. The new one is even worse than the piece of junk they included with XP.

Also, why do they persist with "the registry" for keeping your personal settings? Don't they trust their users? I'd much rather have settings stored in text format. There is no reason why this can't be the case, except maybe their braindead philosophy (which, BTW, doesn't work) of protecting the users from themselves.

One good thing that Vista has going for it is User Access control. This feature has the potential to stop practically any virus, worm or trojan horse from inflicting damage. It is a good thing, but unfortunately, its poor implementation will mean that it is the first thing people turn off, which is a damn shame. Surely, it wouldn't have been that difficult to make this feature somewhat tolerable? Look at MacOSX, it's user permissions system is so transparent that you can't even tell that you're operating with limited permissions. I guess that would be taking it too far though. It's already too similar to MacOSX... ;)