FSF Launches "BadVista" Campaign 607
FrankNFurter writes to note the launch yesterday of the FSF's BadVista campaign against Microsoft's new operating system. BadVista's aim is to inform users about the alleged harms inflicted by Vista on the user and about free software alternatives. Quoting program administrator John Sullivan: "Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care."
Would've been nice if... (Score:5, Insightful)
FUD??!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot and its minions seems to hate Microsoft FUD, but shouldn't you people have a problem with FUD on the other side? This site has gone full throttle on the anti-Vista campaign already and it isn't even on store shelves yet. Sheesh.
I'm no great fan of MS... (Score:4, Insightful)
-b.
Bad Vista, starring Billy Bob Thornton? (Score:5, Insightful)
All the effort should be spent on advocating your advantages in a positive manner - and then you can compare yourself to the competition, you have a solution to the problem, you're not merely pointing out the bad stuff.
Negative marketing has been shown time and time again to annoy the people that catch the brunt of it - political campaigns through to Apple adverts. Maybe it will stop a few people upgrading, but it won't make them think of switching another solution unless you present that alternative solution in a wondrous halo of wonder fixing all of their issues.
How about a GoodLinux or something campaign as well?
(I didn't read the article)
FSF burning the last of its legitimacy (Score:3, Insightful)
Region encoding on DVDs sucks... but does that keep people from buying DVDs... NO NO NO!
More crap from RMS (Score:3, Insightful)
I cringe every time RMS steps out into the scene. It's like trying to tell someone to stop beating his dog, and having PETA step out; or having one of your friends jokingly call you a fag, and having half of Gay Pride suddenly show up behind him; or groping your girlfriend, and having three women from NOW jump up from the next table and tell you how much of an asshole you are and start yelling out into the whole restaurant how guys are all pigs.
RMS is the definition of a modern politician. His campaigns are "XXX IS TRASH BECAUSE IT RAPES YOU OF YOUR FREEDOMS AND KICKS YOUR DOG AND TOUCHES YOUR TEENAGE DAUGHTER DON'T EVER TOUCH XXX BECAUSE IT WILL CHAIN YOU TO YOUR CHAIR AND GLUE YOUR EYES OPEN AND MAKE YOU GIVE YOUR SOUL TO THE BIG GIANT HEAD!!!!!!!111111111" I'm sick and tired of him, and his GPL (LGPL is a great general purpose license), and his bullshit. The only time he says something nice is when XXX becomes GPL XXX; if you want free marketing, start your new product closed source and get RMS to shriek at you, then open source it so he gives you tons of free positive press for 5 weeks.
Why can't we have someone out to show how great Open Source Software is? Talk about what Ubuntu Linux offers, what RedHat and Novel can do for you, what people like about Debian and Gentoo enough to make them use those over more sophisticated derivatives (like Ubuntu), and the various applications. Don't come out here spewing about how everything else is crap, because ONLY the fanatics care; anyone else either wishes you weren't representing them, doesn't care because they're already using OSS and never actually listen to you talk, or uses something else and doesn't quite get why you're such a nutball over this "DRM" and "proprietary freedom restrictions" crap.
I miss DOS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The wisdom of crowds (Score:2, Insightful)
You should look at the link before posting. The site is based on criticism of DRM-type restrictions.
"Be careful what you wish for, Moglen, Stallman et.al. You just might get it."
The right to freely use the computer I own? Oh, what a horrible, horrible possibility!
Re:FUD??!! (Score:3, Insightful)
There is also no doubt - you click "I agree" and the rights are gone...
And dare I say there is not even any fear in the end user - and that is something we should be really worried about
Re:The wisdom of crowds (Score:3, Insightful)
This is not specifically directed at you as I've seen this many times before but I'm tired of people being so narrow-minded as to think that anyone who disagrees with them must be a paid shill or astroturfer. As hard as it may be to believe some people just honestly don't agree with you on everything.
gNuisance (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not trolling... It is seriously unfortunate that they do not make more realistic recommendations that people might actually consider.
Only if their claims are fuzzy or untrue (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that depends on whether or not the claims the FSF is making are true. FUD is caused by the unknown. So if the arguments presented by the FSF are unsubstantiated or nebulous, then I would agree with you.
On the other hand, if they present a clear description of what Vista does and does not do, it seems to me they are only providing people with the information they need to make an informed choice. Given the benefits of a new upgrade cycle to Microsoft and much of the computer industry, negative information is hardly likely to be broadcast widely.
Re:Vista is Bad. Use Linux. Use GPL software. (Score:5, Insightful)
Misplaced energy? (Score:3, Insightful)
I find the user experience on all these platforms to be greatly wanting! In addition, all user software I have seen on these platforms still sucks big time!
Frog in boling water (Score:2, Insightful)
to the point that before users know it, they end up wrapped in a virtual straightjacket.
Of course, if they tried to do it all at once there would be a huge outcry, but add it in
S__L__O__W__L__Y.........
Re:FSF burning the last of its legitimacy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:More crap from RMS (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree with you entirely. I don't see any problem with informing people exactly what DRM / trusted computing requirements Vista may contain, but let them draw their own conclusions about it. The emotional campaigns claiming the end of the computing will simply will not succeed, because it's not the end of the computing world for most people. Most people just want to operate their computer, and when they actually see the restrictions for themselves or when they see what the alternative can do -- that's when they'll get upset.
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:3, Insightful)
"You know, that store charges too much for apples and has a stranglehold on the competition."
"Uh-huh."
"And it takes away your freedom."
"Uh-huh. How so?"
"Well, it taxes you horribly for those apples."
"That may well be true. But it's the only store that sells apples."
The point is - bash Vista and MS Microsoft all you want. Until another operating system gives me everything I want and more from Microsoft - and I'm talking usability, utility, compatability with entertainment, and all of the other stuff that people have been unable to convince me Linux or any of those other fringe (and they are fringe) programs have, I'm sticking with Microsoft.
"But it's taking away your freedom!"
This is charged. Do I see the stuff they have in Vista as taking away my freedom? Nope, not a bit. Why, you may ask? Because I don't see it as a domain for "freedom." I see freedom as Right to Religion, Right to Free Speech as relating to a government and the sole domain of the individual. Of course, it sounds a whole lot more sexy to say, "They're taking away your freedom!" than, "They're going to make your life annoying." Or whatnot. You have the freedom not to buy it, and people have chosen to exercise that right. I have the right not to buy it, but I don't choose to - according to me, Microsoft puts out a far better product in wide-range than these other ones, even through I'll admit that these other OS's work far smoother.
Another comparison.
It's like me getting a swiss knife that has 12 different tools that work. And my friend getting one that just has three, but he can get out those tools a whole lot faster than I can. That's nice that he can do that, but I can do a whole lot more stuff with mine.
Until someone can prove to me that these are going to give me everything Microsoft has and more, don't bash it. And until someone can prove to me that these other OS's will make my life easier, don't bother telling me Microsoft is bad.
Moral of the story: Don't complain unless you can tell me how to fix the thing.
Re:The wisdom of crowds (Score:2, Insightful)
- Don't exaggerate stuff. Period.
when you were accussing somone who held an opinion different from your own of being a paid shill. Do you think that it's the norm for people who support Microsoft to be astroturfers. Me, I think it's an astroturfer would be a rather extreme example of a Microsoft supporter and hardly the norm.Re:I can already see... (Score:2, Insightful)
Call me when a law requiring me to turn in my old equipment passes, until then, it is just a business decision that may or may not turn out to be right. If they are right, people will buy all the nifty new stuff that protected audio supposedly enables; if they are wrong, people will scoff and keep their money.
Re:I can already see... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:FUD??!! (Score:4, Insightful)
No it isn't. Not by a longshot if you go by the FSF's beliefs. Their core principle is that people should be free to use their computers without any artificial software-induced restrictions. OSX may be partially free and open source "under the hood" but the top layers are every bit as proprietary as Windows.
I'd certainly say that Apple/OSX is better than Windows for "Joe Schmoe" and I would recommend that over Windows or Linux for someone who wants an elegant "just works" new computer. For myself, I prefer to build my own boxes and run Linux (though I have no qualms about using non-free software and drivers on my box)--but I recognize that in the present world, that just isn't right for everybody. "To each their own," "Choice is good," and all that jazz.
And so much misunderstanding from /. posters. (Score:3, Insightful)
Also they wouldn't call "Linux" an OS when it's a kernel, denying themselves credit for their own OS project called GNU.
FSF needs to do PR research (Score:3, Insightful)
I am sympathetic to the FSF's objectives here, but judging by the reaction here on Slashdot this isn't the way to go about it. It's pretty clear what the benefits of a well-funded PR machine are. If they'd done a couple of focus groups or surveys, this might have been shut down pretty quickly, or modified so it didn't irritate people so much. But I doubt they can afford to do that.
On the other hand, maybe the Slashdot crowd is a special case. We have advocates of free software, for whom software freedom is a political issue. We also have technical pragmatists who argue that software should be chosen solely on its technical merit and politics has no place (which is, of course, a political position). We see this campaign in political terms. Joe consumer, on the other hand, with no attachment one way or the other, may simple see this as new and potentially useful information.
Regardless, it seems to me that alienating your natural supporters is not a good approach unless there's the potential for significant gains. I guess have to see what happens.
What a funny list (Score:4, Insightful)
4. Driver Support
Vista includes thousands of drivers, but most have been created directly by Microsoft. Many hardware manufacturers do not yet have drivers available for Vista.
This is not Vista-specific, same thing happened in e.g. Windows 2000. Or Windows 95. Or other significant upgrades. Trust me, this will become less of an issue or "bad thing" in 2007, and then, once again, competing operating systems are likely to be worse off in the driver area. Unfortunately. The most common OS developer tend to get the best drivers because driver developers likes making profit from supporting the most common operating systems.
And of course MS made most built-in drivers. They always do in the shipping versions of large OS upgrades. If third party devs aren't done in time, MS will ship reduced functionality to give the user at least something to work with until the real driver is done. NVIDIA, Creative Labs and more are currently developing more complete Vista drivers. You can even read up on this on their sites.
6. Memory
Vista loves RAM, but more is better. Plan on 2 Gbytes to meet real-world needs.
1 GB works here on my test install. I can run Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Office 2007, Guild Wars.
Can they be more precise about "real-world needs"? Working at rendering industry buildings in 3D Studio?
8. Activation
The need to activate the product via the Web could prove to be a time-waster during mass deployments.
That's why there are KMS servers to reduce it to only one server connecting to MS every half a year per company with 25+ installs, i.e. "mass deployments".
9. Storage Space
With Vista taking as much as 10 Gbytes of hard drive space, big and fast hard drives will be a must.
Is 10 GB making up a large part of current hard drives? I see similar sizes in competing operating systems.
10. Backup
See No. 9. Backing up desktops will take a great deal of space.
See above.
11. Urgency
Unlike Windows XP and Windows 95, there seems to be no must-have reasons behind Vista.
Was suddenly security looking like hell in Windows 9x and XP non-issues? Interesting how they're only issues when it's suitable to complain about them, otherwise not. Vista may still have its share of these issues, but it's way too early to say there are no must-have reasons behind Vista compared to earlier Windows releases. There may not be in case of trouble, but there may also be big ones. They should not make this judgment at this time as it's premature.
12. Learning Curve
Vista is just different enough from XP that technicians and users will need training.
Did this stop KDE's first release? Gnome's? Windows 3.0? Windows 95?
Do this author think Windows XP's UI therefore is excellent?
What is the problem exactly, or is the author only stating the blindingly obvious?
13. Cost
Moving to Vista can prove to be expensive when one considers the price of the OS, the cost of hardware upgrades and the cost of migration.
Yes, moving to new OS's tend to cost a lot. That's why we're still running even Windows 2000 at places.
And again, I'm not sure of what hardware upgrades they're talking of.
Memory = see above, graphics cards = similar to in XP if you don't need the Aero eye candy which I can't see too many companies really hungering for.
19. Installation
Can take hours on some systems. Upgrades are even slower.
However, note how they conveniently fail to compare to other operating systems, Microsoft's or others.
I'm sure I can find hardware where a full install of Mandriva will take "hours" on as well.
On my 4 year old hardware, Vista install took ~25 mins.
21. 50 Million Lines Of Code
Even with the five years of development and long beta test period that went into Vis
Re:I'm no great fan of MS... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not an upgrade? (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine your camera not taking a birthday photo because it detects someone singing happy birthday in the background.... VISTA
Imagine all your light bulbs have a left hand thread and only one shop sells them.... VISTA
Imagine your cereal box detects that you are trying to eat with a new slightly different shaped spoon, and doesn't let you open it.... VISTA
Imagine your car needs an oil change, when you get it back it'll only go on toll roads..... VISTA
Imagine paying to 'upgrade the paint your walls' in your appartment then finding the house has one room that you cannot access..... VISTA
That day you "double click" on that something in Vista, and it does not do what you want it to because 'you do not own it', please think of what you wrote.
The most impoortant aspect? (Score:5, Insightful)
I dunno, for me the most important thing about owning a computer is productivity - to be able to do the tasks I want to do. I could migrate to a non-proprietary system, but I would not benefit if it had fewer applications that I find useful. I can't write my own high-level applications. Nor do the Open Source and Free alternatives meet my needs yet. Of course, control is nice, but my proprietary OS (MacOS) gives me more control than I actually use, in addition to great applications. If it stopped me from working with those apps, or locked up the media I used, then it would be an issue.
An analogy might be automatic transmission on a car, or electronic systems in a car. It gives less control and serviceability - but most users find the benefits of automatic transmission and electronics to be worth it. I could buy an old Chevy that I could fix myself - but then I would suffer many drawbacks in actually using the vehicle. Or games consoles - they are not as customizable as a PC system, but most people just want to play games, and a console makes this goal a lot easier to accomplish.
It's rather annoying when people assume what the most important thing is to me.
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:3, Insightful)
I've read through parent post a couple of times, and I could find no compelling reason in it for upgrading from any existing version of Windows to Vista. Actually, I could not identify any reason at all to upgrade in that post.
So why would the author of parent be willing to spend money on Vista when he apparently already has a version of Windows that provides him with everything he wants? It seems like he has done a pretty good job of stating the case for not upgrading. It isn't as if his current version of Windows and the MS apps he runs on it are going to wear out, and he seems to be very happy with all that he has at the moment. It will be at least several years, and possibly forever, before game makers, etc, desert their current Windows markets to concentrate solely on Vista. If he moved to Vista right away, there is the distinct possibility that some of the games he now enjoys won't work as well when he tries to run them under the new OS.
Seems to me that there is at least one Windows fanboi who is strongly suggesting that Windows fanbois should stay with Win 2K or Win XP rather than jump to Vista.
Am I missing something here?
say what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, I invite my friends over to show off how much control I have over it.
this is just asinine. The most important aspect of ME owning and using a computer is that it does something useful for me. (like letting me post on slashdot or look at porn) If I was interested in control, I would use a pencil and paper.
Re:So.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am writing this on my Vista-installed laptop, through Firefox. I just checked my e-mail on Thunderbird, and, if I thought it was worth my time, I could intall OpenOffice. I have a few gigabytes of music here, all MP3 without any DRM on them at all.
The only thing that Vista does to "reduce" my freedoms is have better support for DRM-enabled stores. So, if I want to purchase music instead of getting a CD from the store (as I prefer), I can go to someone other than iTunes, and put my music on a device that isn't made by Apple.
Does MS have DRM here? Sure. Can I remove it entirely at will? You betcha. Is this entirely irrelevant to the new features MS put in Vista, like the GPU-utilizing pretty windows or the "press a button and type a command" functionality of the start menu? Yep.
Everyone who cares or will care knows about the FSF, and what "free software" means. If you want to discourage "not-free" software, it's time to start promoting how good free software is -- otherwise, the question is "are those freedoms worth the annoyance"
Re:FUD??!! (Score:2, Insightful)
I have to pay ridiculous fees on my car, I can't do most modifications that I think would be fun, and still legally drive on the freeway, and I can't even put it up on blocks in most neighborhoods that I'd want to live in. This is just but one example, and I could give a million others.
The FSF should be focusing on value add of free software, and not something that most people frankly could care less about.
Re:More detail (Re:"Treacherous Computing" "Genuin (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More detail (Re:"Treacherous Computing" "Genuin (Score:4, Insightful)
The answer in the consumer market will be "Hell, Yes." No one there wants to deal with the internals of the machine on anything but the most superficial level.
Re:Speculations and guesswork (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of the shortcomings picked are fairly irrelevant. The few that could be are not very well addressed. Very lacking paper and poor reporting IMO.
Re:More detail (Re:"Treacherous Computing" "Genuin (Score:2, Insightful)
If a human user can only get up to "high," who can get the privileges of "system" or "trusted installer"?
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:1, Insightful)
A Free OS is wide open with possibility; anything you can code, you can do. I know, most users aren't coders, but the possibility is still there.
With Windows, the OS does what Microsoft programs it to do. Period.
Re:Speculations and guesswork (Score:5, Insightful)
ample resources are no excuse to waste them.
Re:Speculations and guesswork (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:More detail (Re:"Treacherous Computing" "Genuin (Score:3, Insightful)
This is pure crap... Anyone with 2 brain cells has heard of UAC, even if why people hate it. The baseline is, running as administrator, you can elevate all the way to the top, this is trusted installer, and what the UAC prompt is all about.
As default, administrator on Vista is not like root on *nix. This is a good thing considering the level of 'knowledge' that most Windows users have about computing. So even if they leave the system running with an administrator account, the system will ask for permission to get to a higher level if a process or application requests it.
The whole post starts off via some idiot's rant about the 'potential' of Vista be 'closed source'. (Truly read what the people are saying, it isn't about Vista being crap, it is about Vista has stuff we don't know what it is and can't see the source code for.)
This is insane, Vista is a closed source OS, and not even the only one in world - there is no story here. OSX and many DVD Players are closed source as well, but that doesn't mean we have to create a conspiracy theory about how they they are phoning ET just because we can't see the source or dislike that they use a non XWindows GUI.
I cant understand if you are stupid, or real (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of over-trustful approach is this ? Are you living in a place where people still can sleep with their doors unlocked at night ?
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the shortcomings they list is 'Lack of AppleTalk support.'
Is support for a dying, proprietary protocol something we'll really miss?
Re:Let people flock - we are free flock to freedom (Score:2, Insightful)
No, but I think the general gist of the threads above is that, with this new site at least, the FSF isn't doing a good job of informing people and, inasmuch as it's linking to sites which are full of empty, mostly speculative BS it doesn't really help the cause.
Re:Clarification of SMB support/FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
People who just installed the OS and would like to read the stuff they got in e-mail? This is especially pathetic since MS does have a Word viewer and Apple TextEdit at least retrieves basic text and formatting from Word documents.
Computers that have been activated through KMS will be required to reactivate by connecting to your organization's network at least every six months.
Do you really consider this acceptable? I store a notebook in a desk drawer for seven months and then go to attend an offsite lecture where I would like to take notes and where I don't have access to corporate Intranet. What right does Microsoft have to lock me out of my own files on a system with legally licensed software?
Re:say what? (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting choice of words there--"letting [you]."
That's really what it's about. It doesn't "let you," you tell it to do it and it does it. That's control. Of course you don't invite your friends over to show you have control over your computer; you take that control for granted. It's not important to you because it's there. Let it go missing and you can be pretty certain it would become the most important part of a computer for you, as you struggle to find a way to get that control back.
What happens when there comes a day that it says "no?" No more slashdot--too anti-Microsoft. No more porn--bad for the children. What happens if we really do come to a point in our DRM escalation where you really do need to ask your computer's permission to use it for what you want to use it for?
We're stepping in that direction. Somebody else's interests are dictating my abilities. I can only burn iTunes tracks so many times. I can't legally make a copy of my DVDs because I have to break a DRM scheme to do it. These may seem like reasonable restrictions, but they are restrictions nonetheless. Can't burn my tracks as often as I want? Step. Can't back up my DVDs? Step. Can't buy a DVD from a different region and use it without bypassing (potentially illegally) their restrictions? Step.
Vista will, under conditions that I don't remember off the top of my head, downsample my videos. And we take another step. It's more and more a move to trusted computing, where the weak link in the trust chain is you.
It may seem like we're ages away from that point. Maybe we are, but how many bad things do you know of that were implemented with the message - "boy, this is really going to suck for you consumers!" Of course they're small steps. They're acclimating you to a new climate so they can take another small step, and another. Before you know it you look back and go "whoa, how the hell did I get here?" By which point it's often too late to do anything about it.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means. I'm also not, despite what this post may sound like, a Microsoft hater. XP runs happily on my laptop, linux runs happily on my desktop, they play together as nicely as I need them to. I am worried, however, about these small steps we're taking and where they are leading us. Not just Microsoft/Vista. Not just CDs and DVDs. All over.
If my tools are no longer MY tools, there's a problem. Wouldn't you agree?
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:5, Insightful)
The article you were referring to was rather lackluster - I read the first page and couldn't be bothered to click next. Heck, needing better hardware, more RAM and more disk space are all separate reasons! Not only that, they're all top 10.
I'm not a Vista fanboy, but this and the other articles linked smell of desperation. I would think there would be enough legitimate, well reasoned reasons to bash Vista without having to resort to FUD already.
Re:More detail (Re:"Treacherous Computing" "Genuin (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you content to use bandwidth that's ultimately controlled by someone else (your ISP)? How about email, do you run your own email server?
Someone providing a service is completely different from someone providing a product. If i purchase a product (some software) and use it together with another product i already own (a computer), i don't want to relinquish control over any of my existing products. They are my physical property, and should be under my total control.
On the other hand, if google are providing a server hosted on the internet and allowing me to use it (either for free or by paying for it) i don't expect to have total control of it, because that's not the service being offered. If i want total control, i can buy server colocation easily enough.
Winning means changing the rules of the game (Score:3, Insightful)
I was talking about FOSS in general, but I can focus in on operating systems. Trying to be a better Windows than Windows is a losing game, on which has been lost over and over (OS/2, GeoWorks, etc.). To do that, Linux would probably have to be ten times better. To succeed, Linux needs to redefine the game - and this is what it has been doing.
When Gutenberg produced the first printing press, he felt he needed to compete with handwritten manuscripts. He put a lot of effort into producing multiple variations of each letter, producing full justification, placing dashes in the margins, and so on. The first Gutenberg Bibles are still famous for their beauty. But even then they couldn't compare to an illuminated manuscript. And what happened as print became widespread? The complex fonts, justification, and so on when out the window. Printing took over the world because it allowed for cheap copies.
Linux costs nothing. It runs on many architectures. It is compact. It is flexible and modifiable. It allows organizations to take control of their own future. It lacks the transaction costs of proprietary software (license monitoring, for example). It is based on an incredibly effective model of development and governance. These aren't just variations on what Windows or OS X are doing; they're entirely different approaches. And in many spaces they're winning: embedded devices, servers, dedicated systems. These are areas of growth. Meanwhile, it's slowly catching up on the desktop; in contrast, improvements in Windows have slowed as it appears to be reaching the limit of its development model. Remember when the Mozilla decision to toss the code and start over was a joke? It took a while, but they delivered.
For many people and organizations, Linux is a superior choice right now. Some chose it for the desktop. Not me - I'm running OS X, though I believe the day will come when I switch. As it will come for many others. For Linux, costs will only go down as quality goes up. For Windows, the opposite seems to be true. In the long term, the trends and the benefits of shared development are too overwhelming. Free software will dominate most well-understood domains - including the desktop.
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:3, Insightful)
That's CRN not CERN.
There is an enormous difference.
Here is a direct link to the article the parent is talking about [crn.com].
And, yeah, I agree with the parent, that article is rather bad. I mean listing a learning curve as a short-coming? If something is going to change (for better or worse) some time investment from the users will be required.
Re:Clarification of SMB support/FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish I worked for an organisation that didn't object to my hogging a corporate notebook for 7 months without using it. Frankly, if you only use it to take notes at offsite lectures once or twice a year, why not use a pencil and paper? Or, I dunno, maybe switch it on for five minutes before you go offsite?
BTW, if the license says you have to reactivate every 6 months, then once you go past 6 months without reactivating, the system isn't legally licensed anymore. You choose to have a Vista notebook? You chose to obey the restrictive license. Disobey it and Microsoft has every right in the world to lock you out of those oh-so-important files that are so critical to your business that you leave them untouched in a desk drawer for 7 months at a stretch.
Re:More detail (Re:"Treacherous Computing" "Genuin (Score:3, Insightful)
Every single story comes down to the same fundamental point... Vista is designed to be secure against the owner.
What you said about User Account Control (UAC) is totally wrong. User Account Control ONLY elevates you to hand-cuffed-Admin level. You are still locked out of System level. It is impossible for you to install third-party anti-virus software because you are NEVER permited system level access. This is the exact reason for all of the stories about the security companies being pissed at the anti-competitive lockout. Even using User Account Control it is IMPOSSIBLE for an owner to reach the System level access he needs to install security software.
You have SO many things mixed up...
First you go off about DRM and then the 64bit driver security, which doesn't even apply to the 32bit versions, then you go off on UAC and how it is somehow related to the Symantec and McAfee complaints.
You need to get this information straight.
Vista x32 - there is no 'signed' driver requirement. Vista x64 - there is a 'signed' driver requirement - meaning that developers must have their driver signed if it RUNS BELOW user mode on Vista x64. User Mode Drivers are NOT affected.
UAC CAN push the Administrator User all the way to the top of the security chain. This is how admins kill processes, install applications, and can even modify Windows files if they truly are stupid enough to do so. There is NOTHING in Vista that prevents a person from DOING ANYTHING TO THE OS at an Admin level if the administrator is stupid enough to elevate themselves.
The UAC is more in place to prevent 'automated' priviledge elevation, in other words, the user/administator has to specifically CLICK on the UAC prompts, and these cannot be circumvented with keyboard or mouse hooks. So a REAL person has to authorize any elevation.
The part McAfee and Symantec COMPLAIN over in Vista, is that MS created a unified API and security center for Vista for 3rd parties to plug in their anti-virus software for monitoring by the system. THIS PISSED OFF McAfee and Symantec, as they don't just sell anti-virus software, they sell 'security' systems that take over the firewall, the network stack, etc etc...
This is also why their products SUCK, as they are touching parts of the OS no Software vendor should EVER have that much control over. It is also why you didn't see companies that sell ONLY anti-virus software and not 'security suites' complain or even CARE, as they can fully integrate as they always have with Vista, and now there are even stanrdard APIs they can use to report back to the system and get access to information on things they need to. This is a good thing for a 'real' anti-virus company, and not a company what wants to replace everything and turn off the Vista security center.
People like you can complain that Vista secures against the owner, but it is the same fools that bitched that WindowsXP didn't enforce the NT security model far enough and why Windows was left so wide open. A Vista owner can replace anything on their system, hell even boot into the new mini-boot PE mode of Vista and then access your HD and change everything you want.
You can even slimstream the Vista install, all with MS tools to add ANY feature and remove ANY feature from the OS and EVEN replace system files that would make Vista not even run.
This is ALL IN A USER'S CONTROL, just as it was in previous versions of Windows; however, with Vista, from inside Vista, processes do not automatically get root level rights to run crazy on your computer.
Now why don't you write us a great post on how closed OSX is, and why it sucks. Heck even maybe a post on the new Sony 7.1 receivers and how they are closed source and as far as we know they are emailing the pentagon about ever
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, wait...
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:5, Insightful)
No. People use Windows because it had first mover advantage. Windows is an operating system running on commodity hardware, which comes bundled with said commodity hardware. It has a vast catalog of software running on it. Including applications and services which have become defacto standards such as Microsoft Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Exchange. It is also the most viable commodity PC platform for gaming and multimedia because of its driver, API and app support. You can get World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights 2, Medieval Total War, Oblivion. Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat. Lightwave, 3D Studio. That is the reality. Microsoft may try to spin things as if it was something different, as if people used Windows for its low support costs, but that pack of lies should not make us blind enough to see the truth for what it is.
Developers, developers, developers... Microsoft basically gives away its development tools to students. Microsoft Visual Studio is actually a pretty decent development environment. Shame the Windows APIs are an utter mess and brain damaged to the extreme. Hence .NET. I believe that in order for an operating system to overthrow Windows, it must have lower barriers for entry due to less brain damaged APIs and simpler programming. NeXT could have been the thing if the hardware wasn't so bloody expensive and hard to get. Not to mention they were stuck on an Objective C mindset while C++ was gaining ground.
Linux already has the free GNU toolset. PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby. It will soon have a wholly free Java toolset from Eclipse to the JDK. To me the largest weakness in Linux is the multimedia support. I am not surprised by the lack of multimedia apps and games for Linux. Try getting two Linux programs to use the soundcard without one locking the other up. Try getting 3D graphics to work properly.
The OSS sound API sucked. ALSA sucks. OpenGL support is feeble. Why does not every Linux distro come with something like OpenAL? Why must users have to painstakingly compile and install it themselves? Why must users have to install closed source and buggy graphics drivers? Certainly some of these problems are difficult to solve, since there are barriers from the hardware manufacturers. However there is plenty of room for improvement even despite that. The sound situation being a good example. Why is there no standard Linux media API? MPlayer comes with its own, VLC another, there is FFMPEG, then there is GStreamer and whatever the KDE people use. WTF!
The problem with being a good liar, is that eventually you start believing what you say. Then you act as if it was true and you end up destroying yourself. Being a compulsive liar is a dangerous thing to be. Dismissing the real reasons Windows is at the position it is today as if it was merely due to rhetoric is doing a disservice to yourself.
Re:Would've been nice if... (Score:4, Insightful)
To this day, they give away development tools not only to students but to everyone who buys one. On every mac sold, there's a compressed copy of Xcode; anyone can sign up to the ADC. It has persistently been the leader in the film industry and the graphics industry, except maybe in the last couple of years where it's coming towards a level pegging. But as is obvious from market share, those reasons make little difference.
A huge number of 'geeks' move away from windows to some flavour of linux, whether clean install or parallel OS. The problem is not in having a better OS - the problem is in the marketing and the general mindset of the population - they're used to Windows, an upgrade is an upgrade, linux is difficult to install (it may not be from the inside, but from the outside it's a dangerous beast - unfamiliar and with no grandly laudable advantages). While you expand nicely on APIs, the average home user doesn't even know what an API is. They have no clue whether the windows APIs are the same as or different from any other. Once someone is interested enough to get technical, sure - but most don't.
That's the reason people use windows. Ease.