[Effef]

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut00...vista_cost.txt

This literally makes me sick.

Vista's content protection mechanism only allows protected content to be sent
over interfaces that also have content-protection facilities built in.
Currently the most common high-end audio output interface is S/PDIF
(Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format). Most newer audio cards, for example,
feature TOSlink digital optical output for high-quality sound reproduction,
and even the latest crop of motherboards with integrated audio provide at
least coax (and often optical) digital output. Since S/PDIF doesn't provide
any content protection, Vista requires that it be disabled when playing
protected content. In other words if you've invested a pile of money into a
high-end audio setup fed from a digital output, you won't be able to use it
with protected content. Similarly, component (YPbPr) video will be disabled
by Vista's content protection, so the same applies to a high-end video setup
fed from component video.

Decreased Playback Quality
--------------------------

Alongside the all-or-nothing approach of disabling output, Vista requires that
any interface that provides high-quality output degrade the signal quality
that passes through it. This is done through a "constrictor" that downgrades
the signal to a much lower-quality one, then up-scales it again back to the
original spec, but with a significant loss in quality. So if you're using an
expensive new LCD display fed from a high-quality DVI signal on your video
card and there's protected content present, the picture you're going to see
will be, as the spec puts it, "slightly fuzzy", a bit like a 10-year-old CRT
monitor that you picked up for $2 at a yard sale. In fact the spec
specifically still allows for old VGA analog outputs, but even that's only
because disallowing them would upset too many existing owners of analog
monitors. In the future even analog VGA output will probably have to be
disabled. The only thing that seems to be explicitly allowed is the extremely
low-quality TV-out, provided that Macrovision is applied to it.

Beyond the obvious playback-quality implications of deliberately degraded
output, this measure can have serious repercussions in applications where
high-quality reproduction of content is vital. For example the field of
medical imaging either bans outright or strongly frowns on any form of lossy
compression because artifacts introduced by the compression process can cause
mis-diagnoses and in extreme cases even become life-threatening. Consider a
medical IT worker who's using a medical imaging PC while listening to
audio/video played back by the computer (the CDROM drives installed in
workplace PCs inevitably spend most of their working lives playing music or
MP3 CDs to drown out workplace noise). If there's any premium content present
in there, the image will be subtly altered by Vista's content protection,
potentially creating exactly the life-threatening situation that the medical
industry has worked so hard to avoid. The scary thing is that there's no easy
way around this - Vista will silently modify displayed content under certain
(almost impossible-to-predict in advance) situations discernable only to
Vista's built-in content-protection subsystem.

This is the worst:

Once a weakness is found in a particular driver or device, that driver will
have its signature revoked by Microsoft, which means that it will cease to
function (details on this are a bit vague here, presumably some minimum
functionality like generic 640x480 VGA support will still be available in
order for the system to boot). This means that a report of a compromise of a
particular driver or device will cause all support for that device worldwide
to be turned off until a fix can be found. Again, details are sketchy, but if
it's a device problem then presumably the device turns into a paperweight once
it's revoked. If it's an older device for which the vendor isn't interested
in rewriting their drivers (and in the fast-moving hardware market most
devices enter "legacy" status within a year of two of their replacement models
becoming available), all devices of that type worldwide become permanently
unusable.

Thoughts?

[zircon]

Thoughts? If this crap is true, then audiophiles and videophiles won't buy Vista and will stick to XP, which is perfectly functional. Free market.

This IS bs, but XP SP 2 works fine for me so I don't have any reason to buy Vista at all.

[Effef]

Originally Posted by zircon

Thoughts? If this crap is true, then audiophiles and videophiles won't buy Vista and will stick to XP, which is perfectly functional. Free market.

This IS bs, but XP SP 2 works fine for me so I don't have any reason to buy Vista at all.

Truth. I am sticking to XP for as long as possible and then going to Linux, if it still exists.

Also, SP3 is coming around 2007 time.

[KWarp]

Same. Nothing about Vista intrigues me at all.

[The Damned]

Considering how much a copy of Windows costs these days, I'd keep my current one regardless of what Vista offered. It's just not economical anymore.

[Dyne]

Originally Posted by zircon

Thoughts? If this crap is true, then audiophiles and videophiles won't buy Vista and will stick to XP, which is perfectly functional. Free market.

This IS bs, but XP SP 2 works fine for me so I don't have any reason to buy Vista at all.

Open source will be our final refuge. I feel that Microsoft has lost touch with its consumers in a huge way. Restricting the release of media via software controls? That's great. What's next? Are we going to have to burn CDs on a legacy system so that they work in anything besides the computer you burn them on?

Also, for those of us here on OCR who are remixers and who do video over the web, where does that leave you? Out in the cold, that's where. It pretty much screws anyone not running Linux or using a Mac.

So in response, if it comes to the point where MS decides to discontinue support of XP, I'll sell my PC and buy a MacBook or an iMac or something. Why keep pumping money into an organization that doesn't care about what you want to do with a computer?

Their new slogan should be: "Where DON'T you want to go today?"

[Stargem]

For now, I will wait and base my actions on what happens.

[EdgeCrusher]

I honestly don't really care as of right now.

[zircon]

Originally Posted by Dyne

Open source will be our final refuge. I feel that Microsoft has lost touch with its consumers in a huge way. Restricting the release of media via software controls? That's great. What's next? Are we going to have to burn CDs on a legacy system so that they work in anything besides the computer you burn them on?

Also, for those of us here on OCR who are remixers and who do video over the web, where does that leave you? Out in the cold, that's where. It pretty much screws anyone not running Linux or using a Mac.

So in response, if it comes to the point where MS decides to discontinue support of XP, I'll sell my PC and buy a MacBook or an iMac or something. Why keep pumping money into an organization that doesn't care about what you want to do with a computer?

Their new slogan should be: "Where DON'T you want to go today?"

I don't think people will stand for the restrictions imposed by Vista, if they're as severe as the article claims here. And if they ARE severe, I don't see the problem in just using XP for awhile. Plenty of people still use older versions of Windows.

[Drakonis GTR]

The only problem I forsee with switching to Mac is Microsoft's control over Mac. Something tells me that when Vista goes mainstream, something along the same lines will happen to Mac OS. I could be acting paranoid here, but I prefer to think negative, so if the positive happens, I'm pleasantly surprised.

And while I'm not questioning the authenticity of this article, I don't think that Vista will be quite that restrictive. Or at least, there will be versions available (probably for high price) that will have lower restrictions. As the article pointed out, certain fields, such as medicine, can't have systems like this in the way, causing obstructions or modifying info. Especially when it means a person's life. That would pave the way to all kinds of lawsuits, some or most of which would hurt even Microsoft. It's just not smart, regardless of how much Hollywood or the RIAA are paying them.

But yeah, I have no intention of buying Vista anytime soon, regardless of its usefulness, or lack there of. And as far as I'm concerned, Fuck Microsoft.