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This does not seem to be about on-demand HD video streaming, but 'basic' playback of HD-DVDs, which is a much more mainstream activity. There does appear to be something to be concerned about as this seems to affect all users who want to view HD material. I know it's a huge big DRM plan by Hollywood, who want us to buy new hardware that Utterly locks down 'their' content, but in the end we may have to upgrade to new monitors and graphics cards if we want to view their films. Mass boycot anyone? :wink:
It will happen like something else is happening... and that is video gaming. It costs too much to play the latest games on the PC side of things, so people are switching to consoles. If you are told that you need a new monitor to play that HD-DVD, or buy this less than $100 player to play it through your TV, what are you going to do? People will do what is cheapest OVERALL and refuse to buy only if it is really impossible to satisfy the industry's demands. Somehow, I think the PC is being pinched out of the media market by these newer demands and overall might be getting pinched out of focus for a while...
but then again, who knows... right?
If there isn't a significant draw, then people will stick with what works. If something works better, they will go there. Right now Vista, in the consumer's eyes, has "a pretty UI". Microsoft's ad campaign better try to say more than that and hopefully we all shall learn what neat things Vista will do. If Vista turns out to be a mostly empty shell of computing pains (limitations, DRM, etc), then people will just drift to what works better for them... In other words, Microsoft can really mess this release up badly, or they can pull it off quite wonderfully like the largest OS manufacturer in the US can do... well, could do... Time will tell though.
I haven't read it too exclusively, but the general idea is that all the Vista versions will provide varying functionality with the Uber edition providing the best of everything, including security (Oh, lovely, security is also going to be a distro favor feature?). In the matrix, the Uber edition has a lot of optional check boxes which I think now will be items that can be installed of the Vista CD but won't be installed by default... or at least that would be the smart alternative.
Post your feelings about the matrix! Comparing Home Pro to Uber... Home Pro does not have P2P (yes, PEER TO PEER) meeting capability nor remote desktop... remote desktop being a sad thing to remove because it does help when I can remote desktop to a clueless user to fix something (used it once or twice). Fax client, as mentioned before, not included in Home Pro.
There is a new type of networking doman called Quattro and that is the only one Home Pro can connect to. Uber is unrestricted. If you are using older Windows versions, I doubt they will know how to talk to a Quattro talking computer... There is also a "Secure Startup" option (security related?!) that is only in the top business edition and Uber edition... certainly not Home Pro... but I don't think this will be a great loss, but this is most likely why Uber will be considered more secure.
Ultimate edition WILL NOT REQUIRE ACTIVATION! Seems like Microsoft learned to use that "feature" as a carrot... and it is ironic how a feature designed to limit piracy is waved away for a premium price.
Uber will have no artifical memory limit while Home Pro will be capped to 16 Gb (wonder if this will be a big deal). Looking at starter edition's artifical limit of 256 Mb though makes me feel sorry for those folks overseas who will be buying that. 8 Gb for the Home normal edition... wonder if that will be a concern as well. Also, only Uber edition will support dual CPUs.
All in all, I think the grid helped a ton. I don't exactly like the removal of remote desktop, nor the limitation in networking, the lack of enhanced security features (I need to see what the heck secure startup means before I feel certain about this though), and how activation is seen as a feature that you have to suffer unless you have enough cash. However, at least this Home Pro doesn't seem as desperate, but I still don't like it...
This does not seem to be about on-demand HD video streaming, but 'basic' playback of HD-DVDs, which is a much more mainstream activity.
Show me one place, Japan included, where playing high-definition DVD content is a mainstream activity. ;-) HD-DVD content does not exist in a mainstream way yet, so to me this is conjecture about something that isn't going to be a significant issue for YEARS. The same issue is coming up in the home theatre segment with HDCP - it's looking like you won't be able to watch Blu-Ray or HD-DVD content unless you have a TV set that supports HDCP. To me, this is MUCH more of a concern than this issue on Vista, because I don't upgrade my TV equipment every 18-24 months like I do with my computer gear.
This issue is much broader than just being related to Windows Vista because it's really about ALL high-def content playback, and IMO the number of people who are going to want to watch high-def DVDs on their computer monitors is much, much smaller than those who will want to watch it on their TV sets.
I think that this approach to DRM is immensely stupid, and it's going to backfire in a huge way, but knocking Windows Vista for this issue is just plain goofy.
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If you are told that you need a new monitor to play that HD-DVD, or buy this less than $100 player to play it through your TV, what are you going to do?
That scenario only works if your TV has HDCP inputs, which 99.999999% of the TV's out there right now do not. Trust me, this issue is MUCH bigger than Windows Vista, and Microsoft is only following where the rest of the industry is already headed. I'm not happy about it, but it's not right to place all the blame at their feet - it's the stupid movie studios that are forcing this issue, but it will blow up in their face when no one will buy their asinine high-def DVDs because no one owns the right type of equipment to play it! :roll:
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Here's the thing that no one has mentioned yet: With the x86 Mac coming out [relatively] soon, why would anyone pay $300 for Uber Vista when you can get Tiger for under $100?
It sounds like you're assuming Tiger, then Leopard are going to be easily portable to non-Apple systems. Notwithstanding the fact that it will be illegal to do so, I'd give Apple and intel some credit for figuring out a way to stop folks from dumping XP in favor of OS X. Apple has claimed that only their hardware will run the x86 port of OS X. The current beta isn't meant to have the kind of protection to be able to stop this, so it isn't evidence of vulnerability per se. That being said, it is well known among developers that Intel Developer kits from Apple include TCPA/TPM DRM in the Kernel. This is the so-called Trustworthy Computing DRM that as far as I understand was included in only a limited way for the beta.
For me, I think it'd be nice to have a tablet or small laptop in the house running Vista. I'm at least hoping that, with Vista, MS can put to rest most of the vulnerabilities to viruses, spyware and worms that have plaqued their OS for so long. Since I rid the household of that crap in 2002 when we switched to OS X, I'm not interested in reliving the nightmare again.
Thank you, that was by far the most thorough examination of Vista that I've seen yet. Regarding the feature comparison, Home Basic seems to be neutered with respect to the others (reduced networking capability; no support for portability features like synchronization, tablet, or auxiliary displays; no scheduled backup, file system encryption, Aero glass, "productivity features", "advanced photography", or premium games).
Most interesting to me, though, are the differences between Home Premium and Professional: you could trade Media Center functionality and Microsoft DVD and HD video authoring for Remote Desktop, faxing (!), lifted memory restrictions, support for multiprocessor systems, and removal of Windows Activation. If they are priced equally, Professional seems to be the better deal for everything except for Media Center PCs.
It sounds like you're assuming Tiger, then Leopard are going to be easily portable to non-Apple systems.
Actually, I wasn't assuming that at all. I was saying I'd rather buy Apple-branded hardware if it will allow me to run both OSes rather than continue to build my own rigs and be limited to Windows. I'd rather pay extra money (up to twice as much as a home-built machine) and have the added functionality. Unless of course Vista blows Tiger (and Leopard) out of the water, which I'm finding pretty unlikely at this point. Of course, I hope I'm wrong and Vista really will be the best operating system ever invented for a personal computer... Only time will tell though.
Regarding the feature comparison, Home Basic seems to be neutered with respect to the others (reduced networking capability; no support for portability features like synchronization, tablet, or auxiliary displays; no scheduled backup, file system encryption, Aero glass, "productivity features", "advanced photography", or premium games).
So it's basically exactly like XP Home. ;-) I don't see that as being "neutered", it's more a matter of being what people are used to today, which makes sense given it's "Home Basic" line.
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Originally Posted by gibson042
faxing (!)
So I find the excitement over this feature interesting - I haven't faxed from a PC in years, nor has anyone else I know. Everyone I know who does any significant amount of faxing gets a standalone fax machine or fax/printer combo unit. Is it really a big deal that not all versions will be able to fax? Heck, I thought they took faxing out of Windows years ago, back in the 9x days.
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Regarding the feature comparison, Home Basic seems to be neutered with respect to the others...
So it's basically exactly like XP Home. ;-) I don't see that as being "neutered", it's more a matter of being what people are used to today, which makes sense given it's "Home Basic" line.
Fair enough. I doubt anyone will be upgrading to Home Basic anyway (or from it, for that matter). It will only exist pre-installed on computers sold to people who won't mess with it. Just like XP Home ;-).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
Quote:
Originally Posted by gibson042
faxing (!)
So I find the excitement over this feature interesting - I haven't faxed from a PC in years, nor has anyone else I know. Everyone I know who does any significant amount of faxing gets a standalone fax machine or fax/printer combo unit. Is it really a big deal that not all versions will be able to fax? Heck, I thought they took faxing out of Windows years ago, back in the 9x days.
That's exactly the point. To the best of my recollection, faxing has been in every release since Windows 95, and hardly anyone ever used it. Now they are taking it out of the personal editions (except Ultimate), and advertising it as a feature of the business ones! What's next, taking out all 50 KiB of Notepad and advertising "Basic Text Editing" in Blackcomb Professional?
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That's exactly the point. To the best of my recollection, faxing has been in every release since Windows 95, and hardly anyone ever used it. Now they are taking it out of the personal editions (except Ultimate), and advertising it as a feature of the business ones! What's next, taking out all 50 KiB of Notepad and advertising "Basic Text Editing" in Blackcomb Professional?
Second that idea here... faxing is nothing new to the Windows world and has been included in every release. It is a small program, it works as it should, and people take it for granted. Now, true, I have never needed to fax anything, but having the capability would be nice. I used the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer printer thingy recently because I needed to forward a copy of my schedule (in Outlook) to somebody ASAP! I couldn't find a way of importing my schedule in Excel that make it look like Outlook's Calendar View... but printing it in the Image Writer got perfect (although, black and white) results. I had to email the schedule, so that was the end of that...
HOWEVER, other people in related departments at the location where I needed to forward my schedule want it faxed in. Now, am I gonig to try to hunt down a fax machine to fax in something that I need to print from my computer right when I need something turned in ASAP, or would I have just used the fax wizard in Windows? Vista made that decision for me if I choose the wrong flavor.
I just don't like the removal of features that were always there before, despite if it was heavily used or not. Fact is, I don't really use the faxing wizard so I won't consider it when I upgrade... but if I'm ever in a pinch again (like mentioned above), this little lack of convience will make things just a little more difficult...
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