How Windows Vista treats "premium" material

Unfortunately, I think you are talking about a niche market, small at best. The great majority will do what they do in the political arena, swear a little, and plod onward to wherever they are told to go.

However, it would now seem that Microsoft are really getting ahead of themselves.  All this stuff about DRM and signed drivers is not going to endear the public to them one little bit and I suspect that more than a few people will now start to look at an alternative OS, since people don't really like being told what they can and can't do with stuff they bought and paid for.

So I'm sure that you will be delighted to read this, then! (I didn't find this, incidentally, a sursound contributor did.)

You haven't lived until you've seen the new Vista "Bubbles" screensaver. It's like somebody blew bubbles inside your computer, and they bounce around your screen and change colors....

hehehehehe......

(I didn't find this, incidentally, a sursound contributor did.)[/size]

...or perhaps pwhodges in the post that started this thread...

Indeed, this thread has gone full circle!

I think the big difference with Win98SE > XP was that the former clearly had major problems which the latter substantially solved.  XP > Vista isn't such a clear cut case.  I cannot recall ever thinking "I wish XP did ro did not do such-and-such".  A reputable antivirus program and sensible use should keep your system clean - I don't recall ever having had a virus problem nor seeing anyone else have such a problem unless they had been terminally stupid.  So, I'll stick to XP until there is a clear requirement to change.  Trouble is, next time I need to buy a new PC, will it be bound to come with Vista and will I be able legally to obtain XP to load on it - and will I have endless problems in doing so?

XP was out for 6 months before I got it.

So you do have a habit of rushing into things.  XP was out for over two years before I changed from my very reliable 98SE systems. And even then I only changed because "there was a clear requirement to change." (unquote Ozpeter). History will repeat itself with Vista.

XP was out for over two years before I changed from my very reliable 98SE systems.

Ha! I got XP 2 years ago so that's near 3 years since it was released, or is that Win2000. I know, it was Win98SE XP SP2, or was that Win XP2 SP98 WinSE, or was it...........?
Incidently Steve, what is a "sursound" contributor. I've been wrecking my brain trying to work out that spelling mistake

XP was out for 6 months before I got it.

So you do have a habit of rushing into things.  XP was out for over two years before I changed from my very reliable 98SE systems. And even then I only changed because "there was a clear requirement to change." (unquote Ozpeter). History will repeat itself with Vista.

Well, I'm not going to apologize for getting Vista. I really like the new graphics, and it's running great on my computer so far. Smooth as silk.....just waiting for new drivers for the 1010LT &  2496 soundcards and a HP printer. Everything else is working fine.

.....just waiting for new drivers for the 1010LT &  2496 soundcards and a HP printer. Everything else is working fine.

...and if M-Audio decide not to go to the trouble and expense of creating "Microsoft tested and approved" drivers for the 1010 or 2496 and decide to only support Vista on their newer interfaces?

Bob

Well, I'm not going to apologize for getting Vista. I really like the new graphics, and it's running great on my computer so far. Smooth as silk.....just waiting for new drivers for the 1010LT &  2496 soundcards and a HP printer. Everything else is working fine.

Wayne, you may want to look at SteveG's earlier post and read the paper: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
It's very disturbing (all darkness et al, que scary music) but in all seriousness, (I'm at about ¼ way through, (Thanks Steve) after 1 hour) I can see how Sony and the guys are trying to protect their businesses, and that's from a guy who had suspicions and no proof, 'til now. Ther could be a possibility that soundcard companies do NOT like the way their software can be compromised and may not even write drivers for Vista but at least you have a brilliant browser experience.
I hope Adobe go Linux or some other option. I don't like this at all.

Part of the drivers problem is, so I am told, the fact that they now have to be tested and approved by Microsoft before the system will even allow them to be installed.

You've been told wrong.  There are certain DRM functions that require verification if they are used, but the statement is not generally true.

Paul

.....just waiting for new drivers for the 1010LT &  2496 soundcards and a HP printer. Everything else is working fine.

...and if M-Audio decide not to go to the trouble and expense of creating "Microsoft tested and approved" drivers for the 1010 or 2496 and decide to only support Vista on their newer interfaces?

Bob

In that unlikely senario, I would revert to my XP drive for working with the soundcards and save Vista for internet browsing. Remember, now I have two licenses and I can legally set up two seperate computers, so I'll still have use of my printer and soundcards. I can switch to my XP set up in about 10 seconds. A friend of mine has a Vista demo setup on a partition so he two has access to XP and Vista.

M-Audio usually waits till an OS is released before working on drivers, I mean what's the point of developing drivers for beta software when it can be changed at anytime ?? So give them some time, I doubt seriously M-Audio wants their whole product line to be out dated.

Incidently Steve, what is a "sursound" contributor. I've been wrecking my brain trying to work out that spelling mistake

It's not a spelling mistake at all - that's exactly how it's always been spelled. It's a SIG/mailing list related to surround sound and ambisonics. pwhodges is a regular contributor to it, and I've lurked it for ages. If you'd spent less time wracking your brain and put the word as I correctly spelled it into Google, you would have found the answer very easily.

I dunno, I think Mr Gutmann's paper struck a nerve with me over a general dissatisfaction I have been having with computer hardware and software in general, along with electronics design in general. The trend is toward more consumption for its own sake, rather than building high-quality, long-lasting equipments in the first place, which points toward an obcession  for numbers and counting, disguised as lust for money (greed). Though I try to understand the bigger picture in all this, I don't intend to get all philosophic about it, but instead just wonder if its not time for a radical rethink of the things we call "computers" today, what we want them to do, and to once and for all cut the hucksters (software vendors) out of the picture entirely. I mean, way back when this was in the hobbyist's domain, when one man made the circuit and wrote the accompanying code, wasn't this latter part condidered the easiest, most trivial one? And what was the effect of the "open letter to hobbyists" on what we are experiencing today? There's more that could be added, but I think a slightly deeper historical perspective might help for now. SteveG and others can add much more than I can in detail, but I do remember certain things from way back when, even though my own involvement was limited.

The bottom line for now is that no one that I know that has even a modicum of technical background is even seriously considering Vista, nor will they ever: for them, XP is the last there is to do with Microsoft. Its a start.

I've already completed a project in Vista that was very well received.  The Tia Chi project I did was comprised of a 17 minuted recording of the Tia Chi form, and a 31 minute recording of some real Oriental type mood music. These recordings were given to me on a really rough cassette tape, and needed lots of restoration work done as they were barely audible. Audition 2.0 on my XP drive did the job for the audio, and for the labels I used Vista with the LightScribe technology to imprint the text and artwork. All worked great in Vista with NO glitches.

I had to make 20+ copies of this recording and it came out great, and everybody at my Tia Chi class was very happy, including my teacher who supplied the original recordings. They all commented about how great it sounded and professional it looked.

Even though I could have done this all on the XP drive,  I wanted to see if Vista would work with the LightScribe stuff,  and it did flawlessly.