That’s one Vista problem down. 2416 to go… Progress!
‘Kill switch’ dropped from Vista
Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints.The so-called “kill switch” is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.
But the tool has suffered from glitches since it was introduced with many Windows users claiming that legal copies of Vista had been disabled.
[…]
Microsoft has described the new approach as a “change of tactics”. It said efforts to tackle piracy had seen numbers of fake copies of Vista at half the level of XP, the previous Windows operating system.The change will take effect with the release of Service Pack 1, a major update to Windows Vista.
The “half the level of XP” comment is obviously the result the copy protection and not because people are shunning Vista upgrades, legit or pirated, right?
people are actually pirating vista? now thats news to me.
the first thing we do, we kill microsoft.
I’m still not interested in ditching XP. Give me a better reason to upgrade.
I just love the new Apple commercials stressing Vista’s faults and how users are going back to XP. Very funny.
I have absolutely NO interest what so ever in Vista. This news changes nothing. It is a sad commentary on your product when no one even wants to steal it.
Yeah, people on here complain so much about MS’s OS or other product(XP, Vista, movies, songs), then freak out about attempts to prevent illegal acquisition. If it’s so bad, why are you trying to get an illegal copy?
From what I have seen, most people are not trying to get an illegal copy. I don’t see many people running Vista, and I work in IT. I do know how to pirate Vista, but I have absolutely no desire to, after hearing about how it slows down your system. I wonder also if that comment about Vista piracy being at half the level of XP being wishful thinking, or just outright marketing fluff.
I’m still waffling on “upgrading” (If you can call it that) from Windows 2000 to XP.
#3 – I just love the new Apple commercials stressing Vista’s faults and how users are going back to XP. Very funny.
Yes, and promoting XP over OSX is a very bold and unorthodox tactic for Apple to use 🙂
#5 – Yeah, people on here complain so much about MS’s OS or other product(XP, Vista, movies, songs), then freak out about attempts to prevent illegal acquisition. If it’s so bad, why are you trying to get an illegal copy?
You don’t read a lot, do you?
Halp! I’m the richest man since (and including) Croesus, and these pirates are ripping me off and bringing me down. What a world, what a world.
Bill Gates (via email)
@#5
Problem people have with MS copy protection is that it affects in the bad way mainly the users who have paid for it. If you have paid for the product and it stops working (read about MS WGA) accusing you of stealing it for no good reason, you’ll be upset customer. Also, if you have paid for the “new and better” software only to find that its copy protection makes it work at the half speed of the old one (Vista vs. XP), you’ll also be an upset customer…
I just purchased a new Toshiba laptop for my wife and the first thing we are doing is wiping out Vista and putting on XP Pro.
steve-o
I currently run Vista, Ubuntu Studio and XP.
Vista is my favorite, Ubuntu Studio second.
Tried OS X, no reason to switch.
My PC is fairly new, came with XP. I purchased a Vista upgraded, runs smooth as silk, Would never go back to XP.
>>I purchased a Vista upgraded, runs smooth
>>as silk
Yeah, and it runs at about the same speed as silkworms make silk.
>>Would never go back to XP.
You don’t like software that works, hardware that works, an OS that runs at a speed commensurate with the hardware you have, or any of that nasty stuff, eh?
I’d like to see some figures on how many people have actually purchased a new copy of Vista to upgrade from XP (or an earlier OS).
Personally, I don’t know of any.
Vista Humor.
http://bolson.org/rmcs/view?cid=1079&next=1&thresh=-5
#15. It seems to me the ones who put Vista down most often are people who have never used it. I’ve been in IT for 25 years or so, I use it out of support necessity and I guarantee your statement is total BS. Use it, or don’t use it, but please don’t parrot the bullshit.
What a great concept, some people didn’t like xp (and stuck with 2000 or went with linux (some sort of free electric penguin i gather?), now XP looks like a great product… but only when compared to Vista (unless you have a really really fast machine and no need to run old programs natively, or need old driver to work.)
Marketing Brilliance! Create a new product that is worse than the old one and watch people flock to buy rent or steel a copy of your previous version….Get a gun and aim it at your foot MS.
>>I guarantee your statement is total BS.
Well, I guess I won’t be buying any guaranteed items from you!
I’ve been using Vista since it came with the laptop computer I bought in March (foolishly not waiting until they started giving the XP option on new machines), and I’m here to tell you that it sucks total ass.
If it weren’t such a pain in the ass at this point, I’d gladly go out and BUY a copy of XP, just to get the performance back to where it was on the old laptop with 1/2 the hardware horsepower.
>>I’ve been in IT for 25 years or so, I use
>>it out of support necessity
Well, the first 24.5 years we can discount, because Vista wasn’t around.
You work at a company that actually uses Vista? Wow. I haven’t run into any. And I’ll be that every single Vista user got it shoved down their throat on a new machine, as I did. Or are you stating that your company actually went out and BOUGHT “upgrades” to Vista for their in-house computers?? Now THAT would be newsworthy.
“You work at a company that actually uses Vista?”
No sir. I am, at the moment, a support tech. I support and work on all platforms including Leopard. Vista is raising its head, ugly or no, I have to stay on top, for my clients. So here is my perception. Since I have adopted, over 1 year ago, I have seen relatively few problems. I own many computers, I have converted several. all in all, the problems are so overstated as to be laughable. The computer I am working on uses Vista, and Mustard, I am telling you it is no slouch. And no, I didn’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to comply with hardware requirements. It’s lightning fast. The only issue I have had is with IE explorer, it crashes, but so does Firefox, (with Macs running Leopard a huge problem also), so I believe it has nothing to do with Vista. Bottom line, is the problems have been WAY overstated. I wouldn’t recommend upgrading for the novice, but I wouldn’t shy away from a new computer designed for Vista. Same as Windows 2000 Pro, in the “old” days. What bothers me are armchair quarterbacks who have no actual experience with the OS, and just believe the what they hear or see in the media, who are not the ones who have to deal with the everyday issues.
Well Mac, all I can say is “your mileage seems to differ from mine (and most other users)”.
I bought a brand-new, virginal laptop with a 2.2GHz Centrino Duo processor, 260Gb drive, and nothing on it. I installed Firefox, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Street & Trips 2007, and the thing is a fucking pig. Windows 3.0 was snappier than this lumbering dinosaur, on a machine with about 1/100th the hardware horsepower. Oh, but I didn’t have the transparent Aero nonsense with Windows 3.0, did I??
It takes forever to boot up, it takes forever to shut down (I often just press the power button, and deal with the startup error message the next time around), it temporarily locks up when it doesn’t appear to be doing anything at all, it’s like a computer operating system swimming in a tank of molasses. And one that’s incompatible with all kinds of software and hardware to boot. I’m just lucky I don’t waste my time with Second Life!
On last week’s Cranky Geeks, Mr. C. Dvorak said that it took SEVEN MINUTES for the Task Manager to show up after pressing control alt delete. That’s a little on the long side, but not out of the range for what I see. Seven minutes for control alt fucking delete?? (btw, I would like to seem more of Molly Wood [and not just because of her “hit control shift escape to speed up the task manager’s appearance” tip] and Valeri Del Conte on Cranky Geeks, btw…those guy geeks are too ugly). Task Manager should pop up in less than 500 msec.
And “overstated” or not, there are big BIG problems with Vista, and there’s just NOTHING that makes it worth going out and paying cash money for.
This is what took Micro$oft FIVE FUCKING YEARS to come up with? That’s just pitiful. Pathetic. What were they thinking??
And now Apple seems to have adopted the Micro$oft approach to operating systems, releasing flashy but useless “upgrades” before there’s any reason to upgrade. Lucky for me, my old G4 laptop running Tiger is rock solid, and there’s no reason for me to get Leopard shoved down my throat with a new computer. I’ll wait until they have something worth spending money on, before I spend any money.
I cant explain the discrepancy. My system is similar to yours, but added a an extra gig of ram (total 2GB). To get to task manager is instantaneous, just tried it so, maybe too much background activity perhaps, I tend to keep that to a minimum.?
I have 2G of RAM also.
I can’t explain the discrepancy either. As I say, the task manager doesn’t usually take SEVEN MINUTES, as Mr. Dvorak reported, but it does take a heck of a lot longer than it ever did with any version of Windows I have ever used.
As to the background activity, I may have a program or two open in the background (not always), but nothing that’s actually doing anything.
In any case, I think it’s kind of pitiful that Microsoft took five years to revamp their OS, and this is the best they can come up with. Once you take away the useless glitz like Aero and the security stuff (which could have been in the SP for XP), I think we’re hard pressed to say that it’s an improvement over XP, and that’s being excessively optimistic.
“In any case, I think it’s kind of pitiful that Microsoft took five years to revamp their OS, and this is the best they can come up with.”
Agreed. And I am not pushing anyone to upgrade. But I wouldn’t discourage anyone from getting a pre-installed copy on a new system (but definitely NOT your Sam’s club variety). As long as that systems is configured properly. It really doesn’t deserve the knocks that it is getting.
Hey, Steve-0 #12! If you didn’t purchase a license for XP with your new Toshiba laptop, then you have just pirated XP, and Microsoft (or the Business Software Alliance) is going to be coming after you any day now.
Personally, I’m using two legal licenses for Vista Home Premium and two legal licenses for XP Pro at home. I’m pretty happy with Vista myself, but it took my wife a while to get comfortable with it. She said she would go back to XP without any trouble, but I personally think she’s already become addicted to the Vista games and the Sudoku sidebar gadget.
>>I’m pretty happy with Vista myself
Five year’s worth of happiness over and above what you had with XP?
Games and sodoku gadgets are hardly something for a “software powerhouse” like Microsoft to be proud of after five years.
Most people seem a lot LESS happy with Vista than with XP. Personally, I kind of like the Vista WiFi signal strength and weather report gadgets, but I’d give them up in a heartbeat to have the speed and stability of XP back again.