[RLUG] Vista - an observation and question

[Dennis Bagley]

For those of you pondering Micro$oft'$ new O/S, Vista, below is an 
excerpt from an article by
Michael Geist.  This article was also in the January 29, 2007 edition of 
the Toronto Star.

The web site I clipped this from is:    
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1640/159/

Please note the quote from the M$ EULA in the first paragraph below, 
second sentence.......

   That almost sounds (to me) like no one is allowed to use third party 
software in Vista let alone
    create something that works "better" than the default "goodies" that 
came with Vista.

       What do you think?

Dennis

Quote from Michael Geist's article


For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about 
who is in control by providing that "this agreement only gives you some 
rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights."  For 
those users frustrated by the software's limitations, Microsoft cautions 
that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software."  

Those technical limitations have proven to be even more controversial 
than the legal ones.  Last December, Peter Guttman, a computer scientist 
at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a paper called "A 
Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection."  The paper pieced 
together the technical fine print behind Vista, unraveling numerous 
limitations in the new software seemingly installed at the direct 
request of Hollywood interests.

Guttman focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the 
ability to playback high-definition content from the next-generation 
DVDs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (referred to as "premium content").  He 
noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium 
content when played on most computer monitors.

Guttman's research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with 
poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain 
licenses from third parties in order to access the technology that 
protects premium content (those license fees were presumably 
incorporated into Vista's price).  Moreover, he calculated that the 
technological controls would require considerable consumption of 
computing power with the system conducting 30 checks each second to 
ensure that there are no attacks on the security of the premium content.
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