Windows Vista

just wondering if anyone has it yet and what they think.
especially the drm and anti piracy/lockout thing i.e. how it works and what it
blocks etc

i read someone has already figured out how to hack it. lol
can't be that secure then

yes i have bought vista and i am currently running it, its nice except
peerguardian won't run on vista so i won't download torrents utill it is
supported. besides that it is a much better os than xp, i would recommended an
upgrade.

the drm issues in vista have been wildly exaggerated. files that play on xp
will play on vista. what vista does do is limit the bandwidth on analog video
and digital sound when playing an hd dvd. the only way to get the full
bandwidth (when playing an hd dvd) is to use the hdmi output connected to a
screen/tv that supports hdcp. this is completely like standalone hd dvd and
blu-ray players. none of your downloaded files will be limited during playback.

what about software?

i might be getting a copy of vista tomorrow and from what i've heard, it sucks.
i don't think i'll be installing it on any of my computers.

what about it?

does it try to manage it or block it if it suspects that its not a propper copy

the short answer is "no". vista doesn't check third-part software. vista
however will stop working if you do not activate your copy of it, but that
doesn't matter because either you'll have a legal version of vista or you'll
have a pirated version, which already contains some workaround to the vista
activation procedure.

if you use azureus, you can install the safepeer plugin which uses the same
block list as peerguardian.

edit: i tried to add the url for safepeer, but i guess it isn't allowed to
post url's here. anyway, you can find it on the azureus plugin page.

ok what about differences between versions, is it worth getting ultimate

there are plenty of sites with a table of the various features in the editions.

if the all the features in ultimate are what you feel you need, get it.
if the all the features in ultimate are not useful to you, don't get it.

since you don't tell us anything about the features you do or do not feel you
need that's about as useful an answer as you are likely to get.


oh - and to answer your next question :-

a piece of string is >---t---h---i---s---< long 😉

their have been post/news pages about vista already, by installing vista you
agree to allow microsoft to controll your computer and software how ever they
see fit. if in later updates they decide that a "graphics programme"on your
system hasnt got the official drm license with it. they will delete if for you.
bye bye. also say, that if you ever do get a hd-dvd player, that its going to be
like watching a normal dvd, as vista is gonna cripple the quality by downscaling
to low resolution, forcing your monitor to use its upscaler, the result is a
worse picture. stand alone blu-ray doesnt do this.

"their have been post/news pages about vista already, by installing vista you
agree to allow microsoft to controll your computer and software how ever they
see fit. if in later updates they decide that a "graphics programme"on your
system hasnt got the official drm license with it. they will delete if for
you. bye bye."

wrong. the implications of the eula has been severely exaggerated. there