“Windows Vista includes an array of ‘features’ that you don’t want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They’ll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won’t do anything useful. In fact, they’re working against you. They’re digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry,” Bruce Schneier reports for Forbes.
“And you don’t get to refuse them,” Schneier reports. “…Basically Microsoft has reworked a lot of the core operating system to add copy protection technology for new media formats like HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks. Certain high-quality output paths–audio and video–are reserved for protected peripheral devices. Sometimes output quality is artificially degraded; sometimes output is prevented entirely. And Vista continuously spends CPU time monitoring itself, trying to figure out if you’re doing something that it thinks you shouldn’t. If it does, it limits functionality and in extreme cases restarts just the video subsystem.”
“I don’t see the market righting this wrong, because Microsoft’s monopoly position gives it much more power than we consumers can hope to have. It might not be as obvious as Microsoft using its operating system monopoly to kill Netscape and own the browser market, but it’s really no different. Microsoft’s entertainment market grab might further entrench its monopoly position, but it will cause serious damage to both the computer and entertainment industries. DRM is bad, both for consumers and for the entertainment industry: something the entertainment industry is just starting to realize, but Microsoft is still fighting. Some researchers think that this is the final straw that will drive Windows to the competition, but I think the courts are necessary,” Schneier reports.
Schneier reports, “In the meantime, the only advice I can offer you is to not upgrade to Vista. It will be hard. Microsoft’s bundling deals with computer manufacturers mean that it will be increasingly hard not to get the new operating system with new computers. And Microsoft has some pretty deep pockets and can wait us all out if it wants to. Yes, some people will shift to Macintosh and some fewer number to Linux, but most of us are stuck on Windows. Still, if enough customers say no to Vista, the company might actually listen.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You’re not “stuck on Windows.” It’s time to think different and exit the dark ages of personal computing. Get a Mac and, if need be, run Windows XP on that Mac for any Windows-only programs you might need while you learn about Mac OS X and Mac software alternatives. You never have to buy Vista, just upgrade past it to Mac OS X Tiger (with Leopard coming soon!), and you’ll soon learn how to compute far better without Microsoft.
Related articles:
Mac OS X Tiger vs. Windows Vista: Mac’s migration a breeze, Vista’s migration a headache – February 12, 2007
Forbes: ‘Windows Vista utterly unimaginative, internally discordant and woefully out of tune’ – February 09, 2007
Wow: Microsoft’s Windows Vista already hacked – February 09, 2007
Computerworld: Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X – February 08, 2007
Windows sufferer spends six hours trying to ‘upgrade’ to Vista, says: ‘I should’ve bought a Mac’ – February 07, 2007
Windows Vista woes push BBC News editor to regret never having ‘defected’ to Apple Mac – February 06, 2007
Bill Gates unhinged with Apple envy; Microsoft on path to become high profile casualty – February 06, 2007
Apple takes dead aim at Microsoft’s Windows Vista in latest ‘Get a Mac’ ad (with video) – February 06, 2007
Digit: Don’t buy Vista; Microsoft may be driving millions to stick with XP or move to Apple Mac – February 05, 2007
Bill Gates has lost his mind: calls Apple liars, copiers; slams Mac OS X security vs. Windows – February 02, 2007
TIME Magazine: Microsoft’s Windows Vista ‘an embarassment to the good name of American innovation’ – February 02, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
Those unfamiliar with Apple’s Mac OS X may be impressed with Windows Vista – January 29, 2007
Digit: ‘Microsoft’s Windows Vista may be the best reason yet to buy an Apple Mac’ – January 29, 2007
Pioneer Press: Windows Vista shows ‘Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much’ – January 29, 2007
Windows Vista disappoints, so get a Mac – January 29, 2007
Microsoft emails reveal serious Mac OS X Tiger envy – January 26, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista could be an opportunity for Apple – January 26, 2007
CNET Reviews Windows Vista: Is that all? Clunky and not very intuitive vs. Mac OS X; warmed-over XP – January 24, 2007
Mossberg: Microsoft’s Windows Vista offers lesser imitations of Apple’s Mac OS X features – January 18, 2007
Windows Vista disappointment drives longtime ‘Microsoft apologist’ to Apple’s Mac OS X – January 17, 2007
InformationWeek Review: Apple’s Mac OS X shines in comparison with Microsoft’s Windows Vista – January 06, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Microsoft’s Windows Vista: ‘Looks, Locks, Lacks’ – December 14, 2006
Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista, Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard will create no new jobs – December 12, 2006
15-year Windows vet tries Apple Mac: ‘My God! This is amazing!’ – December 04, 2006
Dave Winer: ‘Microsoft isn’t an innovator, and never was – they are always playing catch-up’ – December 01, 2006
Harvard Medical School CIO picks Mac OS X over Linux and Windows – November 30, 2006
Apple Macs can run more software than Windows PCs – October 30, 2006
Microsoft’s Windows Vista is basically Microsoft’s version of Mac OS 9.3 – October 11, 2006
Top Windows developer dumps Microsoft’s ‘pile of crap’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Windows Vista rips-off Mac OS X at great hardware cost (and Apple gains in the end) – June 13, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
And there’s yet another new DRM system announced by MS – PlayReady. Doesn’t sound as confident as ‘Plays For Sure’ which is probably appropriate because ‘Plays For Sure’ doesn’t anymore.
http://www.theinquirer.org/default.aspx?article=37621
If you’re talking about PCs as entertainment devices, then you actually do have a choice. Being “stuck with Windows” is typically a work-related issue. Entertainment devices are typically consumer-related. Crossing the two — in terms of what we’re “stuck” with — is illogical thinking.
If you’re using your Vista PC at work for entertainment, then you’re probably not doing your job anyway.
If you want to use a computer as an entertainment device or hub, you surely do have a choice.
Get a Mac.
Microsoft is bad news. ‘Nuff said.
PlaysforSure, Zune, PlayReady. What the hell? Now DRM up the wazoot. No thanks. I’m sticking with a Mac, and if I have to, using Windows XP.
All Vista application installers must run with administrator privileges. This, in Rutkowska’s mind, is a “very severe hole in the design of UAC.”
However according to MS it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Russinovich pegged it as a tradeoff between application compatibility and ease of use, explaining the weakness as a “design choice.”
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=29
I am so sick and tired of the helpless attitude of the general public. You are not stuck on Winblows at home – maybe at work but not at home.
Just get a Mac and stop your freakin’ bitchin’, idiots!
I’m just waiting for 10.5 and then i will spend some money on my first Intel Macbook Pro with hopefully an soon to come 12 ” screen and a 24″ cinema Display
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“I am so sick and tired of the helpless attitude of the general public.”
Most of them don’t know they have options in spite of Apple’s advertising campaigns. They are also ignorant and say dumb things like “Macs are for artists”, “Apple is going bankrupt”, “Sony is buying Apple”, “
We use IBM” and other stupid things that maybe had relevance 10 years ago.
Just buy a Mac. Simple
I agree with everyone…What does Apple have to do to get these “cavemen and cavewomen” to switch?
Notice how I used the Geico politically correct group to denograte since there are not cavemen left to bitch, instead of retards or idiots
which there are still a lot of.
Give them the box and charge 1499.00 for the OS? Thats a good deal!!.
Listen all Windows users in business and at home, you are morons for using this crap that MS keeps shoveling.
Please at least try a Mac and if you don’t like it you can have your old PC back, promise.
Thanks for your attention.
Apple is making consistent, and significant, incremental gains in market share. As long as Apple avoid making any blunders, the Mac will reach a point some time in the not-to-distant future where they start to put significant pressure on Microsoft, and perhaps on Dell.
Apple are already at that point in the home market – courtesy of iPod, iTunes, Apple Stores and now Apple TV as well as the Mac. As Apple roll out more Apple stores worldwide, market share outside the USA will rise rapidly – closing the gap with the USA.
Issues such as this (Vista/DRM) will continue to generate negative publicity for Microsoft, and make users less enthusiastic about Vista. And if Vista proves just as vulnerable to security breaches as XP, consumer resistance will become a major problem for MS.
All your DRMs are belong to us!
The worst part about all the “trusted computing” content protection crap in Vista is that most of it hasn’t even been turned on yet.
That won’t happen for two or three years and then the real you don’t own your PC, MIcrosoft does fun will begin.
So strange how the 90% that use Microsoft Windows and other software just don’t care of their droconian strangehold on them. And also the sinsiter privacy invasion their software does to the user without their even being aware of let. Let alone authorize Microsoft the invasion.
But so many are up in arms on Apple and iTunes/iPod.
I guess this 90% user base of Microsoft Windows are the same ones that cared and watched the 24/7 “news” of the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Mindless. Clueless. That’s the Microsoft Windows user.
There really is no reason at all the average home user should be sticking with Fista. I mean Vista. The bottom line is, the average person is a dope when it comes the their PC.
I really don’t understand this kind of attitude. Like MDN says, if you buy a Mac, you can still run Windows via Boot Camp and/or Parallels if you have a few crucial Windows only apps, and enjoy the freedom of OS X the rest of the time. There simply is no excuse to not do it any longer.
Is it possible that Steve Jobs chose to write his recent open letter because of the points that Bruce Schneier, an acknowledged computer security expert, so eloquently stated? Obviously, the comb-overs in the record and movie industries want heavy DRM to control and limit our options. No less than Steve Ballmer of Microsoft has flatly stated, and I quote, “DRM is the future.” And if you think back, you may recall that when Vista was still the nascent Longhorn, there was a technology called Palladium that Microsoft had under development. Perhaps I should be thankful for Microsoft’s collective incompetence that they could not make the full vision of Palladium a reality.
For the entertainment moguls, DRM is the key to limiting consumers to be mere lackeys. For Microsoft, DRM could be a way to extend its monopolistic embrace on the computer industry, and a strategy to expand this to control Internet-based media content, music and other forms of data, so much so that companies like Apple would be cut out via not being compatible with the Microsoft “standard.”
It may be that all the handwringing and noise of self-annointed pundits could be missing a larger point about DRM and the long-term implications surrounding it. Whether we know it or not, our very ability for fair use or to even have any choice over the data we view, watch or even create could be at risk.
I do hope I am wrong. Holding these executives accountable is more important than ever. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The only advice I can offer you is to not upgrade to Vista
If someone who splits infinitives offers you advice, I would – normally – suggest you ignore them. In this case they happen to be right. Remember – a split infinitive is either a badly chosen verb or one verb too many. In either case it’s the sign of sloppy thinking that is best avoided !!
Yea, pc users amaze me in their willingness to stick with MS no matter how awful it works.
They’re afraid there may be something they can’t do? The can’t even tell you what that is.
Just fear of switcing to an unknown interface.
Many just don’t care and like “making ” it work. Yea, they enjoy tweeking software that should work in the first place.
Please check out the latest Security Now! podcasts. Episode 73 through 78 deal with Vista DRM and copy protection issues, as well as Microsoft’s responses. Good listening.
Avoid Vista like the plague. ESPECIALLY since Microsoft is already working on their next operating system. (This apparently really was Service Pack3!)
Actually, what *are* the DRM restrictions on HD and BD discs on Mac OSX? As far as I know, DVD Player in Tiger doesn’t play those discs, so we don’t really know what’s in store for Mac users once Leopard ships, do we? Is there a developer with a Leopard seed (eeeewww!) who can answer this question?
This is the probably last visit I’m making to this website.
What you have to realize is MOST people don’t even know what an OS is, much less care which one they’re using. They don’t care that much about computers, as long as it works. That certainly doesn’t mean they’re morons. If you didn’t know much about golf, you wouldn’t know which products are good and bad. For most people, DRM doesn’t mean anything. They don’t watch DVDs on their computer, much less copy them. They don’t share iTunes songs or want to listen to them on another player besides their iPod. For a typical user, XP SP2 is fine for them. They probably use it for Word (Office), Internet and iTunes.
@ me,
I’m a Mac user, and I cared about ANS. She was misunderstood and seemed very nice.
@Robert Tilton
I agree with some of what you say. There is a titanic struggle going on between the established players (record companies) and the new players (Apple, Microsoft) to control this market. Microsoft and the record companies are on one side, and Apple are on the other.
Apple earned the right to be a player because of the success of the iPod and then iTunes and now the iTunes store. This is terrifying for both the record companies and Microsoft. Now that Apple has come out firmly on the side of the consumer, it remains to be seen how Apple will answer the DRM push from the record companies.
Perhaps Apple will bypass the record companies altogether and introduce a completely different way of remunerating the artists so that they can release DRM-free music. Its a tall order – but if anyone can do it, Apple can.
Microsoft is at real risk of losing the hearts and minds of the buying public. Apple customers border on the fanatic in terms of loyalty and enthusiasm. Microsoft can only look at this and weep. Vista, Zune, Transformer phones… This is not the key to controlling the market – and this is Apple’s ambition, just as much as it is Microsoft’s. The difference is that Apple will aim to control the market by giving people something that they love to use. Microsoft will try to control the market by locking people in to something they don’t much care for, but can’t do without…
Its like love: If you love someone, set them free. If Apple is going to win this battle it is because people will love them. We do. And you really can’t say that about Microsoft, or the record companies.
I’m barracking for Apple…
Seems more and more likely that I won’t be upgrading any more of my Windows licenses. I’ll just stick to the occasional use of XP.
Does the Mac have any such intrusive DRM and anti-privacy schemes?
I say no to Vista. Did you have to wake me up to tell me this.