[geeks] Vista cost

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
>Date: 2007/01/29 Mon PM 03:03:32 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Vista cost

>Mon, 29 Jan 2007 @ 13:49 -0600, Lionel Peterson said:
>
>> Just to interject an actual data point from MS, the install of * Home
>> UPGRADE editions of Vista will not be possible without an underlying
>> OS install (not media, actual install):
>
>Several upgrade editions of XP and 2000, and 95-ME required the original
>media before doing the upgrade.  That was brain dead stupid of course,
>because eventually my old media would not read.
>
>To make it depend on an actual install is beyond stupid.
>
>What do you do if you have to replace your hard drive?
>
>I'm sure they have an answer that involves $$$ and pain.

To reinfoce my point, it is the HOME UPGRADE versions that require an OS install, information on the Business/Ultimate version varies (I haven't gotten my copies yet to confirm what it does). If you buy a "complete" version (Home/Business/Ultimate), or your computer comes with Vista pre-installed (Home/Business/Ultimate), then it is the classic "boot off DVD, enter 25 digit key, Bob's-your-uncle".

I suspect they are relying on people retaining their "recovery partition" to rebuild their system should it fail (I used that function on my parent's laptop, worked out pretty nice - just cleared out everything and it was, uhm, good as new. (YMMV ;^)

>> Remember, with Vista, EVERYONE gets the same media (install or
>> upgrade), the difference is the product key you use to install it,
>> that determines the features/capabilities that are installed. I forsee
>> a great "hack" to allow everyone with a Vista Install/Upgrade DVD to
>> upgrade to any version they want - reminds me of the Office '97 fiasco
>> at MS - they gave away time-limited CDs for free at Kinkos (?), and it
>> turned out there was ONE FILE different between the full-blown
>> licensed product and the time-limited version, so after downloading
>> that one file, you had a copy of Office '97 for free...
>
>In other words:
>
>Once again the pirates are merely annoyed, but legitimate users are
>punished severely and constantly.

A pirate will not be inconvienienced at all, they will take their Vista install media and hack an Ultimate Product Key into it, turning their Vista Home install in to an Ultimate Vista one.

>The only real difference is that with Vista, you now get screwed over on
>the third party software and content, in addition to the base OS.
>
>I believe that Microsoft and other idiots are hoping that hardware
>encryption systems will make it so hard to hack this stuff, that
>eventually you will be completely under their control.
>
>It's one thing to break software keys, not even that hard really.  If
>nothing else you can just make the code jump over the protection or fake
>it.
>
>But once all hardware supports this at a low level, it will be a lot
>harder than just downloading a software hack.
>
>My favorite recent note from a new Vista owner:
>
>Some guy bought a brand new HP system with a 24" monitor, and it came
>with a high definition movie to show off the system. The movie will not
>play *at all* because the LCD doesn't support hardware authentication.
>
>Gotta love it.

If we could just convince all you *nix weenies to give up your "different" O/Ss, then MS could remove all protection, and simply bundle a copy of their OS (the ONLY OS) with the processor chip, and we wouldn't have any of these problems... ;^)

Lionel