Check this out. Windows Vista only allows people to install on new computers twice! Break your computer twice and you get to rebuy your operating system again.

Minor changes will not trigger this, but many major upgrades will. Now that the market is saturated, Microsoft continues to need revenue growth to keep it's investors happy.

There is more competition in the operating system space than there was a few years back, but it's not yet to the point where the monopoly status of Microsoft Windows is in any real danger, thus they have no incentive to do anything other than keep their revenue as high as is possible.

http://www.techweb.com/wire/software/193300234

IMHO, your new PC purchases should be either a Mac or an XP capable machine. Man, I thought XP was bad with it's restrictions. It's tame compared to the full array of hassles and shackles that are coming with the hardware hungry Vista.

Blech.

One of the better Linuxes these days is Ubuntu. It's mostly just worked! The kids use the Linux box daily and just get things done. Lots of things and very few hassles.

One of the audio related implications of this is downloadable music licenses. If you've bought a lot of music that is controlled by Microsoft DRM, you may find yourself in a position where you cannot reinstall the OS necessary to restore your right to play licenses for your downloads.

For those wanting to build media libraries, the win32 OS continues to be a risky platform for this, unless open players and downloads are part of the equation. Even then, you've got to keep an eye on what the system player software does. Windows Media Player will apply licenses to your content for you, if you are not careful.

This means, you could record your own CD, rip it to digital files, then find yourself unable to play your own music!

Still want a Mac, but it's not in the cards just yet. Maybe next year...

All you have to do is call Microsoft, and you can reload your software, past the 2 times.

Linux is ok for some low level servers, IE dedicated Mail or even Firewalls, but as a home Operating System, its a joke.

NWokie is correct!
Microsoft will have a special number to call for customer service just for this. I read something about it a couple months ago. I can't find the link but as soon as I do I will post it....

Hope that's the case. Have you verified that with Vista?

What bothers me is the more or less constant verification going on. If it's licensed then I really don't want to hear about it. Professionally, I've had a machine or two fail these tests and it was a big hassle.

Gotta love the just get a new license answer on those.

I've got one XP machine. It's allowed on the net, but only for very specific applications. It's seriously firewalled and does not need updates.

Guess it really depends on what one is doing where a judgement on Linux being good for home OSes is concerned.

I run almost all open stuff, so it's all good. For kids it's fantastic and largely hassle free these days. They can use the package management system to ask for any Ubuntu packaged software and that works just fine. Lots of apps.

Professionally, I do a lot of remote admin, support and some small programming and scripting. Linux rocks for this at home. I've a coupla commercial apps I need to support. Work pays for an XP laptop for that.

The rest of it, web, music, video, e-mail, office apps all are on Ubuntu. No fees, no licenses, no worries.

All depends on what you need to do, I guess.

I'm not sure you've run the recent Linux distributions. Far from a joke for most people, IMHO.

Linux is a great system don't get me wrong. I like the fact that the main headquarters are in Beaverton now. But, having everyone on the net fixing problems when they arise is great. I have one computer at work on it and my oldest daughter who is allowed on the net (with adult supervision ONLY) has it on her laptop.
XP has many flaws and holes that allow Microsoft to F with your computer. I only update my laptop with sterilized updates. A buddy of mine is a comp. wizard and he cleans any garbage out before I get my CD to download. Microsoft does suck but you work with what your apps with run correctly.
As for Vista.... I'm just going to wait and see what happens. You know that it's going to be picked about by every net geek out there and hackers are going to be picking at it from day one.

Truth is, Microsofts OS upgrades usually require current hardware and replacing most of your major applications. Before doing that, it's time you looked at buying a Mac. I've been working with Macs since almost the beginning, but spent a lot of time in the dark side as well ... DOS was a great OS, Windows sucked until 2000 came out (NT in reality). Windows Vista is unproven, whereas Mac OS X has been out there for years and ahead of the game. All the old b.s. about Mac being too expensive or not having the software you need are no longer valid for 99% of users. Mac support blows the doors off of anything out there. Plus, if you must run Windows for work, you can now do it on the same box, in some cases without even having a copy of Win on the machine.

There will always be a place for Windows because the saturation of the system in business and government. It doesn't have to be in your home anymore though. It is vulnerable to hacks and viruses and Vista will be no exception. Don't believe the hype or me, do some research. The PC magazines are saying the new Mac hardware and software are the best bang for the buck, and since you are going to have to replace your box and the apps you love, you owe it to yourself.

Sure beats Fortran IV and punching cards. I'm sure I'm not the only one that remembers that.

WRITE(6,*) 'Enter Fahrenheit '
READ(5,*) XFAHR
XCENT = (XFAHR - 32) * 5 / 9
WRITE(6,*) 'Celsius is ',XCENT
STOP
END

all I can say is God Bless Steve Jobs.


the next time your windows crashes, keep in mind its the same operating system that runs the portland trailblazers!

Nwokie, you obviously haven't looked at Linux since 1998 or so. I have Ubuntu Linux running pretty smoothly on my Dell laptop (dual-boot with Windows XP). Since it has Firefox and Open Office installed by default with the Gnome Window Manager (which also has the driver installed out of the box for my Intel wireless card), it's hard to see why it would be a "joke." It looks pretty much like any other operating system. Most people just use a web browser and Office anyway - Ubuntu is fine for nearly everyone. Only people who must use Windows-specific software (e.g. games, accounting software) will be complete slaves to Bill Gates.

Andrew

It's sure been a great OS for the kids. They like it because they are safe running it. My kids have hosed the winXP box plenty of times. Didn't mean to, sometimes not even aware they did it at all!

On the Ubuntu machine, they can download whatever they want media wise and just enjoy it with few worries. Where programs are concerned, there is a lot of really great open stuff. Young people have no problem with OpenOffice, Firefox, Gimp, K3B (cd / dvd burning app), digital photo I/O, etc...

I did take the time to setup a few emulators for gaming, as that's an obvious gap on Linux these days.

Those are a big hit and get more time than the Playstation does. The only biggie I've ran into is online videos. Sometimes the win32 codec wrapper (WINE system) gets stuck. Of course they will try to play it about 50 times, leaving a mess in the process stack. The machine still runs, but it's sluggish when this happens.

So a little bit of sysadmin took care of this. Made them two Icons. One clears the process stack of any instances of mplayer. The other is known as the Icon of Death. Double click it, then click on the application that's hung and it's all taken care of. (Xkill) Everybody likes that one --and it's easier to use than the task manager is.

That's it!

They have done everything else they want to do without any serious intervention on my part. Once I showed them the package management system, they went and tried a bunch of apps. Found a few they like and just started using them.

By comparison, using the win32 system allowed more possibilties were applications are concerned. But it also brought with it a lot of hassles. I needed to either lock down the machine to a degree that's annoying, or it required my attention on a fairly regular basis.

When given the choice, they pick the Ubuntu machine every time because it's largely worry free. Funny how that worked out with them. Good that it did though.

(My kids are not computer geeks at all either. They are literate because I've slipped in knowledge over the years, but not really interested or particularly literate about the actual workings of the machine.)

One other interesting development has happened in the last year or so. I do share the machine with them as I don't yet have a dedicated workstation for them setup just yet. I showed them the multi-desktop feature and they like it.

We leave the machine logged in to a family account most of the time. When somebody walks up to the machine and sees something going on, they just ask for their own clean desktop, do their thing and that's it. I was surprised how well this worked out. Everybody seems to respect others work in progress. They don't like the win32 machine because user switching is an extra step and they don't get multiple desktops outta the box. (Yes I could load a utility, but prefer to keep the win32 stuff at a stable update and as out of the box as is possible.)

I really have no interest in Windows Vista. I've declined opportunities to sign up for advanced copies of it. Who cares? XP is fine for anything a Windows user would ever need. It definitely fixed some usability problems found in previous versions of Windows, and XP (and 2000) also were light years more reliable than the awful Windows 98 and ME.

And as I've said, I'm a Ubuntu Linux user too. While Ubuntu isn't perfect, it is terrific and a great alternative to Windows. If anyone wishes to see an easy Demo of Ubuntu, you can download the Desktop CD and boot it. It runs in "live" mode entirely off the CD and out of RAM, without touching your hard drive, until you choose to install it on the hard drive. (It's a tad slow running "live" off the CD but it is a complete, working installation of Linux, complete with Firefox and Open Office). So there will be no surprises when you actually install Ubuntu, because you've demoed it "live" first. If you don't like the Demo, remove the CD, reboot, and you still have Windows on your hard drive as before.

See http://www.ubuntulinux.org to download or for more info.

Andrew

I like the live CD because it makes installation a dead simple affair. Boot the live CD. If it all works nicely, do the install.

If not, download necessary software elements and or swap out some hardware, then do the install.

I've declined too. Honestly, I like XP quite a lot these days, so long as it's not patched to the point where the validation thing is always running. My only big beef with XP is window focus management. I prefer the Unix style click to focus scheme. That way, I can type into a window in the background without it having to pop up to the foreground.

Running Vista was a less than stellar experience for me. Lots of changes --enough changes that other platforms are gonna be a consideration for many people. It's also DRM heavy.

I also like the fact that I can backup a user fairly easy on Linux. If a reload is required, it's a no brainer to archive the user directory, install a fresh OS (onto another box even), then restore the user account. All the little settings data and other bits associated with the user just fall back into place with few hassles.

This is not easy on a win32 system.

I use Linux every day, I run a mail server , a firewall, and 2 Oracle Data bases that are on Linux.

I am the IT manager at the company I work, I personally prefer Unix, its much more solid.

But for the general home user, that has very little technical background, linux doesnt work.
The normal home user wants to buy it, and it work, he wants to be able to plug his new video camera to it, and it work, that doesnt happen with Linux.

You'd be surprised how well the latest Linux kernels handle multimedia. And let's not pretend Windows always recognizes your new video camera when you plug it in; I've seen countless problems with computers freezing, drivers conflicting with other devices, etc. in Windows. Not to say Windows doesn't handle hardware better than Linux (because the manufacturers choose to), but that Linux with a desktop window manager like Gnome under Ubuntu is pretty damn usable by the average person.

I deployed a couple of Ubuntu boxes in an office environment at a non-profit where I do IT support. People took to them surprisingly well, doing mostly Office and Internet (web mail like Gmail). The biggest problem in an Office environment is probably Outlook, still used by many offices. I think web-based email and calenders (Google) are going to take off more in the corporate world in the next few years and people will start moving away from Outlook, making Linux desktops even easier to support. There isn't a whole lot else the average office user needs.

Andrew

Well, we have come pretty far from, "it's a joke" to it's not always easiest to use.

Seems to me there is plenty of middle ground here, particularly for those users that do not have a lot of expectations.

For what it's worth, the latest Ubuntu has worked out of the box with at least three digital cameras that I know of so far. Kids just plugged them in, the folder full of pictures popped up. From there, they double click to edit, crop, etc...

When all done, they drag them into their other folders and or upload them for sharing with friends.

They are running a user account and did not install anything. Hmmm... Win32 runs under more than a user account, does require installing things, that come with lots of other largely useless things.

Did you know that when you buy an XP PC from Dell you can install and activate XP on another machine using the 25 CD key on that PC? This is because the XP that came with the box was activated with Dell's OEM number. If you do it just make a ghost image of the hard drive should you need to restore the Dell. Once the 25 CD key is used cannot be used again as it is considered OEM not retail software.

Yep.

Lots of other tricks too! One I recently did was clone a copy of XP from one Laptop to another. (Installation media was lost, and our company had paid the license --didn't want to pay again.)

Booted Damn Small Linux (Wayner would love that one!), mounted the two disks, via USB and literally copied the entire contents of one disk to the other. (They were the same size!)

The number of things different between the two laptops is below the Xp reactivation limit, so it never knew the difference!

Doing what I do, I can tell you I've cracked everything their is. Done a few cracks myself too.

It's a big hassle.

I rarely need the skill these days, and when I do it's almost always a case where somebody is getting hosed because of something stupid that happened, not avoidence of paying. Chaps my ass frankly.

Manufacturer-installed copies of Windows XP do not require activation - they are tied to the BIOS. They detect whether the BIOS is legal for the particular license you have. Presumably you were copying XP from one laptop to another of the same manufacturer. Since XP was already licensed for that BIOS, it didn't complain. But if you tried to copy a Dell laptop HD to a Toshiba laptop HD, it would complain (I tried this as an experiment once when trying to fix someone's computer, and sure enough, the Dell HD wouldn't boot, complaining about activation).

Using the dd command in Linux (right?) was a slow and dirty way to do the copy, but it copied every sector, including the unused ones. Cloning programs that copy only the used sectors accomplish the same thing and are faster. I use True Image from Acronis (like Ghost) for backing up hard disks to image files that can be mounted as virtual hard drives (well, Windows images can be mounted that way - Linux images can be made but can't be mounted). True Image has been well worth the $30 I paid for it last year, but there are free versions of cloning programs that do the same thing, FYI. I think the Ultimate Boot CD (free - google it) has a few cloning programs on it.

Andrew