Things you need to know before upgrading to Vista

Microsoft Windows Vista has been around for a few months and I saw many people jumping on the bandwagon and upgrade or purchase a new PC with Vista operating system.

I came across some interesting articles on Vista and you may want to read it first before making the decision. Note : I cannot insert the whole content of the article here. I'll just cut and paste some of it here.

1.) What's in the "Vista's legal fine print" during installation? You can read more about it here.

Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge. During the installation process, users "activate" Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft.

Even after installation, the legal agreement grants Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components. In addition, it sets significant limits on the ability to copy or transfer the software, prohibiting anything more than a single backup copy and setting strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software." The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.

2) What game developing company thinks and feels about Vista. You can read more about it here.

Vista breaks 90% of games, says game publisher Redmond (WA) - Alex St. John,
chief executive of game publisher WildTangent, today blasted his former employer
for a half-baked and negligent way of treating the majority of game publishers - small development studios and individual programmers of casual games: St. John
claims that at least nine out of ten games do not work with Vista.

The announcement of Vista isn't even a day old as reports of not so rosy Vista scenarios are surfacing. One of them could put a question mark behind Microsoft's claim that the company went above and beyond to fine-tune Windows Vista to common mass-market usage scenarios. Alex St. John, chief executive of game publisher WildTangent, said that Vista is not compatible with the mast majority of games on the market today and accuses Microsoft of lacking of consumer and developer understanding.

3) From Wikipedia. This articles basically means that it'll be more difficult to alter the content of a protected media like moives etc. So it also means not copying of movies and such.

Protected video path, a means of creating a protected tunnel between the media and the output device / monitor. The idea being that the media can only travel along or within this tunnel and cannot be interfered with by any other apps that can alter or modify it – thus isolating or insulating the media from third party interference that may remove certain unwanted elements or liberate it and allow you to use it in ways that you want to.

3) From theregister.co.uk. The following simply means that if there's any problem with their software, it's not their fault and you cannot make a fuss over it publicly.

The EULA and kill switch, Should the integrity or validity of your install key be in question, the end user license contains provisions for disabling or limiting your O/S capability Being a M$ the EULA is worded so that even if your key is correct and the install is disabled as a result of their error, they accept no liability or responsibility for leaving you high n dry with a disabled O/S – as to how proactive this will be or the strength / validity of their attempt to weasel off the hook for their error?

4) And why so many version?

It’s not just the actual price you should be concerned with, but what you are actually getting for your money – the devils in the detail and the reason why there are so many different varieties is the EULA and what you can or to be precise cannot do with your golden ticket.

If memory serves me correct one of the lower scale versions has limit of being networked to 5 devices / connections. A home PC, a laptop, an Xbox and a print server and you’re practically done for – add an extra PC or decide to incorporate the television into the network via a digital media adapter and you’ve reached your limit

It’s not an O/S but software for protecting content and a DRM implementation device. The print server might just scrape thru and frre up a much needed opening for an extra device Please bear in mind that this isn’t intended to be definitive as M$ may have moved the goal posts or changed their mind on certain things - after all they changed their mind in regards the Vista EULA and the ban on publishing or posting any benchmarking results, you are now allowed to do this as long as you publish / post any benchmarking results in accordance with the rules they have created for doing so ~ I swear you couldn’t make this stuff up

* Home Basic
o Can't copy ISO to your hard drive.
o Can't install to a network server.
o You may share files, printers, etc with a maximum of 5 network devices.
o You MAY NOT use Remote Desktop, only Remote Assistance
o You MAY NOT use in Virtual PC Virtual Server VMWare

* Home Premium
o Still can't copy ISO to your hard drive.
o Still can't install to a network server.
o Sharing for 10 network devices.
o Still no Remote Desktop.
o Still no virtual hardware.
o 5 simultaneous Media Center Extender sessions (up from 3 in MCE 2005).

* Ultimate
o Can copy ISO to your hard driveo Can install to a network server (I'm assuming for Terminal Server scenarios).
o Sharing for 10 network devices.
o Can use Remote Desktop.
o Can use in a virtualized environment, BUT
+ Can't use DRM-protected content if Vista Ultimate is the "guest" OS.
+ Can't use BitLocker if Vista Ultimate is the "guest" OS.
o 5 Media Center Extender sessions.

5) NSA are involve in the development of Vista too. Here.

NSA helped Microsoft make Vista secure. The U.S. agency best known for
eavesdropping on telephone calls had a hand in the development of Microsoft's
Vista operating system, Microsoft Corp. confirmed yesterday.

The National Security Agency (NSA) stepped in to help Microsoft Corp. develop a configuration of its next-generation operating system that would meet U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) requirements, said NSA spokesman Ken White.

This is not the first time the secretive agency has been brought in by private industry to consult on operating system security, White said, but it is the first time the NSA has worked with a vendor prior to the release of an operating system.

By getting involved early in the process, the NSA helped Microsoft ensure that it was delivering a product that was both secure and compatible with government software, he said.

After reading all these, I'm seriuosly putting hold on upgrading to Vista. I am still very happy with Windows XP as it does not really gives me so much problem.