What exacltly does the vista DRM do?

[Rudyard]

Could I have some urgent help from those in the vista know?

My sister is not very computer literate and is moving interstate, buying a laptop and wants me to help.

I found a decent machine but It only comes with vista and there is one big issue I need sorted: DRM (digital rights management).

I have read it is a big part of vista and what I would like to know is exactly what CANT i do on a vista machine that i can on XP.

Can you play downloaded mp3s/avis?? Can you play copied DVD's? Can you copy dvd/cds??

Or does the DRM stop all this.

Does anyone know the answers, she leaves in a week and we need to buy one quick.

[TBoneit]

Then why buy this Vista'd machine. I'm sure there are plenty of laptops out there new that have XP. I'd bet for example if you ordered from Dell that you could spec it with XP or Vista. If they only sold Vista they would lose a lot of business customers.

We sold many computers to businesses with older OS's on them due to the business using software that wouldn't go on newer OS's. IOWs they had expensive equipment or software or both that they didn't want to pay big bucks to upgrade.

Ever look at a Dell for Example, they often have stickers on the front that say something along the lines of designed for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I've seen similar with other brands too.

We just restocked XP Pro as well as Home and Vista since many customers want XP on teh computers we custom build.

I just finished a server 2003 SB, TOmmorow I'll be cleaning off a P3 1Ghz Thinkpad and reinstalling Xp on it (License on the Bottom) When I'm on the IBM site they'll have drivers for 2000 and ME and probably 98 for that model as it was available with a choice of OS's.

OTOH if you go into a big name brand store they'll probably push a Vista based computer.

Myself I'd be looking for a computer with XP Pro or media center edition that also has the Vista upgrade available. Get the recovery media for Xp and pay the extra for the Vista UG for future needs. That is just me trying to cover all the bases of course.

I say recovery media or in the case of Sony make the recovery media. That avoids having to deal with activation if you do much reformats of the computer.

[Rudyard]

Why buy a vistad machine? Well if the DRM doesnt screw up the regular use of common things like mentioned in my first post, by all reports it is asthetically easy to use and may be of benefit to her. I have heard good reports of the OS itself im just curious as to how bad this DRM actually is, I dont really understand how it would effect the everyday user in regards to the things in the OP.

But yes it is in a brand name store and they are pushing vista as you suspected.

[Cobra]

http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/2006/12/31/windows_vista_drm_nonsense

This should help answer your questions.

[jman98]

As someone who works in IT for a living, although thankfully my job is with Unix servers, I would say that I think there is some truth to the article Cobra cited and a lot of the "dangers" of Vista are worst case scenarios that may not ever play out. Now having said that, I want to point out that I have yet to hear a convincing need for Vista. I honestly don't know why XP can't satisfy anyone's needs. I have no plans, nor does my company, to ever upgrade to Vista because I just don't feel comfortable at all with it and the idea that Microsoft might one day enforce the DRM stuff built into it to make my user experience unpleasant.

To summarize - My advice would be for your sister to get XP because she doesn't need Vista and if she gets Vista, she runs the risk that at some point in the future it might start to enforce DRM to the point that she can't do anything she wants with her laptop.

[jagabo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6319845.stm

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, a security 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.

If you read the EULA you'll see that Microsoft pretty much has the right to do anything they want with your computer once you've installed Vista.

[ahhaa]

Soopafresh posted this 'mustread' a couple days ago:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=320904

[Abbadon]

You can find some answers to your questions here:

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/20/windows-vista-conten...d-answers.aspx

with makeup of course. Basically speaking, DRM is a suit that will sit in your computer and will decide what you can do with movies and music. Additionally, DRM will consume the resources of your machine.

[Abbadon]

Sorry, it is me again, more reading material for you here:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

[Soopafresh]

I'm convinced Microsoft intentionally waited until Jan 2007 for the Vista release in order for some law passed in 2006 to take effect. The claim of "We wanted to make sure the OS was stable, so we waited 4 weeks" doesn't fit their business model at all. That line comes from their PR firm. The delay was a huge hit to the hardware manufacturers around the world who were hoping for a very profitable X-mas 2006 season. They are protecting themselves from some potential lawsuit, I'm sure of it. DRM is bad news.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'm convinced Microsoft intentionally waited until Jan 2007 for the Vista release in order for some law passed in 2006 to take effect.

That doesn't make sense - Vista was released in November 2006....

...only the *retail* release was delayed.

[Soopafresh]

It does from the perspective of class action lawsuits. And don't get me wrong, Johnny. I hope I'm 100% wrong. Look at what they do vs what they say. They aren't going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide sales because they're nice guys.

[JohnnyMalaria]

What laws are you refering to, then?

Also, why would they delay releasing it in other countries that don't have class action lawsuits?

[jagabo]

I have the last release candidate installed on one computer. I was able to install DVD Decryptor and rip a commerical DVD. I was able to open the VOB files with VirtualDubMPEG2. WMP plays MP3 files, Divx/Xvid AVI files (after installing the Xvid codec), etc.

[Soopafresh]

Dunno, Johnny. I don't know enough about law to even know what I'd be looking for. And if you look at the way Microsoft was sued by the EU for keeping competitors from seeing portions of their source code is a precedent they didn't want to repeat. From the Vista standpoint, I think forcing consumers to upgrade their hardware to support a copy protection mechanism that benefits the movie studios, else suffer from slow performance and reduced functionality is enough of an argument to tie them up for years of class action lawsuits.

[Abbadon]

I have the last release candidate installed on one computer. I was able to install DVD Decryptor and rip a commerical DVD. I was able to open the VOB files with VirtualDubMPEG2. WMP plays MP3 files, Divx/Xvid AVI files (after installing the Xvid codec), etc.

The point is, that the DRM eats CPU cycles, does making your machine less powerful. I am not qualified to talk about this actually, so you may read the links above for a better understanding.

[JohnnyMalaria]

But would a class action require that the users had, in some way, suffered real damage as a consequence of Microsoft's negligence or hiding important information?

The whole DRM thing with Vista has received so much attention, I'd think it would be a case of 'caveat emptor'.

No-one is being forced to upgrade hardware. No-one is being forced to drop XP tomorrow and get Vista.

When Windows 95 came out, my video capture hardware didn't work. There were only 16-bit drivers for it and the vendor didn't make them work with Windows 95. What did I do? Phoned Microsoft, explained the situation and I got a full refund. About a year later, I eventually did get Windows 95 along with better video capture hardware. But guess what, Windows 2000 came along. The hardware wasn't supported. It was supported on NT4. So, I have a rather expensive (at the time) and very high quality video capture card (Fast AV Master) that I cannot use unless I install NT4 or Win9x! Moreover, many modern motherboards can't accommodate it.

I have a soundcard that I really would like to use but I can't. I bought it in 2000. It worked fine on Windows 2000. The drivers for XP, though, are buggy and unreliable. The vendor won't update them.

The technology of hardware and software evolve. There'll always be something that becomes obsolete due to incompatibilities.

[jagabo]

I have the last release candidate installed on one computer. I was able to install DVD Decryptor and rip a commerical DVD. I was able to open the VOB files with VirtualDubMPEG2. WMP plays MP3 files, Divx/Xvid AVI files (after installing the Xvid codec), etc.

The point is, that the DRM eats CPU cycles, does making your machine less powerful. I am not qualified to talk about this actually, so you may read the links above for a better understanding.

I was answering some of the OP's questions.

Can you play downloaded mp3s/avis?? Can you play copied DVD's? Can you copy dvd/cds??

[ahhaa]

another factor is that vista is even more net-addicted than XP; the operating assumption is that you have an always-on hispeed connection.