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Thread: How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In

  1. #1
    Super Moderator Super Moderator Big Booger's Avatar
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    How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In

    What if you could rig it so that competing with your flagship product was against the law? Under 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, breaking an anti-copying system is illegal, even if you're breaking it for a legal reason. For example, it's against the law to compete head-on with the iPod by making a device that plays Apple's proprietary music, or by making an iPod add-on that plays your own proprietary music. Nice deal for Apple.

    Microsoft gets the same deal, courtesy of something called...
    Read on:
    http://www.informationweek.com/story...SSfeed_IWK_All

    After reading this I get the feeling that I want to switch completely to openoffice.. or some other application.

    I am getting sick of the DRM, the activation schemes, the proprietary formats, and all this crap. It's getting to the point where it becomes more of a burden to start using the product than it is to create the content or view the content, or use the software itself.

    I don't like this Trusted Computing garbage not one iota.

    But now that the format is well understood, Microsoft needs another way to ensure that it only hands keys out to readers that can be trusted to follow the rules that accompany them. Pages or OpenOffice.org can request a set of document keys just as readily as Office can. Microsoft can try to create secret handshakes to make sure it only gives out the keys to authorized parties, but just as the document format can be cracked, so can the handshaking.
    Goodbye $600 office, hello openoffice or even WordPerfect. We don't need no stinkin' trusted computing crap.

    Maybe I won't "upgrade" to Vista. When will users draw the line? When will Microsoft go too far and drive users off due to clamping down on their precious product? I am quite curious about this.

  2. #2
    Security Intelligence TZ Veteran cash_site's Avatar
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    i've switched my dad's business to OpenOffice, they are slowly getting used to the different names and features, but it serves their purpose. and with $600 saving per computer he was more than happy.

    Only downside is the upgrades every few months, (in terms of time to install them - i live 2 hours away)... but positive side, is more stable, features in new release.

    --- 0wN3D by 3gG ---

  3. #3
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    I'm sure most users don't care if they can suft the net and write a document - if Vista doesn't stop them doing that they won't switch to something else.

  4. #4
    Old and Cranky Super Moderator rik's Avatar
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    Another thread on this is here.

  5. #5
    Security Intelligence TZ Veteran cash_site's Avatar
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    thanks for the links Rik, very interesting reading.

    @doohg, true most users dont care, i dont care how the microwave warms my food, i just want to eat hot food. But, it takes a knowledgeable person (friends) to inform us how to improve computing and identify cheaper alternatives.

    --- 0wN3D by 3gG ---

  6. #6
    Old and Cranky Super Moderator rik's Avatar
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    You might like this website. It seems to be a concerned group of users against all the afore mentioned evils...

    http://badvista.fsf.org/

  7. #7
    Security Intelligence TZ Veteran cash_site's Avatar
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    good website.. but just a bit fanatical

    I'll be happy with small steps. Open Office first, then maybe linux

    --- 0wN3D by 3gG ---

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