Help me configure a hi-end system to NOT run Vista. - Page 2

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@Kagrenak

I don't think it will be too long until the drivers firm up as well as the other flaws. Keep in mind that they already have an SP1 in the works for Vista. That was fast!!!

@accord99

Fantastic! So instead of providing worse audio and video, the sound is actually better! So the bottom line is: What was Guttman smoking? No wonder he titles himself a Professional Paranoid on his own home page!

@Synergy6

In the Buchwald case, the court agreed that he had been ripped off and made the studio pay up. Hollywood accounting or not, it's pretty hard to defend a $350 mil take in 1990 bucks on a movie that probably cost only $15 mil to make. But that's Hollywood for ya. The same place where the lead singer from Creedence Clearwater Reunion, John Fogerty, was prevented for years from singing solo since "he sounded like himself..." 8O

@HERSHEY, PCAnalyst, STRKR

OK, let's clarify this. Mr. X's Vista is playing mp3 Y. Now Microsoft checks that Y is kosher against a list published by Y's record company and if it's a heretic, Microsoft disables X's entire player?

And people are actually paying for this OS?

@Sailer

I never underestimate the power of the hacker, thus I'm sure that there are guys in their parents' basement sipping Jolt Cola and trying that right now. It seems that it will be the same problem as trying to incorporate ReadyDrive and ReadyBoost (the only Vista features I actually want) into XP. These features are built into the OS so profoundly that you'd pretty well have to rewrite XP from the ground up.

@PCAnalyst

I've resisted Linux possibly more than any other living being. But even I have to admit that it's getting to be like the ugly girl at the end of the bar. As closing time nears and the beers start to add up, she's looking more and more sexy by the minute. 8)

@Datman, DaSickNinja

Bretheren, I have seen the light of revelation. No more shall CaptRobertApril post lascivious images to titillate young men and lead them down the road to perdition to the gates of Hell itself.

No.

CaptRobertApril will keep those images to himself! I'm already going to Hell anyway, so I have nuthin' to lose!

Toronto Star Vista Article

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.

Once operational, the agreement warns that Windows Defender will, by default, automatically remove software rated "high" or "severe," even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.

For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who is in control by providing that "this agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights." For those users frustrated by the software's limitations, Microsoft cautions that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

An OS that "decides" to delete any of your software at any time without even asking please? And makes you reactivate it if you put in another RAM stick or swap out DVD units?

And I'm supposed to pay $399 for... what, exactly?

Lining up for Linux...

That part really caught my attention. I don't use FlashPlayer very often, but I had it installed, or so I thought. A few weeks ago someone sent me a e-card that required it and I was informed that I needed to download FlashPlayer. I found that strange, but possibly there had been an update and I just needed the update. I went to the site and downloaded the Flashplayer, successfully according to the site. But when I tried to use it, nothing happened.

I went back to Adobe and read about the various possible problems and cures, then used an uninstaller to get rid of all previous copies and downloaded the most recent version again. This required a few restarts of the machine to make sure it worked. But when I tried to use it, I got a message that I needed to download FlashPlayer. Huh? Went through the process again. Adobe said that I had successfully downloaded Flash Player. Tried to use it. Nothing. I then tried a search and it said there was no FlashPlayer present.

Now I wonder, since I have Windows Defender installed, is it deleting the FlashPlayer? I'm goig to uninstall Defender and try the process again. If FlashPlayer works properly after that, I know I won't be using Windows Defender ever again.

I just went through the process of gettig rid of Windows Defender, reinstalling Flash Player, and guess what? Flash Player works again, at least for the moment. Don't know about any other programs or problems yet, but I now know something I don't want.

Thanks Capt for a good laugh...

I am sure your topic reviews will be highlites for my days to come.

Capt April,
I read somewhere that MS had amended their EULA so that a full retail version of Vista could be installed in a new computer an unlimited number of times.The original EULA stated that it could be transfed only once.A MS spokesperson stated back in OCT or NOV of 2006 that "one time only" clause was something that MS was not going to back down on.I think enough complaints were heard that MS did in fact back down.I know we are a Minority in the computer world, but that doesn`t mean we are without a voice.I like your idea of THG doing a piece or ongoing work to get the word out before everyone buys the software.Apparently they do listen.

PCAnalyst,
I`m still trying to remember where I read that article.I think it might have been a link from some web site I was visiting.Maybe PCMagazine.com I`ll try to find it.

Ah... entertaining to read another Vista thread. I know Capt intended to ask some meaningful questions and get suggestions, but once you utter "Vista" here, you're in for some ranting. I'm pleased to see that people are taking a serious second look at the shackles that Vista appears to be.

I have two disparate hopes for Vista. One: it will turn out okay, and all the license agreement crap is just MS keeping their options open. Maybe Vista will turn out to be as good as XP someday, only modernised.

Two: VIsta will reveal itself to be a POS, and it will do this quickly. Ultimately, there is no feasible way that Vista will not dominate the PC market, but I think Mac and Linux will see a big boost because of Vista.

As for Linux, this is where my hopes lie. Linux has kept up with hardware advancements much better than Windows, at least with regard to CPUs. The big downside of Linux has always been software compatibility, and some Linux detractors say that people have been saying Linux has been "around the corner" for the mass market for the past 15 years. However, there is a major difference these days: OpenOffice. Entire municipalities' governments (Munich, Chicago) are switching over to Linux, because there's no need to buy $500+ worth of software for thousands of workstations for people to write letters. Heavy-duty engineering software is often released for Linux too. Add to this the fact that the latest distros are actually as simple or simpler to install than WinXP.

Capt, it's too bad that the software you want to use isn't available for Linux (or am I assuming this?). It would be the obvious choice.

@ HERSHEY

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/423/1

This seems to be an authoritative review of the EULA and I don't see any reference to multiple installations. I did read that early release versions of Vista (and only certain flavors) would allow the installation on up to three PCs but they would have to be on a home network. And, unfortunately, I think that the only thing that Microsoft listens to is the ring of the cash register.

@ Niz

Believe me, I'm leaning to Linux now like never before! Definitely would have to leave XP 64 on a switchboot though.

@ HotFoot

If you read that SecurityFocus article on EULA you'll likely never pass another Vista box at Fry's without kicking it. I can't see Microsoft keeping their options open with EULA. They "think" that they're losing billions of dollars through "unauthorized" uses of their OSes (as Jack Nicholson asks the very Bill Gates-ian billionaire villain in Chinatown "how many yachts can you waterski behind?" ) thus they are clamping down. All they're doing is costing themselves sales and pushing people to alternatives. I know for certain that they lost a sale to me after buying every Win OS since 3.1, and I'm definitely not alone.

Here's the rundown on my software use: My job requires me to install, play with, then delete a whole bunch of apps on an ongoing basis. Most of these apps are proprietary and 99.999% of them are XP (and are likely to stay that way for years). If it was up to me, I'd just trade in my own software for Linux versions and say byebyeBILL and send him to the GATES of hell but unfortunately that's not an option. I'm already using OpenOffice since one look at the Office 2007 Ribbon provokes projectile vomit. The only other really major software I use is the whole Adobe CS, and that presents a problem through VMWare and WINE. Can't afford to be playing with a 2GB Photoshop file ten minutes to deadline and run into some weird OS incompatibility error. And no, switching to GIMP for my work would be like trying to paint the Mona Lisa with a straw broom.

So as you can see, it looks like I won't be able to exorcise the evil Microsoft (and yes, that does refer to Bill's d**k) from my system anytime soon!

@ PCAnalyst

My original concept was to go this summer with 2xClovertown, 1 Raptor 150GB, 4x750GB 7200.10s in RAID5 and 16GB RAM. By cutting every corner imaginable, I brought that system down to just below $10K. However, the precipitous price drops that are accompanying Penryn's Q3 launch might throw that for a loop. The absolute minimum I need is 8GB RAM but I sure as hell would love to have the option to throw in another 8GB at some point in the future (preferably without dumping the original sticks). Therefore, I'm looking at the possibility that I might even be able to put this system together on 2 PC quad CPUs (AMD/Intel, don't care), skip the FBDIMMs and come in around $5K. I wanted DX10 just for the halibut, but since I do no gaming at all and it seems to be a Vista exclusive for the foreseeable future, I can live with a top end DX9 card. Everything else in the system is middle of the road. Nothing too exotic. Just basic, workmanlike components. And yes, no prob on the links and just the names are fine, as anything I end up buying I end up spending a few centuries comparison-shopping on. Thanks!

Yeah, I'm kinda nuts that way too. I'll spend two days doing nothing but finding a place that has a CPU cooler for $2 cheaper. But I think I'm a professional kvetcher, so I don't think that's work. I think it's fun!

As for the anticipation thing, I think you've been spending too much time around chicks. All they talk about is "stretching out the anticipation of" youknowwhat. Not me. I want my thing, I want it fast, I want it good, and then I wanna roll over and go to sleep.

I run both XP Media Center 2005 and XP Professional x64 and I can tell you from experience it runs noticably faster. The problems lie in bad driver support, and the only games that currently support 64-bit natively are Far Cry, Half-Life2, Half-Life2: Lost Coast, and UT2004(Sound did not work with my Creative X-Fi however). Far Cry would be the best title for 64-bit as it does gain some performance, but everything else performs the same and as I've said, driver and software support is very limited. I'd say wait until Vista for 64-bit as Windows XP is not a good 64-bit platform.

Any idea if 64bit DX9 games (like Farcry) will work with 64bit Vista, natively? Possible to get all this now. Or is Vista just too different?

Crytek Forum

It might be possible to have Far Cry 64-bit running on Vista, but it is not officially supported by us. Thus it is hard to say how much work it would be to have it running properly.

- Alexander Marschal, Crytek Community Manager

Like somewhere outside of the padded cell with your arms free for the first time since 1985?

Actually, I am a sh!t disturber anyway (it's genetic, I can't help it), but I really am looking for assistance. All of my searching up until a few days ago was centered around Vista, and now that the OS is up in the air, I really want to make sure that when it comes time to plunk down close to ten grand, I get the best configuration possible.

I'm trying desperately to avoid going back into the Mac camp. I was a Mac Evangelist for about a dozen years. My word of mouth must have sold hundreds of Macs. But when they steadfastly refused to make their hardware even remotely price-compatible with the competition I switched and never looked back. This was in the bad old days when Mr. Pepsi Sculley was driving the company into the ground with his insistence that a Mac should cost more than a sportscar.

So I took a deep breath, went onto the Apple Store and configured this system:

* Two 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
* 8GB (8 x 1GB)
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
* One 16x SuperDrive
* Apple USB Modem
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English

$8,291.00

That is one whack of a chunk of change. First of all, they're selling the 750GBs that aren't even 7200.10s for GASP $599. The two 3GHz Xeons carry a $1098 cost increase over the 2GHzs, and even the X1900XT comes in at $249 OVER the price of a 7300GT. Now I know that I can go shopping around and slice a grand off this price, but it still is a bit too rich for what you're getting. I can configure a virtually identical non-Mac system for thousands less. Ya ya, I know, OSX Leopard, blah blah blah. I admit fully that it's supposed to be years ahead of Vista, although it has its DRM issues too.

So... now wot?

Turn off your microphone. I think talking to your pc is a dumb idea anyways.

Hey, what about when Scotty held up the mouse and said "Hello Computer!"

Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but the audio feed from a website doesn't need to go through the speakers, into the air and back into your mike for the voice recognition system to process it. It can take it right off the site.

Another reason why the day I put Vista on my HD will be the day that Jessica Alba knocks on my door wearing a dominatrix outfit and holding a bucket of Viagra. 8)

Hey, Mr. Fud resembles that remark! I wanna be a smart ass!!! 8)