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PC Makers Offering a Bridge Back To XP
The Telegraph is reporting on efforts by PC manufacturers to give customers buying systems pre-installed with Windows Vista a much-sought way to downgrade to Windows XP. ( A few months back we discussed Microsoft's similar concession for corporate customers.) "It took took five years and $6 billion to develop, but Microsoft's Vista operating system, which was launched early this year, has been shunned by consumers — with computer manufacturers taking the bizarre step of offering downgrades to the old XP version of Windows."
WOW! Old news is so exciting!
just wonder why there are so many anonymous cowards in this world....
Man, forget this "downgrade to XP" crap, let's really go for the gold and demand a downgrade all the way back to the Millennium Edition. Ah, the halcyon days of youth.
With a capital C. MS has firmly taken control of device drivers on Vista. You can't get a driver to install unless it's submitted to MS for DRM compliance.... er, I mean "Quality Assurance"... and get them to sign it. (Actually you can get an unsigned driver to load but the average user isn't going to go through the procedure every time they boot their PC.)
As new hardware comes along they will do their damndest to make sure it's supported on Vista while downplaying and actively discouraging the development of XP drivers for said hardware.
It might start with USB 3.0, which I saw mentioned for the first time last week in the mainstream press. If Vista fully supports new and cool hardware that use the new standard while XP seriously lags behind, that could be the first Big Hammer they bash everyone over the head with in their quest for more Control. With a capital C.
If you guys are "computer using professionals" and don't have a need for anything higher than a P-IV then you are costing yourself / your comapny a lot of money in wasted time. You need to go take some classes on what comuters can actually do these days then you won't believe what you have been missing!
When did hardware manufacturers start making hardware for not just Windows only but for specific versions of Windows? If that is truly what is happening now then it must be the next step above Winmodems to force consumers to purchase a product they don't want and they don't need.
Since day 1. This is the point of non free drivers. Some makers are better than others at "supporting" new and "legacy" Windoze, but you will never get everything you need unless you buy everything new every three years and throw away the old. It's intentional waste and that's what non free software is all about.
Non free software companies aim to keep users helpless and divided. They are helpless because the vendor won't tell them what they need to know to make things work. That keeps them buying non free software. NDAs, EULAs and social and technical measures are used to keep users divided so that they remain helpless. When users cooperate they soon find they no longer need software owners.
It's all very expensive. There are hoards of self supporting lies that have to be told to maintain user helplessness. M$ spends almost a billion dollars a month in advertising, astroturf and other nonsense to tell these lies. You and I pay for it as the cost of M$'s outrageous 35% profit margin are pushed through the economy. We also pay for it in terms of lost efficiency, the intentional use mentioned above and network pollution.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.