Boycott The Windows Vista Release
,----[ Quote ]
| For reference, this is the list of features Microsoft says is added
| in Vista Ultimate
|
| * "Help protect against hardware failure"
| * "Business Networking and Remote Desktop"
| * "Better Protect Your Data"
|
| Hell, I've used the top two features in XP Professional so much I
| don't know what the heck I?d do without them, and better protect my
| data? YES PLEASE!
`----
http://www.nigelj.com/blog/2007/01/windows-vista-release/
Related:
Acer: Vista Home Basic is a lemon
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is effectively smuggling through a price hike for Windows
| Vista - by making the entry-level version so poor that no-one will
| want to use it. So says Jim Wong, senior veep at Acer, the world's
| number four PC maker, who told UK hack Jon Honeyball: "The new
| [Vista] experience you hear of, if you get Basic, you won't feel
| it at all. There's no [Aero] graphics, no Media Center, no
| remote control."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/acer_slams_vista_home_basic/
Vista Home Basic's half-baked bits
,----[ Quote ]
| More suspicious, of course, is that that Home Basic can't run the
| Aero Glass UI, even if the PC is suitably equipped with WDDM-supported
| graphics (this includes some integrated graphics chipsets, such as
| Intel's 945G/GM Express and Core 2 Duo 965 Express) and backed by
| enough RAM.
|
| [...]
|
| Yet three of Home Basic's components -- Backup, Mobility Centre and
| Meeting Space -- are present in an oddly stripped-down form which we
| expect will lead to confusion among people running different versions
| of Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Another quirk of the cut-down Home Basic build is the Mobility Centre,
| which is intended to aggregate all notebook-centric features into a
| single control strip. Home Basic lists its version of the Mobility
| Centre as being 'limited', which doesn't say much.
`----
http://www.apcmag.com/4900/vista_home_basics_half_baked_bits
Microsoft Screws Students With Academic Licensing Package
,----[ Quote ]
| Now, to be honest, I am quite impressed with the options for Office
| 2007. What I'm focusing on, is the fact that Microsoft plan to
| distribute Vista "Home Premium" as Academic software instead of
| Vista "Ultimate" edition. Why is this? It's because even though
| it's an "Upgrade" version, it doesn't facilitate upgrades from the
| previous Academic release!
|
| Conspiracy? I think so!
`----
http://www.nigelj.com/blog/2007/01/microsoft-screws-students-with-academic-licensing-package/
http://tinyurl.com/yxy7jo
Microsoft patent hints at pay-as-you-go OS
,----[ Quote ]
| A Microsoft patent application from June 2005, published only today,
| titled "System and method for delivery of a modular operating system"
| may signal a fundamental change for what an operating systems stands
| for and how it is sold.
`----
http://www.istartedsomething.com.nyud.net:8080/20061215/pay-as-you-go-os-patent/
Vista Starter ready for developing nations
,----[ Quote ]
| According to Wickstrand, the Windows XP Starter Edition was
| marketed primarily to consumers in Southeast Asia, Russia and
| India, with particular focus on families with school-age children
| and those who had purchased their first computer.
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-6153667.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Microsoft is bad for business
,----[ Quote ]
| I recently read an article regarding the copy protection methods of
| Microsoft's next Operating system, Vista. And my jaw literally dropped to
| the floor.
|
| Microsoft is, in essence, a control freak.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft is bad for business because they take this level of
| annoyance to the highest level in Windows Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft, hear what your customers are saying. You're doing a lot of
| things wrong lately. You're making the wrong choices in your business
| decisions. Other available operating systems are staking a claim at
| your dominance of the market. What will you do next?
`----
http://techstuff.goboardz.com/forum_topic.asp?ID=1102
Vista's EULA Product Activation Worries
,----[ Quote ]
| Mark Rasch looks at the license agreement for Windows Vista and how its
| product activation component, which can disable operation of the computer,
| may be like walking on thin ice.
|
| [...]
|
| "Does the Microsoft EULA adequately tell you what will happen if you
| don't activate the product or if you can't establish that it is
| genuine? Well, not exactly. It does tell you that some parts of the
| product won't work - but it also ambiguously says that the product
| itself won't work. Moreover, it allows Microsoft, through fine print
| in a generally unread and non negotiable agreement, to create an
| opportunity for economic extortion."
`----
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/423
TechnoFile: Incomprehensible gobbledygook and you
,----[ Quote ]
| Another fun tidbit: ?The software is licensed, not sold. This
| agreement only gives you some rights to use the software.
| Microsoft reserves all other rights.? So you don?t own your
| operating system, Microsoft is just lending it to you.
|
| [...]
|
| Compare these terms with Ubuntu, the Linux distribution I use:
| "You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
| it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute
| such modifications or work." I'm free to copy and change it as I please,
| and then to give those changes to other people. I sincerely doubt
| Microsoft will be issuing those terms anytime soon.
`----
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=5712
Tough new rules on Vista "OEM"
,----[ Quote
| This marks the death of the popular once-off 'I'll take one hard drive
| and an OEM copy of Windows with that, thanks' flavour of
| OS-sundae.
|
| Microsoft has also tightened up the specific rules around what
| hardware an OEM copy of Windows can be sold with.
|
| Straight from the horse's mouth -- "spokesperson" at Microsoft
| Australia:
|
| "OEM versions of Windows Vista must be distributed to end-user
| with a fully assembled computer system and must be pre-installed."
|
| Dang!
|
| To make the matter even more complex, Microsoft says that even with a
| "transfer to a new PC as many times as you like" retail edition, you will
| only be allowed to transfer your licence for Vista to someone else once.
`----
http://apcmag.com/node/4347
Vista licensing also limits benchmarking
,----[ Quote ]
| License transfers aren't the only thing the End User License Agreement
| (EULA) for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista OS limits. The license
| also puts restrictions on how benchmarks of certain components of
| the OS can be published, another issue that is raising eyebrows as
| Microsoft still has not clarified how changes will specifically
| affect users.
|
| According to the Vista EULA, because the OS contains "one or more
| components" of the .Net Framework 3.0, users can conduct internal
| benchmarking of those components, but can't disclose the results
| of those benchmarks -- or measurements to compare rival products
| -- unless they comply with conditions found at a Microsoft Web
| site.
`----
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2218/061101vistalicense/index.html
Vista EULA stirs up a storm
,----[ Quote ]
| Is Microsoft trying to stop people from copying their icons?
| The same icons that were stolen from the likes of varying
| icon sets under Linux? Are they trying to keep the layout
| or organization of their screens protected as an IP right?
| I think that was done away with in the 90s when Apple sued
| Microsoft over Windows and the judge said basically thats
| ome things just can be copyrighted. Is Microsoft worried
| that the Linux community might try to copy their structure
| and implement it into various distibutions of Linux?
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35184
Vista EULA restricts display to one person
,----[ Quote ]
| Paragraph 3C of the EULA states that while the software
| is running, you can use but not share its icons, images,
| sounds and media.
|
| If Microsoft means to word the EULA this way, that implies
| you can't use projectors or linked video monitors if there's
| more than one human being present.
|
| It also implies that you can't take a screen shot of the
| Vista desktop.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35108
A sneaky change in Windows licensing terms
,----[ Quote ]
| With a retail version of Windows XP, there are no restrictions on the
| number of times you can transfer the software from one computer to another
| in your household or office. That's about to change for the worse in
| Vista, with only one lifetime transfer allowed. It makes the outrageous
| price difference between retail and OEM copies even more difficult
| to justify.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=156
At a glance 2: GPL, CDDL and BSD -vs- EULA
,----[ Quote ]
| (EULA) ...if you spend some time reading it, you will understand that
| besides what the picture below shows, they (publishers) do not take any
| responsibility if something goes wrong while using their products and
| still care to charge us for their product and to ensure that it is the
| best. On top of that you will find some more "amazing" arguments that
| you never even knew and by clicking <accept>, well at least morally,
| agree to oblige)
`----
http://linux.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/at-a-glance-2-gpl-cddl-and-bsd-vs-eula/
--
List of candidate Microsoft astroturfers (directly or indirectly paid by
Microsoft to post in this newsgroup):
Larry Qualig (former Microsoft employee)
Scott Nudds (AKA Vistaking)
Erik Funkenbusch (formerly an anti-OS/2 astroturfer)
flatfish+++ (Gary Stewart)
Damian O'Leary (AKA Hadron Quark)
Nedd Ludd
Tim Smith
amicus_curious
OK
DFS
Lintard
Terry
Ana Thema
Take everything posted by the individuals above with grain of salt. Microsoft
has already been caught paying forum members to spread lies about rivals,
e.g. http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/gizmos/2005/11/2_grassroots_an.html
Suggested filter list: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/
|
|
