RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events The Advent of Microsoft Vista

It took $6 million to turn fictional astronaut Steve Austin into the world's first bionic man, making him, as the voiceover on the 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man gravely intoned, "better, stronger, faster."

It's taken Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his minions five years and $6 billion US -- yes, that's billion with a "b" -- to create Windows Vista.

Going on sale in stores tomorrow, Microsoft promises its latest computer operating system will be better, stronger and faster than Windows XP, the software it will ultimately supplant on the majority of personal computers worldwide.

Early reactions to Vista from consumers, industry analysts and the media have ranged from glowing praise for its beefed up security and host of new features, to sniffing disdain for being what some users feel is a less than revolutionary step beyond Windows XP, and lacking support for a full range of existing software and peripherals.

"I think just convincing people to upgrade to Vista is a challenge in and of itself," said Kevin Restivo, senior analyst with the Toronto-based technology consulting firm SeaBoard Group.

Restivo said the five years that have passed since the launch of Windows XP may have caused some people to forget that computer operating systems don't have indefinite shelf lives.

But he believes that users interested in working with and cataloguing digital media like photos, music and video will find Vista tempting, as will those who might appreciate what Microsoft vows will be beefed-up security, extensive parental controls and fewer system crashes.

"It's just rock-solid compared to previous versions," Restivo said. "While that's all under the covers and users won't instantly appreciate that ... I think it's a noticeable difference."

A copy of Windows Vista will cost PC owners anywhere from $129 to $499, depending on which of the four available versions they buy and whether it's a standalone copy or an "upgrade" version designed to be installed on a computer already running Windows XP.

But the versions of Vista beyond the no-frills Windows Vista Home Basic also come with steeper system demands, requiring a computer with at least 1 GB of memory and a 1 GHz processor to run properly.

Upgrading an existing PC from Windows XP to Windows Vista can be a bit of a gamble as well, as not all software and hardware compatible with the older Windows XP will function properly under Vista.

Trevor Gere, an agent with retailer Best Buy's Geek Squad tech support specialists, said he expects many people to use tomorrow's launch of Windows Vista as a reason to buy a brand new computer with the software already installed and tested.

"The day that Vista launches is the same day that most of the manufacturers are going to be releasing their computers that have Vista pre-loaded on them," Gere said.

"There have been a lot of people who have been anticipating Vista in terms of purchasing a new laptop or desktop, because that way it will be pre-loaded instead of having to do an upgrade."

To encourage people to buy Vista, Best Buy is offering its customers free in-store installation of the software on their existing PCs, as well as a free webcam with copies of Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate.

NOT ALL ARE FANS

But promises of a slicker interface, better search capabilities, improved multimedia support and more robust security aren't enough to draw everyone into the Vista fold. For every pundit extolling Vista's virtues, there's another warning users not get their hopes up, at least until the operating system has been out for a while and undergoes the inevitable updates.

"There's no one compelling feature within Windows Vista that cries out to switch over," writes Robert Vamosi, an editor for the widely read technology website CNet.com, in his review of Vista.

"Perhaps we're spoiled, but after more than five years of development, there's a definite 'Is that all?' feeling about Windows Vista."

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Captain Sammitch said:


I'm not touching it until second or possibly third release. There will have to be numerous inevitable bug fixes, more than previous versions of Windows because they started from the ground up with this one. Plus it promises to be the most memory-intensive version of Windows to date.

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rex said:
If anyone is worried about security, Vista will be safer than XP. If you're a tard who doesn't know how to operate a computer, your computer is going to get infected no matter what OS you're running.

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the G-man said:
So, basically what we've learned here is that rex and sneaky are what marketing calls "early adopters," basically the people who like to pay too much for early versions of tech products that don't have the bugs worked out.

I applaud their bravery, since it means that the rest of us can later obtain cheaper, more functional, versions of these same products at little cost to us and great cost to them.

Bravo, you two.

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sneaky bunny said:
excuse me, do not group me with rex.

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sneaky bunny said:

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the G-man said:
So, basically what we've learned here is that rex and sneaky are what marketing calls "early adopters," basically the people who like to pay too much for early versions of tech products that don't have the bugs worked out.

I applaud their bravery, since it means that the rest of us can later obtain cheaper, more functional, versions of these same products at little cost to us and great cost to them.

Bravo, you two.

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excuse me, do not group me with rex. Where have i said i was getting vista as soon as it hit shelves? no where, all i've simply done is insult you for believing cnet and perkins for posting an article from TO's worst paper alive.

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klinton said:

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sneaky bunny said:

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the G-man said:
So, basically what we've learned here is that rex and sneaky are what marketing calls "early adopters," basically the people who like to pay too much for early versions of tech products that don't have the bugs worked out.

I applaud their bravery, since it means that the rest of us can later obtain cheaper, more functional, versions of these same products at little cost to us and great cost to them.

Bravo, you two.

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excuse me, do not group me with rex. Where have i said i was getting vista as soon as it hit shelves? no where, all i've simply done is insult you for believing cnet and perkins for posting an article from TO's worst paper alive.

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This makes me the uber customer...as anything worth buying goes through all of it's restructuring/debugging long before it's even considered for the Mac.

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Jason E. Perkins said:
That's nice.

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Captain Sammitch said:
And by 'debugging' he means put through Crapple's rigorous process of making software more dumbed-d... I mean user-friendly.

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Captain Sammitch said:
We've discussed Vista. I mainly think it's retarded because it's more like Mac OS.

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Seeing as how you and your high and mighty PC using abilities are unable to follow a link, I'll post the text of the link (and you'll see that it is nothing like Mac Os:

Funny: MS Vista Exploit Allows Myspace Sites to Control Your Computer
by TocqueDeville
Tue Jan 30, 2007 at 11:42:01 PM PST
Actually, this is hilarious. Microsoft has spent the last 5 years trying to secure their operating system and on the first day it goes on the market, someone figures out the easiest security hole ever.

Even Jon Stewart, after asking Bill Gates what the F12 key does on the Daily Show last night, knew enough to ask Gates about the security issue. And according to an NPR broadcast I heard recently, it's a big deal for the company and the stockholders - one guest even speculated that if Vista proves to be no better than XP, MS could take a severe hit.

And now, it turns out, even Jon Stewart may be able to hack Vista.

TocqueDeville's diary
Turns out, because Vista has its new HAL900 like voice command system, anyone with a Myspace page can trigger that command (if it's running) with an audio file set to start when the visitor clicks. This exploit was tested by ZD Net's George Ou.

I recorded a sound file that would engage speech command on Vista, then engaged the start button, and then I asked for the command prompt. When I played back the sound file with the speakers turned up loud, it actually engaged the speech command system and fired up the start menu. I had to try a few more times to get the audio recording quality high enough to get the exact commands I wanted but the shocking thing is that it worked! Anyone that's ever visited MySpace knows how many annoying webpages out there that will start blasting loud MP3 music as soon as they enter the page.
So, while this is not the same as an exploit that will allow a remote hacker to run code, Ou points out that being able to remotely launch commands is still a serious problem.

There are some mitigating factors but there is no doubt this is still a serious exploit. Most people won't have Vista speech commands configured and enabled but if they do, the speech command control console will automatically load with the operating system and park itself on the top of the desktop waiting for audio commands. The other mitigating factor is that if you visit a webpage and it starts barking out slow and loud Vista speech commands, it will be rather obvious to most people that something is very wrong. But it's still possible that a webpage might delay the sound playback and hope that the user is not around to stop the exploit.
So watch out for songs scurrilously titled, "Shut Down" or "Restart" on iTunes.

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I would do that to wbam too if I didn't have plenty of other good reasons not to follow his links.

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wannabuyamonkey said:

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I would do that to wbam too if I didn't have plenty of other good reasons not to follow his links.

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such as?

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This was the last wbam sighting...

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MisterJLA said:

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wannabuyamonkey said:

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I would do that to wbam too if I didn't have plenty of other good reasons not to follow his links.

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such as?

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This was the last wbam sighting...

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klinton said:

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Captain Sammitch said:
We've discussed Vista. I mainly think it's retarded because it's more like Mac OS.

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Seeing as how you and your high and mighty PC using abilities are unable to follow a link, I'll post the text of the link (and you'll see that it is nothing like Mac Os:

Funny: MS Vista Exploit Allows Myspace Sites to Control Your Computer
by TocqueDeville
Tue Jan 30, 2007 at 11:42:01 PM PST
Actually, this is hilarious. Microsoft has spent the last 5 years trying to secure their operating system and on the first day it goes on the market, someone figures out the easiest security hole ever.

Even Jon Stewart, after asking Bill Gates what the F12 key does on the Daily Show last night, knew enough to ask Gates about the security issue. And according to an NPR broadcast I heard recently, it's a big deal for the company and the stockholders - one guest even speculated that if Vista proves to be no better than XP, MS could take a severe hit.

And now, it turns out, even Jon Stewart may be able to hack Vista.

TocqueDeville's diary
Turns out, because Vista has its new HAL900 like voice command system, anyone with a Myspace page can trigger that command (if it's running) with an audio file set to start when the visitor clicks. This exploit was tested by ZD Net's George Ou.

I recorded a sound file that would engage speech command on Vista, then engaged the start button, and then I asked for the command prompt. When I played back the sound file with the speakers turned up loud, it actually engaged the speech command system and fired up the start menu. I had to try a few more times to get the audio recording quality high enough to get the exact commands I wanted but the shocking thing is that it worked! Anyone that's ever visited MySpace knows how many annoying webpages out there that will start blasting loud MP3 music as soon as they enter the page.
So, while this is not the same as an exploit that will allow a remote hacker to run code, Ou points out that being able to remotely launch commands is still a serious problem.

There are some mitigating factors but there is no doubt this is still a serious exploit. Most people won't have Vista speech commands configured and enabled but if they do, the speech command control console will automatically load with the operating system and park itself on the top of the desktop waiting for audio commands. The other mitigating factor is that if you visit a webpage and it starts barking out slow and loud Vista speech commands, it will be rather obvious to most people that something is very wrong. But it's still possible that a webpage might delay the sound playback and hope that the user is not around to stop the exploit.
So watch out for songs scurrilously titled, "Shut Down" or "Restart" on iTunes.

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