Reply #47: That all sounds driver-related.

[jobycom]

First, I've watched Netflix streaming movies on Vista, so the issue isn't consistently a problem. That's a glitch which can be fixed, just like all the driver/compatibility problems with XP/ME/98, on down the line. As for the monitor, that sounds like a driver. DRM protection shouldn't affect a monitor unless code-protected media is being watched, anyway. Maybe the driver is interacting with the DRM restrictions somehow, but again, that's a glitch, and not likely to happen with a laptop.

The over-hype to me are the critics claiming that Vista will require all monitors to be replaced, that only DRM protected media will be viewable, that DRM safeguards will slow down all programs, etc. One critic called Vista "The longest suicide note in history," as if the problems were so extreme they would bring Microsoft down. In favor of Mac or Linux, I guess. :shrug:

But yeah, it's got bugs, and some may be DRM related, although that's not what the DRM stuff is supposed to do. When it's working, those aren't issues. For my basic use, I haven't had any issues yet.

I agree about the bigger picture. Wasn't trying to undersell it, I just was tired of typing by then. :) One reason it might not get as bad as all that, though, is because of what happened to Apple. Apple was so proprietary that people stopped using it. Microsoft and different And there is a big market for build-your-own stuff, and they won't want to kill that market entirely. Microsoft has an issue with home-builts because home-builders tend to use duplicate copies of Windows, or hard drives with the OS already installed, or a copy they bought for a since-caput computer (I've done all three). That means Microsoft isn't selling a new license for those home-builts, whereas they are for the computer off the shelf. So they probably want to make that market smaller, or more likely, they want to require some form of license on all periphrals and components, thus giving them a bigger cut of the market. But I don't think they want to go to where Mac is, with everything coming out of one box, and choices being so limited that most people decide they don't need a Mac.

There's a lot involving politics, too. Republicans like mega-corporations like Microsoft, so they don't enforce regulations, and their tax structures favor mega-corps. Dems favor smaller businesses, so they regulate and they structure taxes towards helping startup and smaller businesses. We saw this in the 90s, where the big business mindset of Reagan gave way to the diverse economy mindset of Clinton. You saw the emergence of more computer companies, more components made independently, more software options emerge. You saw bigger corporations spin off less productive departments, which were run more efficiently as an independent company.

I think the market, like politics, tends to be centrist, and the more proprietary Microsoft gets, the more consumers will look for other options--maybe including trust and monopoly lawsuits. On the other side, when computers get to component-oriented so that consumers have to buy everything separately and piece them together, consumers get upset, too.

Anyway, that's not enough of reason for an individual to buy or reject Vista. :) Just something to worry about for the future.