[FDE] Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You

[Allen]

Well, as they say, vote with your feet. I'm replacing my old HP 
laptop with a Mac which I'm setting up to triple boot Linux, OSX, 
and WinXP. Plus I'm putting on Parallels so I can do virtual 
installs of WinSever2K and 2003.

I'm only doing the XP partition because I do most of my work with 
Windoze centric businesses who are already screaming about the 
cost of Vista. I've got a LiveUSB versions of Ubuntu and DSL that 
I've been showing business people for the last couple of weeks. 
When I tell them that if they want to save a few bucks on 
hardware and the OS upgrade from the Home version, just buy a bit 
more memory and a new HD, then install Linux. ~$200 or less and 
you have at least two more years of life left in the old machine. 
  So far only one person is seriously trying this approach, but 
when I give the figures of the difference in cost, jaws drop.

I've done this for two friends and they love it. If the PS is 
dirty I tell them to blow it out or buy a new one for ~$50.

Best,

Allen





Saqib Ali wrote:
> An interesting and excellent essay by Bruce Schneier:
> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html
> 
>>From the essay:
> "Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want.
> These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure.
> They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause
> technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some
> of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features
> won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you......"
> 
> "Unfortunately, we users are caught in the crossfire. We are not only
> stuck with DRM systems that interfere with our legitimate fair-use
> rights for the content we buy, we're stuck with DRM systems that
> interfere with all of our computer use--even the uses that have
> nothing to do with copyright."
> 
> "I don't see the market righting this wrong, because Microsoft's
> monopoly position gives it much more power than we consumers can hope
> to have...."
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