Vista Price Cut

Even though I own two copies of Microsoft Vista, non is running on any of my computers, six of them, desktops and notebooks. Reasons have been from lack of performance gain to incompatibility with Vista certified computers like the one I am writing this article. Another reason was memory requirements. Although considered to be pretty new computers, only three computers that I have support more than 4GB of memory. Anyway if I give any reasons here now for not using Vista, it will be incomplete. But I am not alone in not going in Vista way. From the article about Microsoft cutting Vista price.
I think people want more than eye candy.
For those in the U.S., Microsoft is cutting prices only on the higher-end versions of Vista, and only for the upgrade version used to move from XP or another copy of Vista. The suggested price for Vista Ultimate drops to $219 from $299, while Home Premium falls to $129, from $159.

In an interview, newly minted Windows consumer marketing vice president Brad Brooks said that Microsoft had been testing lower prices over the past few months and was surprised to find that the amount of revenue lost was more than made up for by an increase in the number of PC buyers willing to shell out for an upgrade.

Brooks said that Microsoft had done a lot of research prior to Vista's launch, but noted that both Home Premium and Ultimate were new products for the company. "We probably got the pricing mix wrong," he said. "You don't always get it right, but you make the adjustment."

Source of Vista price cut News
tag: Vista price cut, M$, Vista,

After eating up your pocket and other hardware, Vista eats laptop batteries, now!

Could not resist to post this info as M$ is battling manufacturers users and bloggers on the power consumption of Vista.
My note book has a short battery life too, not because of vista but, AMD X2, 17" screen, dual 160GB drive in raid and 2GB memory, churning out stuff all the time. It used to run for about 2 hours! and now only one hour. Hmm. I only tested Vista before it was released! well got to update my Ubuntu 7.04 now.
May M$ is trying to stop users from spending time at Google! It does not matter any other way, people do not spend time at M$ LIVE sites.!

I am too tired to write, read all about Vista and battery life here at ZDNET

Tags: Ubuntu, Vista, laptop, battery life

To Vista or not to Vista,

According to Tim Webber;
"You will probably enjoy Vista, but there's little reason to do it the hard way."
Tim has gone through the upgrade to Vista and reversed back to XP due to lack of support for drivers, from manufactures to M$.
The article is a nice read, closer to $1000 (including Vista Price) and still no Vista. But I read in the local sales flyers That one could get a PC with Vista home version installed.
I have been beta testing Vista (On My Notebook This a a Vista upgradable from HP and yet ran into driver and network problems) and I have Vista business to be installed in one of my PC.
I loved this M$ assumption;
"A top Microsoft executive, who does not want to be quoted by name, tells me that "the refresh rate on [mobile] devices is typically 18 months, from our research - hence the view that most Pocket PC 2002 devices would no longer be in use.

"Our view (which may be incorrect) is that those people using the latest Desktop [operating system] would potentially also be using later devices as well." "
Follow the link to read before you leap in to a Vista Upgrade.

Tags: M$, Vista, Vista upgrade

Vista rises India's economy, just on activation calls

From the past experiences, with XP keys and activations, all the calls ended up in India. Nice Indian people trying to sound and act like Non-Indians, names when asked, given were, Smith, Andrew etc.
If the Slashdot article is true, there will be many calls and they might end up in India, helping Indian Economy! Hail M$
I could not think of writing this any better way, Here it is straight from /.
""The Inquirer has a story about a brute force Vista key activation crack. It's nothing fancy; it's described as a 'glorified guesser'. The danger of this approach is that sooner or later the key cracker will begin activating legitimate keys purchased by other consumers. From the article: 'The code is floating, the method is known, and there is nothing MS can do at this point other than suck it down and prepare for the problems this causes. To make matters worse, Microsoft will have to decide if it is worth it to allow people to take back legit keys that have been hijacked, or tell customers to go away, we have your money already, read your license agreement and get bent, we owe you nothing.'""
I also followed the links but seems that link Inquirer gives takes you to a ad filled site.
But you can read the Slashdot article get enough information.

Links;
Shashdot " Vista Activation Cracked by Brute Force "

Tags: M$, Microsoft, Vista, slashdot, vista crack, vista hack

Vista and Linux (Mephis) desktops compared

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. DesktopLinux.com columnist has pitted Vista against Linux's fair haired boy Ubuntu (actually Mephis which is 99% Ubuntu) to see how the pinnacle of commercial desktop operating systems stacks up against the free, community-developed Linux upstart.

The aretocle itself is multipart and Steven has completed three parts sofar. I have tracked the publishing since January 24, when he publised the first part.

So far there seems to be no reason for anyone to goto Vista. If you don't like Linux at the moment, stick with your Windows XP. Other than all the bells and wistles, Vista is almost a DRM laden XP.
The Following clipped from the article should give you a little insight.
"With both systems completely idle except for their memory map programs and the screenshot program, MEPIS has a memory footprint of less than 100MB, while Vista is pounding down its foot with over half-a-gigabyte of RAM."

Another insight "My test system's high-end S/PDIF audio port lacks built-in DRM. Without that functionality, Vista won't play music through the PC's speakers with Windows Media Player 11. MEPIS, on the other hand, has no trouble playing online music. In this case, I'm using Streamtuner."

From another article points out that Vista being Longest suicide note! Because instead of concentrating on OS vista tries to be watch dog for RIAA and MPAA. Once people realize those points may be they will change to Linux or go back to XP ;).
why?
"Say you've just bought Pink Floyd's “The Dark Side of the Moon”, released as a Super Audio CD (SACD) in its 30th anniversary edition in 2003, and you want to play it under Vista. Since the S/PDIF link to your amplifier/speakers is regarded as insecure for playing the SA content, Vista disables it, and you end up hearing a performance by Marcel Marceau instead of Pink Floyd."

Both the articles are invaluble if your computer is not a MAC.

Links;
Steven's Vista vs Linux article
Longest Suicide note

Did you patch your Vista on Patch Tuesday?

If you were thinking that you new shining Vista is patch free, M$ says Yes it is patch free in this sense;
""The underlying component [of Windows Defender] does ship with Vista," acknowledged Mark Griesi, security program manager for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC). "That's the correlation people are drawing. The vulnerability is in the malware engine, which is part of Defender, which is part of Vista. So, yes, you can say that Vista [itself] is vulnerable."

"But is it a direct vulnerability in Vista? I wouldn't characterize it like that," he added. ""
M$, just say it is a patch for Vista. Get over it.

Well beat me. If you have your auto updates turned off, like I did, go turn them on and do the update. And if you want to read more about this follow the link.

Links;
Computerworld Was that a Vista fix released on Tuesday.

Tags: M$, Vista, Vista Patch