Windows 7...

[volca]

I didn't say I hate windows (although I'm not a huge fan - got used to bash too much) I just said I won't (quite probably) make the investment in new windows 7, because I don't like the "specifications" as warmi calls it. Whether or not we say it's crippling is irrelevant - it is an unwanted feature, not a lack of a one, in my eyes (placed there with consicious intent).

Okay, I'm getting slightly offtopic here. Anyway:
I understand that the actual source of these enforcements/limitations/whatever we call them is the recording industry. What I don't understand is the power people gave them voluntarily over the years - there is none, or next to none, consumer protection in the area of copyright works. It started with the extensions to the copyright length, and successfully continues with DRM, "Copyright Levy"s, etc. My point is that I think the copyright system went really out of hands and is in terrible needs of balancing. This is the reason of my reaction to the "feature" of bluray playback. It may stop me and a few others in buying such product, yet the industry still forces it's decisions to the market thanks to the lack of interest of most of the consumers.

[KungFooMasta]

Its not totally bad. If we didn't have DRM we might not have netflix on demand type stuff. Otherwise people would download a movie and be able to watch it as many times as they wanted, practically the same as owning a movie but for the price of a rental.

[volca]

Yeah, the world doesn't end because of it, true.

I still hope the next generation won't eat the industry's "IP == Physical Property" equivalence as easily as this one does.

[mkultra333]

Well, I think it sucks, being controlled that much as to what I do with the product. You can argue they have a right to limit me, given by the law. Fine. I have a write to bypass the annoyance, given by the laws of physics and some friendly hackers.

I like to take movies and edit them down to just the FX scenes, and then watch them all randomized and all mixed up with other movies. They tell me I'm not allowed. Lucky for me, I'm gleefully evil and disobey.

Sure, they have the legal right to act with as much insane control-freakery as they desire. But beyond a certain point, when the pain of the product starts outweighing the pleasure, I just say screw them, and take what I want. And since they already have millions upon millions of dollars, I sleep fine.

[justinandrews]

Windows 7 is generally very good, except for its Audio support. Do NOT get me started on its audio support...

[calsmurf2904]

Windows 7 is generally very good, except for its Audio support. Do NOT get me started on its audio support...

Here it automatically installed all my audo drivers, not problems at all.
Beside that, I don't find any problems with Windows 7. Its like they are making up for the vista screw-up.

[justinandrews]

Oh its not the drivers that's the problem, the drivers are fine...

Its XAudio2 that I'm not to keen on.

[MrD]

I liked when the installer (since it already knew I had a wireless card in my laptop) asked me which network I wanted to connect to so it could check for updates. I thought that was a nice touch compared to only being able to set-up wireless once Windows was fully installed.

One thing I have noticed from it is that when it blue-screens, it blue-screens hard. I was just typing something into twitter and my laptop blue-screened, when it came back up I thought nothing much of it and a couple of days later found that some of my SVN meta-data had become corrupted (which SVN didn't like too much; got itself in a "Could not complete operation, please run clean", "Clean could not complete, please run clean" cycle). I have never had a blue-screen corrupt files on my PC... well, ever.

[volca]

I agree with you the blame should be put on content providers more than anyone else. But - all these things are tiny nails into the coffin of my "willing to pay" attitude - it may be interesting to take the thing apart, still the product is tainted with features/practices I don't like - and as a potential customer it just does the difference, no matter what the real cause of this is.

A slight offtopic: This is the same I'm starting to be a little out of tune about game distribution. We can talk about piracy being a problem, but I think paying customer is the one taking the beating. Pirated versions of the games get the unwanted "features" cut off (meaning internet activation, limited amount of installations per game, CD/DVD in drive although the whole game is on HDD, etc...). I know the right thing to do is just to ignore the product or find a replacement. But there is a catch - usually this type of thing (a game) is a kind of temporary monopoly. It is usually not replaceable by other. If it were, there would be much less crap loaded on the discs as it could discourage the customer.

Well enough of that - I saw windows 7 and besides the thing mentioned, I found it nice, especially performance-wise.

Edit: Oops - what post did I react to? Can't find it anywhere now

[MrD]

Pirated versions of the games get the unwanted "features" cut off (meaning internet activation, limited amount of installations per game, CD/DVD in drive although the whole game is on HDD, etc...).

Personally I like it when games put anti-piracy features into the game-play itself; things like letting you play through the game to almost completion before finding out that there is something you need missing from the level so you can't finish the game. I think that's much more satisfying, in a sadistic, vindictive sort of way

Certainly better than the crappy DRM we get with games nowadays.

[Klaim]

Personally I like it when games put anti-piracy features into the game-play itself; things like letting you play through the game to almost completion before finding out that there is something you need missing from the level so you can't finish the game. I think that's much more satisfying, in a sadistic, vindictive sort of way

Yes and it forces the hacker to play the game until the end to be sure it's really fine. If he does, then there are chances that he might enjoy the game and make some positive noise about it.

[volca]

Agreed! Too bad it is often just an addition to the DRM crap that put there anyway...