10 Reasons You Don't Need Vista Today

Posted 03/15/2007 at 11:59pm | by Will Smith

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7.Vista Includes Consumer-Unfriendly DRM

On the DRM front, we’re pretty much convinced that Microsoft hasn’t actually integrated anything more insidious than Windows Media Player 11 into Vista, at least not for current standard-definition content. (Blu-ray and HD-DVD content are protected in a similar manner as on XP and will require a full HDCP path for high-def playback.) But the fundamental underpinnings to completely lock down the video-rendering pipeline to prevent ripping of next-gen content are present in the OS. That’s not the least of it. Because of content-protection concerns, Vista won’t support CableCard for the vast majority of users. CableCard, in theory, allows users to access high-def content from their cable or satellite providers, without being tied to the device supplied by the TV provider. The thought was that CableCard would let you view HDTV on your PC without resorting to an over-the air signal. Unfortunately, for CableCard’s protected video path to work, your machine must be certified, and only large OEM manufacturers like Dell and HP will be eligible for certification.Pretty awesome, right? The fundamental problem is that for certain key low-level operations, such as video rendering, Vista has been designed to give third parties—the content providers—veto rights over crucial aspects of your system. Do you trust a company like Sony, which infected millions of PCs with a malicious rootkit, with low-level access to your rig?

8. Poor Driver Support

The big vendors like ATI and Nvidia should have drivers ready for Vista’s launch (although there weren’t any GeForce 8800 drivers at the corporate launch on November 30), but expect really big problems to arise with all that other hardware attached to your system. It’s going to be tough to find drivers for older hardware, and we’ve even encountered problems getting drivers for brand-new gear. Sure, your mouse and keyboard will work, but will you have access to the cool sensitivity-changing and macro software that works with it? Even if your hardware is supported, are the drivers fully baked? If the Vista launch follows the timeline of past Windows launches, drivers will be scarce for the first few months while vendors slowly certify their products to run on the new OS.

9. Vista is Kind of Annoying

User Account Control is part of Microsoft’s fix to prevent malware applications from taking advantage of Administrator privileges on infected PCs to install more malware. Every time an installer runs on your Vista PC, a prompt will ask for your permission to install the software in question. That’s a great idea, but we think the implementation is pretty poor. The problem is the frequency of prompts. They come up so often that people will quickly learn to auto-click them, thus risking malware infections. Even worse, instead of forcing you to take any action that would require thought, the prompts don’t even ask you to reenter your password (by default); all you have to do is click a button and the app will install itself. UAC is the PC equivalent of taking your shoes off in the airport security line. It makes you feel as though something’s being done to protect you, but ultimately it doesn’t do much to improve security. This isn’t likely to change, but it should.

10. You Can Wait

You should be asking yourself if you need Vista today. The only people who should answer yes are the folks who already have a DirectX 10 videocard and are anxiously awaiting their Crysis preorders. For everyone else, it certainly won’t hurt to wait for the bugs to be worked out, the drivers to be released, and your machine to be in optimum condition to handle the new OS. Indeed, it can only help.