Vista SP1 Released to Manufacturing 397
Reverend Ninja writes "According to the Windows Vista team blog, Windows Vista SP1 has been released to manufacturing. It appears we'll have to wait until mid-March to play with it though, as the team cites that they want everyone to have a 'great install experience'. 'Service Pack 1 brings new improvements that are based on feedback we heard from our customers. It further improves the reliability and performance of Windows Vista. The information we collect thanks to tools like the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Online Crash Analysis, and Windows Error Reporting help us learn about where and when customers are having issues with Windows Vista and the applications that run on it. Since these issues have a direct impact on our customers' experiences, we've invested time and energy to make this better. While Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an important milestone, we will continue to invest in the continuous improvement process.'"
Real info instead of speculation (Score:5, Informative)
Unlike most of the chatter I've read on
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:3, Informative)
Everything you've read about Vista's DRM is wrong:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=299 [zdnet.com]
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=304 [zdnet.com]
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=309 [zdnet.com]
The nutshell version. If you're mad at Vista for including HDCP support -- Leopard, the PS3, or any HD-DVD or BluRay player on the market has it as well. Get pissed at the entire industry or don't bother getting pissed at all.
Question for dev team (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well, I'm sure it will be stable! (Score:2, Informative)
In any case, I dunno how much more work this SP will need since I haven't experienced a single problem with it during or after installation.
Next weekend I'm going to try the XP Service Pack 3 installation and see how that goes
-AC
We use SP1RC1 in a lab of Vista machines (Score:5, Informative)
I hope that any changes between RC1 and RTM are actually going to deliver on those promises they keep making.
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:5, Informative)
If you dislike DRM, don't buy from the content creators which put DRM in their content. That has nothing to do with an Operating System.
Educate yourself.
Re:Well, I'm sure it will be stable! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:5, Informative)
Didn't bother to read the links before posting a rebuttal right? :)
Your media tank does indeed provide an HDCP path. Either that, or when the ICT bit is set on media shipped in 2010 onwards, your playback will degrade to roughly 950x550.
Re:Real info instead of speculation (Score:3, Informative)
SP1 also includes updates that deal with two exploits we have seen, which can affect system stability for our customers.
The OEM Bios exploit, which involves modifying system files and the BIOS of the motherboard to mimic a type of product activation performed on copies of Windows that are pre-installed by OEMs in the factory.
The Grace Timer exploit, which attempts to reset the "grace time" limit between installation and activation to something like the year 2099 in some cases.
Thank god they fixed those 'system stability' issues....
Continual Business Process Improvement (Score:3, Informative)
A good example of this is my form I use for processing new employees. When I first made it I left out some things. I wouldn't make sense for me to keep trying to make that old form work. So I changed it and added in the things I left off. Then we added another login which I needed to make sure I created. Therefore I changed it again. Each iteration becomes more streamlined and accurate.
Re:Hard Evidence Of Vista Poor Sales and Performan (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm tired of the euphemisms (Score:3, Informative)
At least with cars, they keep the same name from year to year, just "bump up the version number".
Look at (just some of) the different names Windows has gone through:
On the open source front, how do you expect people to take you seriously when you say "You should try Werewolf" (fedora 8)? Its bad enough we have weird-sounding names like Mandriva, Linspire (or whatever they're calling it nowadays), and Ubuntu without making it worse ...
Re:Question for dev team (Score:3, Informative)
He's referring to the fact that some drivers still have issues, and systems with those drivers will not have a push install even if they opted into it. Until those issues are fixed. Hence, great install experience.
Re:It's out. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:4, Informative)
So does Vista. Even Vista Media Center plays them. Assuming you've been smart and, you know, installed the codecs. Just need one, actually: ffdshow. If you want to go for broke, you can also install the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP). Throw those at it, and Vista will play every file I have, including the MKVs and the OGG/Vorbis files.
And unlike your box, my Vista-based media center will actually play BluRay discs, as well as rips. And it'll play them at full 1080p through the HDMI or, if I prefer, the DVI output on my computer. Both of which support full HDCP. (I'm using the DVI, with the coaxial Dolby Digital output going directly to my decoder at the moment. I'll go HDMI when I replace my 24" WUXGA+ LCD display with a 46" HDTV in the near future)
The FUD about the DRM in Vista is completely overblown. It's in there, but it's not going to prevent you from viewing pirated content if that's your thing. Vista doesn't complain at all about playing videos or songs in my collection. The DRM is in there so that I can play my legitimately purchased content at full resolution, which is something you can't do with your box.
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:4, Informative)
From the link: "There's also HDCP support built in, so future support for Blu-ray and HD DVD is not out of the question." I had read a more direct reference on Apple's site but I couldn't find that link right now.
Please don't interpret this as an anti-Apple rant though. Rather, as I said in my original post, get pissed at the entire industry, or nobody at all.
Apple never had a choice in the matter, and neither did MS. If you want your system to play HD-DVD or BluRay media once the ICT bit is set, you have to have HDCP support otherwise the playback resolution has to be degraded.
Whether you implement this in software or hardware (firmware) of course, is entirely up to you.
Re:50% Faster? (Score:3, Informative)
It's true that pre-SP1 had issues with copying lots of small files in some situations, but most of the other performance problems were often perceived, not actual, problems, since XP did things like closing the copy dialog before it had actually written the last byte to disk, for instance.
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Server2008 vs. XP and Vista (Score:5, Informative)
Parts for my new box showed up this week. This time, 8G of RAM, a dual core (E8400) CPU, nVidia 780i SLI mainboard, and nVidia 8800gts (512M). Since I went nVidia for chipset and video card, all of the 'box' hardware had drivers for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of XP, Vista, and Server 2003.
Gave Vista64 (ultimate) a try. Gah...
First, while I'm sure SP1 will probably fix this, the installer failed with 8G of RAM. Pulled out three 2G modules and all extra HDD's, and was able to continue on. OS installed, drivers picked up all of the mainboard/graphics hardware in a reasonable default mode. Had wired network access at that point, so downloaded the current drivers, which picked up all of the 'core' hardware. Plugged in the other HDD's and changed the SATA cabling. Blue screens again. Pull out the drives, put the SATA cables back in for the main drive, blue screen again. Took several reboots before I realized the Plextor DVDR (PX-712A) would cause a blue screen when the tray closed with a disk. Popped in a standard IDE DVDR, and got the rest of the system up and running.
All the development tools and apps worked. Games (CS:Source, Supreme Commander, BFME2) worked OK. A few glitches in BFME on a long game.
The final nail was USB devices. Figured I would blog about he new kit, so I plugged in my USB cord into my camera. Vista recognized it was a camera, but failed to do anything else. No drivers. Same went for *every* USB thumbdrive I owned. (Pics here [multiply.com])
Gave up, after much messing about.
XP-64 installed with 8G of RAM installed. Did not get the Ethernet running, but did mount a thumbdrive without issues. Installed the core set of mainboard/graphics drivers, did a windows update, and everything just worked. Not a single blue screen or crash under XP-64 so far.
Server 2003-64 is also running rock solid. Just work stuff on that drive, however....
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:3, Informative)
Also, your "Digital Restriction Management" is about as useful as "Winblows" or "Micro$oft". Grow up.
Re:Performance. (Score:1, Informative)
Check out:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777 [microsoft.com]
Install the hotfix and give it a try.
Re:Well, I'm sure it will be stable! (Score:3, Informative)
If you read the whitepaper (a [windowsvistablog.com], b [microsoft.com]) for Vista SP1 performance wasn't high up on to-do list. Personally, Vista runs fine for me (except for file copying, where Microsoft fucked up big time). I put Vista on a Duron 850 with 512mb of RAM for shits and giggles, and it ran like a dog with three legs. I put Windows XP on there and it ran acceptably. I run Vista on a 1.8Ghz dual core machine with 1GB of RAM and it runs plenty fast.
Re:Removed the DRM? (Score:4, Informative)
There are even now flat TVs (lcd/plasma) sold which do not have HDCP. It is easy to see, if there is no "HD ready" sticker then it does not have HDCP (at least so in Finland).
My plasma was bought 2003. I doubt there were any HDCP capable TV's back then.
Re:Now can we all please just shut up about it? (Score:2, Informative)
I haven't tried Compiz on this machine...