As you already know, I don’t like DRM. It seems like the next version of Windows will be full of it. Full of DRM and huge amounts of technology that is supposed to make it more “secure”. Or, to put it straight: limit you and what you can do with your computer. Cory Doctorow is a clever writer and again he has put some words on the situation:
Vista is a disaster. Microsoft is so desperate to get the entertainment industry locked into its platform that they’ll destroy themselves to get there. This is an operating system that, when idle, will have to check itself every 30 microseconds to make sure nothing is still happening, and no hackers are attacking it.
It acts like an unmedicated paranoid.
Well, time will show if this unmedicated paranoid will kill Microsoft like Sony’s content strategy nearly has killed them.
eirikso 
As my previous comments on your blog have shown, I’m planning on jumping off the MS gravy train come Vista release time. That is not a coincidence. I have at least one friend planning on doing the same. May not seem like that many people, but it is 100% of the people I know who are in the market for a new PC.
This will be an interesting year. Apple have made it easier than ever to do the switch. And we keep moving a lot of functionality into the browser. I am more than happy with my new iMac. The plan was to install Parallels to be able to run Windows applications during the transition, but so far I haven’t installed it. Seems like I don’t have to.
And Ubuntu has made the switch to Linux easier than ever.
My experience with Vista so far is that it would give you the same five days of minor frustrations that any other switch would do.
When you add the fact that Microsoft have nearly locked the owner out of the system because of security and DRM I found the decision pretty easy.
More on my experience with my new iMac later…
I’ll need to install Parallels because I use Quicken for my finances and the story is that Quicken for Mac is j-u-n-k.
I was a little disappointed to see Apple’s company name switch and the lack of Mac news at Macworld. It appeared that we could see a “year of the switch” in 2007, but Apple’s whole attitude makes that seem less likely to me. Of course, maybe we’ll see some nice Mac announcements in the next few months that will get the juices flowing again.
For everyone’s reading enjoyment, here’s an article by Paul Graham that really got me, as a web programmer, thinking about the switch.
As an aside, the end of your last comment reminded me… the biggest reason I’m making the switch is because I’m tired of dealing with hours of infuriating configuration issues with my Windows PC. Nothing is as easy as it should be, and that’s with XP improving by an order of magnitude over previous Windows versions.
I want to simplify my life wherever I can, and I hope moving to a Mac will rid me of a critical time sink.
I’ll put some money that 1) between now and NAB in April there will be a special event where Apple will show 10.5 in all it’s glory, with iLife07 and everything. And 2) we’ll see multitouch one more products than the iPhone in 2007.
Feel free to check back on me by, let’s say august.
But REAL men meet their challenges head-on!
I’m proud to say that I’ve wrestled the evil, Microsoft summoned daemon, “Windows” in its many forms. The new incarnation : Vista, seems to be the worst one yet! How can you men not want to fight it? But rather go home, and do easy and fast work on real OS’es? You are all cowards!
😉
That was supposed to be in strong…
Grrr…Seems like XP’s heart is still beating!
In one way, I think Vista will do some good. Mostly regarding security, but also for those who are bound to Windows either through work or specific programs.
Regarding the switch to Macintosh, Apple has certainly made it easier. I’m with you 100 percent on that one, Eirik. But I’m a little worried about the explosive growth in Macintosh sales. The quality of Apple’s computers has decreased, and a lot of people are starting to see it. I know three other people who has MacBook’s, and two of them have bumps on the interior surface of the laptop (on the corners around the keyboard).
My iMac has also started to whip out a problem or two. The logic board is half way corrupted. The internal speakers have stopped working inside OS X, but still plays the C Major chord on startup, as well as works perfectly when running Windows through Boot Camp).
Problems like these were almost never heard of before the Intel-switch, when Macintosh still was a niche-product. Quality over quantity. Sometimes I’ve considered buying a PowerBook G5, just to be stubborn. 🙂
Oh, by the way: I found a discussion regarding semantical comment markup from way back that’s still pretty relevant for many publishing systems. How do you think WordPress handles the semantics around this, Eirik?
(I really need to get a blog up and running so I don’t have to contaminate your blog with these thoughts.) 🙂
I just had to pull a hilarious quote from the paper the post you posted on contained :
“Digital rights management technology will still fail to prevent widespread
infringement. In a related development, pigs will still fail to fly. I
predict that every year, and it turns out to be true every year” – Ed Felten.
It says it all…almost.