::@:: Reality of Dreams ::@::

With its release nearly upon us mere mortals, some anaylsis comes regarding Micro$ofts latest attempt at an OS in a report entitled: A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. Its well worth a read, for a basic overview, see HERE.

What really bugs me is that the only really effective way (without patches, tweaks, sledgehammers) to play games on my PC is to use Windows. What is worse is that some games coming out in the coming year will be Vista only. I also kinda need Windows to use Photoshop as well, but there are emulators out there which would get round that problem if I was running something like a free Linux distribution (such as Ubuntu). As for MS:Office, that has gone thanks to Open Office (for those who read this who are not tech savvy, Open Office is completely free, its called Open source) which even has a Powerpoint “clone” so I doubt I’ll buy a version of Office again, well, at least for as long as I can help it. I haven’t used IE in ages (on my own machine) as I use Firefox and Thunderbird instead of Outlook (although it does lack the calender features) and frankly they are fantastic.

Vista had promise, it still does in some ways, it does look fantastic (if you’ve got a powerful enough machine to switch on all the options), it should also be more secure (I’ll believe it when I see it, after the countless patches and crashes). I guess I have little option, and that, in the end, is what annoys me the most… especially since it looks like they are going to be updating it in 2008 and then a brand new OS a year or so later (LINK and LINK).

EDIT: To try and make this more “interesting” to those non-techie, I present my (first of maybe a few) Tribute to the amazing Invader Zim… HERE. For those poor souls out there whose lives have yet to be touched by Zim and GiR, look here, here, here, and most importantly here. Remember its not stupid, its advanced.