Posted by Hicky Von Hair-Do on 03/22/06 09:50

On the other hand with the Windows market share as high as it is and with
Microsoft having several options to sort of force upgrades I don't think it
would be cutting their throats any to do heavy DRM.

They can fix it so that older versions of Windows can't be activated or
require activating often.

They can end support for older OSes.

Then of course there is also the third party plug. As it is now we have many
programs that require Windows 2000 or better to work. Things like Photoshop,
etc.

I really don't think that would could refuse to upgrade for very long. As
far as other platforms go, you have to remember we are talking about mass
market here. I don't think Linux will cut it in that case and I don't think
Mac is really much better. Besides the problems that each of these have in
their own right, there is also the cost of making such a switch and in the
case of Linux loosing a lot of the most popular programs or hoping that
emulation software will work well enough that you don't end up killing
yourself in frustration.

Myself if DRM in Vista is just too much you can bet that I will not upgrade
until I have no choice. Probably as long as I can continue to run the latest
versions of Photoshop and then I would have to upgrade. But, then I could
always keep an older system around with XP just to copy discs. So, that
should buy a few more years on top of that.

Just don't think Microsoft doesn't have the balls for it, they do.

Robert

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