Here is a link to the paper refered to in the article: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut00...vista_cost.txt

You might be interested in the Security Now interview with Peter Gutmann on Vista DRM


Here is the transcript of the interview:
http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-074.pdf

I am one of the other 1% -- I started on the university HP-UX network (along with a relatively ancient VAX system that was being phased out) at school. at the time there was a "windows" lab on campus -- afaik, the ms systems were only used to run ms word and minesweeper, but basically useless otherwise. all serious work (CAD, mathematica, matlab, etc.) was done on UNIX of course. I am forced to use ms now at work, but I still don't really get it, nor do I care to, beyond just using it to do what work requires.

I note, however, that despite my company having bought good hardware, paying all the huge licensing fees, hiring "consultants," running layers of antispy/mal/crapware, etc. -- the machine I use still crashes out, locks up, or otherwise craps out at least once a month. and that is just using the "standard" stuff like word, outlook, excel, etc. this in addition to the network downtimes for "maintenance" and fixing system-wide infections. it's pretty pathetic, when you think how much they pay for such poor performance. oh well.

When Vista finally hits the streets, in whatever form it does, I think that it's gonna confuse the hell out of a lot of people, especially journalists and Geek Squads.

So I frankly suggest that you treat this software like fine wine: let it age. Leave your Windows system (if you have one, and you probably do...) alone. For at least six months. When its equivalent of "Service Pack 2" finally comes out, then have a closer look.

Microsoft made the serious mistake of trying to do much too much in one release. They can't un-do that now.

If you know what you are doing, and anyone around here probably does, then you can happily observe the thrashings in Vista-land for quite a while from the relatively safe vantage-point of a well-managed XP-SP2. "Those who try to stay on the bleeding edge .. bleed."