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It's odd how there seem to be beta versions of Vista out there, so lots of information is coming out, yet I don't get much of a feel for things like compatibility, what hardware is optimal, or what happened to the tight DRM controls integrated into the Intel chip were going to be a part of Vista. Maybe my head is just in the sand, but it makes me nervous to think I'm going to have to bite the bullet for a new PC, replacement and upgrades for all my software, and that many titles have the potential of not even being available anymore.
The one thing I did hear is that MS is including some kind of new licensing server that is required for large licensees. It is supposed to stop the rampant sharing of license numbers for enterprise licensing (and the mass pirated copies that show up in some countries across the world). But IT shops are becoming really concerned about the overhead to manage all that. Even small shops will have some new kind of new verification processes.
My own experience with licensing issues make me really leary of that sort of increased control because of the problems that can come up. Even with the existing Win XP, I had to reload my Dell computer after a crash, and not only did I have the nightmarish long hours of the reload, but the Windows OS complained that I didn't have a valid license. I had to make some phone calls and wait in phone queues to get it straightened out, and the whole process made me feel like I had done something wrong. Sort of like the painful process people had to go through to handle loss of MS Lit licenses due to those sorts of things also. (And no, I'm not trying to use OS copies. These issues arose even when trying to do things in the most simple way a customer would do it, and I used my original Dell Windows CD for the reload.)
So is anyone else wondering about that kind of mass obsolescence or future licensing headaches, or just me?
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