Windows Vista

[bartender]

I fried my Motherboard and CPU, and im at that point where im thinking that if im buying new hardware, i might as well get fast enough hardware to run Vista, and am thinking about upgrading to Vista.

My question to all the Anime Studio users is, has anyone upgraded to Vista yet, and if so, does your version of AS run the same w/out problems? And another question, what programs are you having problems getting to run normally. I have a host of other expensive programs like Premiere, after effects, Photoshop, etc that i would be pretty pissed to find they dont work properly.

[Touched]

I need to know the exact same thing. I was looking into upgrading to a faster computer with Vista yesterday.

[Rasheed]

If you're using your computer for production, I would try to get a copy of XP SP2, and wait for the first service pack of Vista to come out before switching to Vista. I believe XP will be supported by MS for many years to come, so there is no rush to switch at this moment.

We have had similar reservations when Apple switched from OS X Panther to Tiger. Just wait for the experience of earlier adopters to be posted on the Web to see which products will function properly, and which need an upgrade.

[LittleFenris]

I have a host of other expensive programs like Premiere, after effects, Photoshop, etc that i would be pretty pissed to find they dont work properly.

I downloaded the pre-RC1 version of Vista when Microsoft had it available online and even on that all the Adobe products seemed to work fine. I tried Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and After Effects and all seemed fine. I was suprised how many of my programs worked just fine in a pre-RC1 release of Vista...and that was like 4 months ago so I'm sure kinks have been worked out in the public release. Just my experience with them though. Not sure on Moho/ASP though, I can't remember if I got around to installing/trying that before I put the computer back to XP Pro (I used a work PC as the guinea pig hehe). I put it back to XP Pro since its a slightly older PC and we had no intention of upgrading to Vista anytime soon and the Vista install was only going to work for 30 days.

[Fahim]

Hi Folks,

We did test out AS & AS Pro on Windows Vista (32-bit) and all worked just fine.

Regards,

Fahim

[Rasheed]

I'm sorry Fahim, you are a nice guy, but that doesn't count as an independent opinion. I'd rather see someone not on the payroll of e-frontier confirming this.

[Touched]

Also, I want to know about 64-bit, since the next upgrade I make will certainly be dual-processor, and I want to utilise it as much as possible. Working with a lot of points, as anyone who imported Illustrator files or used those props in the contest knows, takes a large processor hit.

[LittleFenris]

I'm sorry Fahim, you are a nice guy, but that doesn't count as an independent opinion. I'd rather see someone not on the payroll of e-frontier confirming this.

It wouldn't serve them any purpose to lie to the users about its functionality in Vista now would it? I understand that "average" users saying it works in Vista is probably a bit more believable but really no more reliable than Lost Marble or e-Frontier employees since everyone can have an individual experience when it comes to software and their personal computer setup.

[Rasheed]

I didn't write that he was lying, but he might be biased. If you're enthusiastic about a project, it is sometime hard to find the flaws, especially those which are deeply hidden in the software.

We have seen something similar in the Mac version vs. the Windows version. They should perform the same, but they do not. I'm sure when both version were released, the impression was that the were the same, but in practical use they proved to be markedly different in performance.

Sorry for going a bit off topic here.

[cribble]

I wish i could say the mac version works a treat... but i can't. Nor 'should' the developers. But I'm greatfull that there is a somewhat working version. And i think that AS will be a 'working version' on Vista. But don't expect it to be awesome though. Expect crashes. Report them. So there can be improvements.

And because Vista ripped Mac OSX, they might be able to amp up the OSX version too!!!!!

[Rhoel]

The question is not whether AS runs on Vista. The question is why are you even considering Vista. It is spectacularly HDTV unfreindly - since that is where we will all be working in the future, think again.

From one studio setup who tested Vista and HD, they discovered Vista downgraded their own HD video produced material because the video hardware did not the right form of anti=piracy codec.

I posted a poll on Vista on another site: Pete, a good friend and another Thai expat, media junkie and ex-broadcast posted the following reply - I have to quote verbatim as the original is in the members password protected section; If you visit his house, you will be very, very impressed with his HD home entertainment system - the guy knows his stuff, backwards.

Warning - <Rant On>

As a media junkie I am pissed off with Micro$oft and the movie studios. They are putting so much pointless effort in trying to invent the impossible, namely a secure system to prevent copying digital content. While it is their right to do so, it is not their right to virtually cripple software and to so degrade the user experience as to make the whole thing a joke.

One of the reasons you will need a very powerful computer to run Vista is that it is doing so much checking to make sure you do not have a pirated version of the software or pirated digital content, that half the power of your machine is being eaten up by these pointless additions. Vista will be checking your videos up to 30 times a second to see if they are legal. It can arbitrarily decide that Vista itself is pirated and basically render it inoperable and this can happen with a legal copy.

Vista can decide to degrade the quality of video you are watching if it feels you are doing something it doesn't like or if your equipment does not have anti-piracy stuff built in. Your video card must have anti-piracy software hard coded into it (which degrades its performance) or your video will be degraded. Virtually no video cards have this yet so everyone is expected to throw out their existing card and buy another one that will be more expensive and will not work as well.

I can understand the owners of digital intellectual property trying to protect it. The problem is that it is impossible to do so. So what we end up with is a lot of extra hoops to jump through for the honest people who just want a good user experience, while the hard core pirates are not slowed down at all. It's just crazy.

High definition DVDs were delayed to market by over a year while the studios tried to invent an unbreakable anti-piracy system. The expense of creating this "unbreakable" system is added to the cost of every machine and all High Definition Disks and all computer software capable of playing them. The unbreakable system was cracked within 3 months of the launch of HD-DVD players in the USA. The ongoing cost of a system that does not work will continue to be paid for by consumers for years to come.

The DRM (Digital Rights Management) built into Vista is already cracked. However the overheads and restrictions in Vista will continue to plague legitimate users far into the future. Not only is your user experience degraded but you end up paying much more than you should so Micro$oft can control your media habits.

Well, I say fuck them. They have made billions of dollars in profit while complaining bitterly of their lost millions to pirates. Sony which is at the forefront of the anti-piracy lobby lost billions of potential dollars while trying to invent proprietary music formats to stop you using MP3s. Have they learned a lesson from this? No! Will they ever? They will go broke first!

Until these companies understand that the way to make good profits is to deliver system that enhance the users experience even while allowing a few pirates to prosper they are on a path to oblivion. The sooner they go broke and are replaced by customer focused companies like the Sony and Microsoft of the 80s the better off we will all be.

If they delivered quality products that were user friendly and enhanced the user experience at a good value for money price they would win big and the pirates would not get a look in. While they refuse to do that I will do everything in my power to not use their products.

Vista adds virtually nothing to your computer experience while it creates many, many hoops you must jump through to validate your continued use of this flawed product.

Don't touch it. XP will be fine for many years to come and Linux is almost ready for the main stream, so hang in there and do not support these crooks.

<Rant Off>

If I was in your shoes, I would look at XP or Linux (eg, Ubuntu) - the latter is free, stable and above all, faster than Windows. There are a heap of good free MS equivalent programs out there for Linux - I have built a text machine and to date most things work: I am now working with WINE, a software solution which substitutes all the windows DLL's so PC programs run on Linux - people even have AutoCad running this way.

To date, I have not seen one single positive aspect of Vista which makes me think about using it, not one.

If you really want to see someone have a rant over Vista, Google the comments made by a New Zealand professor of computer science - he called Vista "the most obnoxious operating system ever made", "consumer hostile", "broken by design" and "Microsoft's suicide note". BBC carried the reports in detail.

So, for anyone considering Vista, please think very carefully.

[Genete]

If I was in your shoes, I would look at XP or Linux (eg, Ubuntu) - the latter is free, stable and above all, faster than Windows. There are a heap of good free MS equivalent programs out there for Linux - I have built a text machine and to date most things work: I am now working with WINE, a software solution which substitutes all the windows DLL's so PC programs run on Linux - people even have AutoCad running this way.

I agree with you. I started with linux 8 years ago and I'm using it exclusively since 4 years ago (exclusively at homework ). Now I'm a newbie in Windows. The other day my girlfriend made an automate update of MS Explorer. After the update, Explorer did not launch. She asked me for help. I was as afraid to touch something of XP as you to touch something in a linux box...

You should not think in Vista and its spectacularity. Wow! is the slogan. Whatch this and compare. It is Opensource since January 2, 2006. That is really WOW! and it is free!!!
And you can plug it into your linux machine or not. It is your choice.

So, do you really need a new operating system?

[Rasheed]

I do not want to fall into the trap of Windows bashing. Every operating system has its pros and cons. I leave it up to the user to weigh those and take an informed decision.

The question at hand is, will Anime Studio Pro run reliably on Windows Vista? I say it is just too soon to tell, because at this point, it isn't even sure if Vista itself will run reliably. If you can wait, please do so. I'm told most business Windows users usually delay the upgrade until the first Service Pack is released.

And if you buy you're PC online this year, I'm sure you can customize it so, that it comes installed with XP SP2, instead of Vista. Because XP has been around so long, it has become a mature OS. This cannot be said of Vista. It is the new kid on the block and still has to prove its power, stability and security.

Also be warned that many 64-bit drivers will not be available, because the 64-bit version of Windows Vista only allows signed drivers, which means that the hardware manufacturer has to basically buy a seal of approval from Microsoft. The 32-bit version of Windows will be backwards compatible and allow unsigned drivers (with all the security risks that come with that feature).

Keep checking the Windows websites (e.g. Win Super Site by Paul Thurrott) and blogs for the latest news.

My 2 cents.

[heyvern]

I've been checking around about this Vista DRM stuff.

From what I've read a lot of it total hogwash. Not all of it.. a lot of it.

I found this info apparently from microsoft and other sources:

Content protection only comes into play when you’re playing protected content. These restrictions don’t apply to your whole machine, period. Unless you’re trying to mix the audio output from a Blu-Ray disc into your set in SONAR, it doesn’t matter.

From what I've been finding there are issues with HD playback that is bad. But it won't effect content creation.

I think if all of these nightmare scenerios turn out to be true there will be a lot of screaming and complaining. Time will tell.

-vern

[Touched]

I'm considering Vista for the simple reason that it's the next version of Windows, and thus I will have need of it more and more as time passes. It is out of the question for me to convert to Linux or Mac. I don't want to replace all my software, nor do I enjoy fiddling under the hood of my OS any more than necessary. Plus, I'm a PC gamer. I don't want a new OS, I want the same one as I'm using, but the next iteration of it.

If there come to be problems with DRM which prevent me from creating my original content or in legitimately enjoying my legally owned material, then I will find a crack that eliminates those problems. It's as simple as that. No matter what it is, someone will fix it, and if it inconveniences too many legitimate users, Microsoft itself will fix it.