{"id":845,"date":"2007-02-12T21:34:14","date_gmt":"2007-02-13T02:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=845"},"modified":"2010-06-24T08:25:07","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T12:25:07","slug":"why-i-wont-upgrade-to-vista","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/02\/12\/why-i-wont-upgrade-to-vista\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Won’t Upgrade to Vista"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three letters: DRM.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen it in action. Vista spends more processor cycles doing shit-all <\/em>than any other Windows version yet produced. After spending my hard-earned dollars on an expensive, fancy, dual-core processor, I don’t want those processor cycles wasted<\/em> on checking whether I have the right<\/em> to play a particular MP3 file (or video, or whatever).<\/p>\n

I happen to like the way my computer runs now – we’ve got an older, (fairly) stable OS running on hardware that’s evolved way beyond it – which is GOOD! When the hardware outpaces the software, things run FAST. When the software outpaces the hardware, things run S…L…O…W…<\/p>\n

Check out this article<\/a>, and be sure to follow the links it includes. Here’s a snippet that really gets my blood boiling:<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another blatant lie:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/blockquote>\n

Will Windows Vista content protection features increase CPU resource consumption?<\/p>\n

Yes. However, the use of additional CPU cycles is inevitable, as the PC provides consumers with additional functionality. Windows Vista\u2019s content protection features were developed to carefully balance the need to provide robust protection from commercial content while still enabling great new experiences such as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray playback.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those of you running Windows Vista, start Windows Media Player and play a random MP3 audio file. Go into Task Manager and look for a process called \u201cmfpmp.exe\u201d with description \u201cMedia Foundation Protected Pipeline EXE.\u201d Notice how much CPU it uses. On my machine it fluctuates between 10% and 20% CPU time. Other users are seeing even larger consumption of CPU resources, just check out this comment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And now the question for Microsoft: Why exactly is mfpmp.exe needed to play an MP3 file, when you say the content protection technology is there for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray?? What additional functionality am I getting, exactly, from mfpmp.exe when I play an MP3 file? As it is now, the content protection technology just uses more resources while providing no benefits at all to the user, just like Peter Guttman wrote in his paper and we\u2019ve all argued before. No wonder there are sometimes gaps in the audio on my PC, which by the way ran much faster on Windows XP. I thought Vista was about more robust video and audio playback?? Even high end systems have these issues. I find myself using VLC to play video files more often now because Media Player feels so slow and bloated. Even when playing MP3 files, VLC uses much less CPU resources compared to mfpmp.exe and wmplayer.exe combined!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why I won’t Upgrade to Vista: Three letters: DRM. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[90,62,388],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-technology","tag-commentary","tag-microsoft","tag-technology","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-dD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1666,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/01\/21\/so-much-for-my-upgrade-path\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":0},"title":"So Much for my “Upgrade” Path","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"There's been a major change in my plans to eventually \"upgrade\" to a 64-bit OS (probably the 64-bit version of Windows 7). Namely, the idea that it could be an \"upgrade\" at all. There apparently is no upgrade path from any Windows 32-bit edition to any Windows 64-bit edition. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2549,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/05\/08\/upgrading-from-vista-to-the-windows-7-release-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":1},"title":"Upgrading from Vista to the Windows 7 Release Candidate","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My attempt at upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 RC ends in disappointment - I blame directory junctions for the problem. Guess I have to wait until I make the switch to 64-bit to get Windows 7 goodness on my computer!","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1026,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/14\/im-sorry-but-windows-vista-still-seems-too-slow\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":2},"title":"I’m Sorry, but Windows Vista still seems too slow","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was downloading a file in Windows Vista today - I would say it was a \"medium-sized\" file that took no time at all on my super-fast cable modem connection to download. However, once it was done, this popped up: This new dialog took longer to calculate the time remaining\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":998,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/12\/05\/learn-from-vista%e2%80%99s-mistakes\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":3},"title":"Learn from Vista\u2019s Mistakes","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A number of interesting posts detailing some behind-the-scenes type stuff about Vista: Mini-Microsoft: Copying Xerox, Vista Mistakes, and VP Perspectives Windows Vista Feedback - Chris Pirillo 65 More Windows Vista Mistakes - Chris Pirillo As a software developer myself, I both cringe at these sorts of things (Microsoft should know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":999,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/12\/06\/on-the-other-hand-or-dont-steal-the-focus-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":4},"title":"On The Other Hand – or, Don’t Steal the Focus: Part 2","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Touching again on the whole topic of \"don't steal the focus,\" I thought I'd point out that the Microsoft Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines has an entire section just on Error Messages, and wouldn't you know... they advise you not to steal the focus from the user. Although they may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/05\/26\/damn-penguins\/","url_meta":{"origin":845,"position":5},"title":"Damn Penguins…","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been spending the better part of the last two weeks struggling with penguins. Unfortunately, though setting up a linux box for home or office use is quite easy, setting one up to be a secure web & database server is a bit more difficult.","rel":"","context":"In "Rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}