Should you buy Vista Ultimate? ...and TPM

[mnharper]

The author stated that they could not get BitLocker working because "neither BIOS supported TPM". I would suggest that the reason was due to their machine not having the TPM chip! TPM is a combination of software and hardware (a chip). To date I believe only Levono by default installs the chip in its Thinkpads. Dell, to my limited knowledge, have it on some of their workstation class products and one Latitude laptop (ATG). All the other Latitudes and Inspiron's do not have the chip.

So, if BitLocker is dependent on TPM it is probably useless for 90-95% of the machines being sold today. A reason NOT to buy Ultimate.

 

[Jakal]

This is true, for now. Undoubtedly more chip and computer companies are going to start using this technology in the near future. I can see how important a company like.. say Blizzard, could use this to prevent the information from being stolen by a disgruntled employee. Any company with trade secrets could use this and have less worry of loss of information to another company, and maintain their "leg-up" on the competition.

Yes, I can see how this is a downfall to coorporations who don't need to invest another $XXmillion dollars to replace already good computers. It's just another safety feature that will have more support as time goes on, and more people move to Vista.

 

[moon111]

I'm just curious as to who's going to be paying these prices. I've asked basicly everyone I knew about ANY version of Vista. I'd say 50% of the general people I asked didn't know what it was. A few asked if it had been 'cracked' yet so they could pirate it. But except for one person, nobody was interested in buying it. The one person that was going to buy it, has a great paying job but doesn't make as much as his wife does. And he also owns half a computer shop. The fact is, Vista Ultimate costs more then the average person's computer. If OEM computers didn't come with an OS already installed, I'd say this OS would have a hard time getting any major market share for quite some time. I guess that gives MS lots of development time until the next 'must have' OS?

 

[Jakal]

That brings up a good point. Most people won't even be using Vista until they upgrade their home computer. Why pay $2-400 just for an OS, when I can go out and buy a new pc pre-loaded with it? Right now, I don't see myself updating until DX10 takes precedent. Until then, I plan on using XP.

It makes me wonder when MS will stop supporting this version, though. I doubt it'll be anytime soon, but they're going to need a lot of resources to keep Vista up to date.

 

[Rob Williams]

I doubt Microsoft will stop supporting XP for a while. As far as I know though, they -could- stop supporting it now I believe. From what I recall, each product they release has a 5 year support agreement, and for XP, that's already done with.

As for pricing, I have -no- idea who would run out any pay $400 for Ultimate... it's just too much for an OS. That said, I don't consider Home Premium to be a huge ripoff at $239. Still expensive, but it's a far better value than Ultimate.

I think the biggest issue with upgrading right now is not really the cost, but the compatibility. I still have a couple programs I enjoy using, not function at all under Vista. I think after the first SP is when people may really start jumping on board.

 

[madstork91]

Until it is a for sure thing that this wont be another ME, i wont be jumping on board for anything.

I remember ~ a year ago I was playing Halo with some reps and they said some newly annouced OS was coming down the pipes not too long after vista.

Name and info on it i cant remember. BUt they did say that vista was going to be around for a long while.

Either way, next pc I build will prob have Vista.