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Windows Vista: XP vs. Vista: An Objective Comparison - TechAmok
Windows Vista: XP vs. Vista: An Objective Comparison - [software] 05:35 PM EDT - Jul,09 2008 - post a comment TechwareLabs has published
XP vs. Vista: An Objective Comparison. Here's an excerpt:
Warts. Lumps. Flaws. Call them what you will, every OS has its defects, the
places where it stumbles, comes up short, or just plain fails to deliver. XP and
Vista both have a lot to recommend them, but they also have their fair share of
problems.
XP's main faults centered around security. Being the first consumer-grade
Windows version to be based on the NT kernel, XP had a combination of
questionable security practices and powerful networking features that made it an
irresistible target for malware authors. Prior to Service Pack 2, a Windows XP
machine would find itself irretrievably compromised within minutes of being
connected to an unprotected internet connection. The default behavior of giving
new user accounts Administrator privileges only compounded this, and the severe
crippling of non-admin user accounts meant that even conscientious users
couldn't do much to proactively limit the damage. Service Pack 2 did much to fix
this, by fixing the previously unusable Windows Firewall, and adding prominent
notifications when anti-virus programs were missing or out-of-date. Even so,
users can still find themselves horribly compromised with little-to-no warning,
and frequent reinstalls are a depressingly common remedy to the numerous
infections.
Much of Vista's early criticism has centered around stability, rather than
security. The introduction of a new driver model, as well as heavy DRM
provisions, served to bring back the sort of instability and frequent crashes
that many users had hoped were left behind with WinME. Much of this has since
been fixed, as hardware manufacturers have become more familiar with the new
driver model, but issues with stability remain, especially when legacy WinXP
drivers must be used to maintain compatibility with older hardware.
A problem that has not gone away, though, is Vista's new privilege management
system, known as User Account Control. To be fair, it does allow for more
flexibility in privilege escalation, letting people run as limited users most of
the time without too much difficulty. The problem lies in its implementation.
Constant, persistent, annoying nag boxes pop up whenever you do anything that
requires privilege escalation. This escalation, by the way, is required for not
only actions taken by third party programs, but for many things within Windows
itself, including a fair portion of the Control Panel. An operation as simple as
copying files from one user to another can generate UAC prompts for every copy
and move operation, as well as for opening folders and subfolders.
One criticism common to both is the use of product activation, known in MS
jargon as Windows Genuine Advantage. Intended to combat piracy, WGA serves
mainly to frustrate and punish users who purchased their copies of Windows
legitimately. An inventory of a system's hardware is done at install, and
thereafter, every time a significant change is made-i.e. one you have to open
the case for-the user is required to re-activate Windows. This activation
process should, in theory, be easily done over the internet, but it often fails
due to internet connectivity issues, corrupted hardware indices, or any number
of other unknown issues. Additionally, if the number of significant changes
passes a certain threshold, the user is required to call Microsoft and spend
time groveling to a customer disservice lackey in order to get a new product
key. Ironically, though, this does little to impede those who would obtain their
copies of Windows illegitimately. WGA cracks, keygens, and other bypass
mechanisms are plentiful and easily obtained, and frequently used. In all, the
main accomplishment of WGA seems to be the continued alienation of MS's primary
customer base.
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