Vista SUCKS, as predicted...
So I decided to get myself a toy this year to compliment my outgoing personality. I finally bought a laptop so I could GET OUT OF THIS FRIKKIN' HOUSE! :) My initial choice was a cheapo dealie from our local Best Buy, but the kid working the Computer section on the day I visited read me like a book! "Dude, this thing is going to make you miserable...you're a gamer, aren't you???" Indeed I am. I live on video sites too...so the stock graphics chip on the low end crud box I set my sights on wouldn't have been able to run jack. For an extra Ben Franklin, I got myself the newest Presario Notebook and I have to say, I got a nice toy for the most part. It needs more memory, hard drive space etc...but for an off the shelf experience this was initially happy one to be sure. It's got an AMD Turion 64X2 chip in it with Nvidia graphics and a blazing wifi card....and I was happy happy happy until...
I'm happily working away one day and got a request to do some audio processing for some folks. I have my machine with me and THOUGHT I was about to dazzle everyone with my mad skills. See at home I've got a Linux box now with some VERY slick software a la Ubuntu Studio and my old XP machine is simply a huge ass audio/visual production studio now. I'd moved a bunch of stuff onto the new machine and trusted my 20 some odd years in tech support would allow me to get 99% of it working with Vista, which was my ONLY choice for an O/S on this new machine as XP isn't even a choice due to non-existent drivers for some of the new hardware (audio and modem on a single chip??? What an ODD design!) and a dual boot Linux attempt nearly melted the PC speakers with a faulty firmware package. Anyway, I installed the requisite software for my immediate needs and went to work my magic, only to find THERE IS NO AUDIO CAPTURE FUNCTIONALITY AT ALL...zero, zilch...NOTHING. Panic and sweat ensue and I excuse myself so I can be humiliated elsewhere. I hit our local Panera and begin Googling while sipping on a hot cinnamon coffee dealie...and find the root cause. Microsoft in Conjunction with HP apparently forced Conexant to release an audio driver that only provides OUTPUT with their new SmartAudio hardware, all other functionality deliberately prevented. The only audio input is routed through two condenser mics on the screen and a mic jack on the front that is so badly compressed it can't possibly be used for anything other than voice recording. If you tear apart the software and the various installs available from all 3 providers, you can physically see the Stereo Mixer functionality RIGHT THERE, ready to use...but disabled in so many places I couldn't get it to work even with some home made DLLs and whatnot. I found during some trials with other 3rd party drivers the Sony Vaios are even more hobbled - Sony's answer to the rootkit fiasco when they first tried to shut down home audio processing "Just turn it off before they even get their new machines home - that'll fix 'em".
So my earlier rants about Vista taking away our personal liberties have all come true...I'm living the nightmare. Vista is three thousand steps backwards from XP, it's Big Brother telling me what I can and cannot do with equipment I BOUGHT with my hard earned money and use in the privacy of my own home. The real bitch of it is, I can't just pop in another audio card and move on with my life...it's the Brave New World..everything on board with a single firmware source controlling multiple pieces of functionality...screw with one too much and you may nuke your entire machine.
So I have buyer's regret now. Well, not totally. I mean, for a good amount of stuff I do, this fits the bill well and there is some slickness to be sure. But this bullshit with audio capture and processing being shut off has GOT TO GO!! To HP, SHAME ON YOU for participating in this nonsense, I thought more of you. To Microsoft - suck it, I'm all Linux from now on and you can take my XP machine from me when I'm dead and cold. Hell, I've still got two Windows 3.11 machines running! As well as Win95, Win98 and Win2000 machines fully functional. hee hee hee I've got the Museum of Windows over here!! And they ALL RUN BETTER THAN VISTA!!
To all of you in the market for new machines moving forward, LOOK CAREFULLY at what the manufacturer has hobbled before you buy....and write reviews of your experience on the appropriate websites so the rest of us can more readily determine what our real choices are. It is my hope that with enough buyer boycott of machines thusly disabled, we can force manufacturers into smarter decisions. Hell, Dell already caved and released updated drivers which re-enable the audio capture on their new machines...let's please get everyone else to follow suit.
I'm happily working away one day and got a request to do some audio processing for some folks. I have my machine with me and THOUGHT I was about to dazzle everyone with my mad skills. See at home I've got a Linux box now with some VERY slick software a la Ubuntu Studio and my old XP machine is simply a huge ass audio/visual production studio now. I'd moved a bunch of stuff onto the new machine and trusted my 20 some odd years in tech support would allow me to get 99% of it working with Vista, which was my ONLY choice for an O/S on this new machine as XP isn't even a choice due to non-existent drivers for some of the new hardware (audio and modem on a single chip??? What an ODD design!) and a dual boot Linux attempt nearly melted the PC speakers with a faulty firmware package. Anyway, I installed the requisite software for my immediate needs and went to work my magic, only to find THERE IS NO AUDIO CAPTURE FUNCTIONALITY AT ALL...zero, zilch...NOTHING. Panic and sweat ensue and I excuse myself so I can be humiliated elsewhere. I hit our local Panera and begin Googling while sipping on a hot cinnamon coffee dealie...and find the root cause. Microsoft in Conjunction with HP apparently forced Conexant to release an audio driver that only provides OUTPUT with their new SmartAudio hardware, all other functionality deliberately prevented. The only audio input is routed through two condenser mics on the screen and a mic jack on the front that is so badly compressed it can't possibly be used for anything other than voice recording. If you tear apart the software and the various installs available from all 3 providers, you can physically see the Stereo Mixer functionality RIGHT THERE, ready to use...but disabled in so many places I couldn't get it to work even with some home made DLLs and whatnot. I found during some trials with other 3rd party drivers the Sony Vaios are even more hobbled - Sony's answer to the rootkit fiasco when they first tried to shut down home audio processing "Just turn it off before they even get their new machines home - that'll fix 'em".
So my earlier rants about Vista taking away our personal liberties have all come true...I'm living the nightmare. Vista is three thousand steps backwards from XP, it's Big Brother telling me what I can and cannot do with equipment I BOUGHT with my hard earned money and use in the privacy of my own home. The real bitch of it is, I can't just pop in another audio card and move on with my life...it's the Brave New World..everything on board with a single firmware source controlling multiple pieces of functionality...screw with one too much and you may nuke your entire machine.
So I have buyer's regret now. Well, not totally. I mean, for a good amount of stuff I do, this fits the bill well and there is some slickness to be sure. But this bullshit with audio capture and processing being shut off has GOT TO GO!! To HP, SHAME ON YOU for participating in this nonsense, I thought more of you. To Microsoft - suck it, I'm all Linux from now on and you can take my XP machine from me when I'm dead and cold. Hell, I've still got two Windows 3.11 machines running! As well as Win95, Win98 and Win2000 machines fully functional. hee hee hee I've got the Museum of Windows over here!! And they ALL RUN BETTER THAN VISTA!!
To all of you in the market for new machines moving forward, LOOK CAREFULLY at what the manufacturer has hobbled before you buy....and write reviews of your experience on the appropriate websites so the rest of us can more readily determine what our real choices are. It is my hope that with enough buyer boycott of machines thusly disabled, we can force manufacturers into smarter decisions. Hell, Dell already caved and released updated drivers which re-enable the audio capture on their new machines...let's please get everyone else to follow suit.
bitchy