Today's Tip : What’s in Your Edition of Vista?

What’s in Your Edition?


Technically, Windows Vista is just the latest in a long line of business-class
operating systems that started with Windows NT more than a decade ago.
Practically, the changes in this new member of the Windows family are equal parts
evolution and revolution.
In some ways, that’s not surprising. The gap between Windows XP and Windows Vista
spanned more than fi ve years. In operating system terms, that’s two generations. So it’s
not surprising that Windows Vista incorporates a broad swath of platform pieces and
infrastructure, including sweeping changes to networking and security, support for
new classes of hardware, new capabilities for creating and playing digital media, and a
distinctive new interface.






Introducing the Windows Vista Family
Windows Vista is available in four retail versions and one corporate edition, all available
worldwide, along with a handful of specialized versions tailored to specific markets.
Although at first glance that might seem like too many choices, there’s actually a
solid rationale behind the mix of products. Here’s a brief introduction to each member
of the Windows Vista family (for a more detailed look at what features are included
with each edition, see Appendix A, “Windows Vista Editions at a Glance.”)

l Windows Vista Home Basic This entry-level edition, the successor to Windows
XP Home Edition, includes the core elements of the new Windows Vista interface,
notably Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Movie
Maker, and Windows Mail. It’s perfectly suited for simple e-mail and web browsing,
and it runs most programs written for Windows Vista. It rips and burns CDs
(but not DVDs), and it works well on a simple home or small business network.
Using Windows Vista Home Basic, you’re limited to either the Windows Vista
Standard interface or the Windows Vista Basic interface.
l
Windows Vista Home Premium As the name suggests, this edition includes all
the features found in Windows Vista Home Basic, plus the noteworthy addition
of the Windows Vista Aero user experience and Windows Media Center features.
(For all practical purposes, this is the successor to Windows XP Media Center
Edition.) It also adds support for Tablet PC features (assuming you have compatible
hardware), a more robust Backup program, the ability to create and edit
DVDs, and support for high-definition content in Windows Movie Maker.
l
Windows Vista Business Like its predecessor, Windows XP Professional, this
edition is designed for use in the workplace. Using Windows Vista Business, you
can connect to a corporate domain, create image-based backups, encrypt files,
host a Remote Desktop session, take full advantage of Tablet PC features, and use
roaming user profiles—to name just a few of its many business-oriented features.
Although this edition offers basic multimedia capabilities, such as the ability to
play video clips and music CDs, it doesn’t include Windows DVD Maker, or Windows
Media Center.

Windows Vista Enterprise This edition is not for sale through retail channels
and is available only to corporate and institutional customers through Volume Licensing
programs. It’s essentially identical to Windows Vista Business, with the
addition of Windows BitLocker drive encryption, support for multiple languages
in the Windows user interface, and additional licenses that allow you to run up
to four additional copies of Windows Vista using Virtual PC 2007.


Windows Vista Ultimate The most expansive (and expensive) retail edition of
Windows Vista combines all the features found in the other editions. Thus, it
includes Media Center features, just like Windows Vista Home Premium, and
support for multiple physical CPUs and the Volume Shadow Service, just like
Windows Vista Business. It also includes access to a suite of premium products
and services called Ultimate Extras.

The GNULinux Connection

The GNULinux Connection
An operating system is the low-level software that schedules tasks, allocates storage, and handles the interfaces to peripheral hardware, such as printers, disk drives, the screen, keyboard, and mouse. An operating system has two main parts: the kernel and the system programs. The kernel allocates machine resources, including memory, disk space, and CPU (page 1026) cycles, to all other programs that run on the computer. The system programs perform higher-level housekeeping tasks, often acting as servers in a client/server relationship. Linux is the name of the kernel that Linus Torvalds presented to the world in 1991 and that many others have worked on since then to enhance, stabilize, expand, and make more secure.

The History of GNULinux
This section presents some background on the relationship between GNU and Linux.
Fade to 1983
Richard Stallman (www.stallman.org) announced[1] the GNU Project for creating an operating system, both kernel and system programs, and presented the GNU Manifesto,[2] which begins as follows:
[1] www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.html
[2] www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html
GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not UNIX, is the name for the complete UNIX-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it.
Some years later, Stallman added a footnote to the preceding sentence when he realized that it was creating confusion:
The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody would have to pay for *permission* to use the GNU system. But the words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge. That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between "free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price. Free software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to obtain copiesand if the funds help support improving the software, so much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it.
In the manifesto, after explaining a little about the project and what has been accomplished so far, Stallman continues:
Why I Must Write GNU
I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an institution where such things are done for me against my will.
So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I have resigned from the AI Lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent me from giving GNU away.
Next Scene, 1991
The GNU Project has moved well along toward its goal. Much of the GNU operating system, except for the kernel, is complete. Richard Stallman later writes:
By the early '90s we had put together the whole system aside from the kernel (and we were also working on a kernel, the GNU Hurd,[3] which runs on top of Mach[4]). Developing this kernel has been a lot harder than we expected, and we are still working on finishing it.[5]
...[M]any believe that once Linus Torvalds finished writing the kernel, his friends looked around for other free software, and for no particular reason most everything necessary to make a UNIX-like system was already available.
What they found was no accidentit was the GNU system. The available free software[6] added up to a complete system because the GNU Project had been working since 1984 to make one. The GNU Manifesto had set forth the goal of developing a free UNIX-like system, called GNU. The Initial Announcement of the GNU Project also outlines some of the original plans for the GNU system. By the time Linux was written, the [GNU] system was almost finished.[7]
[3] www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html
[4] www.gnu.org/software/hurd/gnumach.html
[5] www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.html
[6] See Appendix D or www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.
[7] www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html
Today the GNU "operating system" runs on top of the FreeBSD (www.freebsd.org) and NetBSD (www.netbsd.org) kernels with complete Linux binary compatibility and on top of Hurd pre-releases and Darwin (developer.apple.com/opensource) without this compatibility.
The Code Is Free
The tradition of free software dates back to the days when UNIX was released to universities at nominal cost, which contributed to its portability and success. This tradition died as UNIX was commercialized and manufacturers regarded the source code as proprietary, making it effectively unavailable. Another problem with the commercial versions of UNIX related to their complexity. As each manufacturer tuned UNIX for a specific architecture, it became less portable and too unwieldy for teaching and experimentation.
MINIX
Two professors created their own stripped-down UNIX look-alikes for educational purposes: Doug Comer created XINU (www.cs.purdue.edu/research/xinu.html) and Andrew Tanenbaum created MINIX (www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html). Linus Torvalds created Linux to counteract the shortcomings in MINIX. Every time there was a choice between code simplicity and efficiency/features, Tanenbaum chose simplicity (to make it easy to teach with MINIX), which meant that this system lacked many features people wanted. Linux goes in the opposite direction.
You can obtain Linux at no cost over the Internet (page 35). You can also obtain the GNU code via the U.S. mail at a modest cost for materials and shipping. You can support the Free Software Foundation (www.fsf.org) by buying the same (GNU) code in higher-priced packages, and you can buy commercial packaged releases of Linux (called distributions), such as Red Hat Linux, that include installation instructions, software, and support.
GPL
Linux and GNU software are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL, www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html). The GPL says you have the right to copy, modify, and redistribute the code covered by the agreement. When you redistribute the code, however, you must also distribute the same license with the code, making the code and the license inseparable. If you get source code off the Internet for an accounting program that is under the GPL and then modify that code and redistribute an executable version of the program, you must also distribute the modified source code and the GPL agreement with it. Because this arrangement is the reverse of the way a normal copyright works (it gives rights instead of limiting them), it has been termed a copyleft. (This paragraph is not a legal interpretation of the GPL; it is here merely to give you an idea of how it works. Refer to the GPL itself when you want to make use of it.)
Have Fun!
Two key words for Linux are "Have Fun!" These words pop up in prompts and documentation. The UNIXnow Linuxculture is steeped in humor that can be seen throughout the system. For example, less is moreGNU has replaced the UNIX paging utility named more with an improved utility named less. The utility to view PostScript documents is named ghostscript, and one of several replacements for the vi editor is named elvis. While machines with Intel processors have "Intel Inside" logos on their outside, some Linux machines sport "Linux Inside" logos. And Torvalds himself has been seen wearing a T-shirt bearing a "Linus Inside" logo.