No Windows 7 XP Mode For Sony Vaio Z Owners 198
Voyager529 writes "While virtually every Core 2 Duo processor supports the hardware virtualization technology that powers the Windows 7 XP Mode, The Register UK reports that the Core 2 Duo processors in the Sony Vaio Z series laptops had the virtualization features intentionally crippled in the BIOS. Senior manager for product marketing Xavier Lauwaert stated that the QA engineers did this to make the systems more resilient against malicious code. He also stated that while they are considering enabling VT in some laptop models due to the backlash, the Z series are not among those being retrofitted."
It's Sony (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not like they've got a long history depicting a care for their customers, rootkits being only 1 example.
flash (Score:5, Insightful)
his won't affect geeks running Linux and VMs... (Score:2, Insightful)
...because we already know Sony is evil as hell and we don't buy their laptops.
And anybody who went and forgot that lesson deserves whatever abuse Sony heaps on 'em.
Let me fix that for you... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Senior manager for product marketing Xavier Lauwaert stated that the QA engineers did this to make the systems more profitable by creating an artificial differentiation we can use to charge more money for basically the same thing."
Re:It's Sony (Score:1, Insightful)
To be fair, just about every manufacturer ships with this feature disabled. Sony just made it harder to enable.
go to hell Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Legitimate reason ? (Score:3, Insightful)
In particular, with recent intel setups, intel's "Vpro" remote management widgetry depends on VT(and a bunch of other intel sauce). Disabling that is an excellent way to produce a line of systems that will appeal to individuals and smaller businesses, that you can sell cheaply to capture that cost sensitive demographic, that enterprise IT won't touch with a 10 foot pole, leaving them to buy your more expensive line.
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Insightful)
hey, my mother was a douche bag, you insensitive clod.
Re:What? Malicious code?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Lenovo disables it on almost all of their laptops, but its a simple step to go into bios and change the setting.
Dell disables it on a few random laptops, like the 1420N and D830, but once again its in the bios....usually under POST settings.
Re:The real reason (Score:3, Insightful)
Virtual Box will still run without VT, it just won't be optimal. I've got an old Athlon 64 that doesn't support VT or its AMD equivalent, but I can still run a Windows XP Virtual Box instance on it ;)
Re:What? Malicious code?? (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope. That shipped built in.
What did you THINK was eventually going to form Skynet anyways?
Re:6 out of 11 is not "virtually every" (Score:3, Insightful)
And in fact Sony did make Z series laptops with VT incompatible C2D chips (I know since my cousin has one) plus in some cases they used chipsets that do not support VT (or at least not easily with clever SMI hacking). I bet another concern is that buggy hardware on some of the Z series is made to work with System Management Mode (SMM) code in the BIOS, stuff that was never tested with VT.
The question no one is asking... (Score:3, Insightful)
If Sony is disabling features to make their laptops more resiliant against malware attacks, can we expect them to offer support and resolution to malware attacks that occur because of their hardware/BIOS?
I bet not. So why not leave alone that which you are not willing to fully support anyways?
On another note, Intel (amd probably AMD) mess with the VT features, scattering them all over the processor product lines. You need a frakking CPA to work through the permutations and find the processor(s) that have all the features and performance you want or will pay for. !Simple. !Friendly. Evil.
"They" (Score:3, Insightful)
Trying to characterize the modern Sony in any meaningfully consistent way is an exercise in futility. Sony, like any major Japanese company, has always existed in a number of fairly distinct units or "silos," but in their present incarnation, they are spread across such a wide variety of markets that it's almost a coincidence they bear the same brand name.
Sony BMG, obviously, is the most consumer-unfriendly, as well as the least market-savvy. The rootkit debacle of four years ago has stayed with the tech community and poisoned its perception of the entire brand, but it's not really fair to conflate that with anything the VAIO division does -- VAIO is off in its own world from Sony BMG.
VAIO, as evidenced by this story, obviously has its own struggles, as does Sony Computer Entertainment, as does each Sony business unit in its own way. But they do not move as one.