"A genuine crack for Windows Vista has just been released by pirate group Pantheon, which allows a pirated, non-activated installation of Vista (Home Basic/Premium and Ultimate) to be properly activated and made fully-operational. Unlike cracks which have been floating around since Vista RTM was released in late November, this crack doesn't simply get around product activation with beta activation files or timestop cracks - it actually makes use of the activation process."
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Member since:2005-07-06
Perhaps the cost is significantly higher in Germany, but the full, non-oem, version of Vista Ultimate is $379 US at Amazon.com. Chances are it could be found cheaper elsewhere. Where did you find it for sale at $699 US?
Personally I think $379 is too expensive as well, but I will exercise my right not to buy it. I strongly dislike illegal copying of software.
EDIT: It is EUR 499 ($658 US) at Amazon.de, ouch. I still argue that it is motivation not to buy the product, not a justification to pirate it.
Edited 2007-03-04 15:04
Member since:2006-01-21
amazon.de has Vista OEM for roughly 185€ (OEM, 32 or 64 Bits) and the full non-OEM for about 499€. I can't comment on the availability of cheaper regular non-OEM versions here in Austria or Germany, but most local vendors I am aware of have the full Vista Ultimate advertised with prices starting at 500€ and settling at around 549€, leading to a pretty consistent and (if you allow me this personal statement) mind boggling high price-range of roughly (converted using[1])
657 - 724 USD.
My take on this is, that there is only a very limited market here in Austria for non-OEM versions of MS operating systems. Joe/Jane Doe kind of home users usually either settle for the OEM version that comes together with their computer or have a "computer expert" among their friends/relatives anyway, who supplies them with a "pirated"[*] version of a more capable /less restricted MS operating system (an astonishing high number of individuals run Windows 2000 Professional as their operating system, without having ever paid for it). SMEs rely on their existing computer support or volume pricing schemes from larger resellers or MS direct to get (OEM) versions and - judging from my experience - usually do not care whether they have an OEM version or not, as long as they can run their tools on it.
The only people I know who have actually bought the non-OEM version of MS operating systems in the past were individual contractors/freelancers/etc. who can't run pirated copies due to their occupation and are outside the usual corporate sales channels, and enthusiasts. This groups will pay the price of Vista ultimate without much bitching and the rest of the crowd can maybe now get their hands (at least temporarily) on a copy of Vista Ulitmate without paying a cent beyond the cost of the DVD+-R media.
While I'm not as familiar with the situation in Germany, I have a feeling, that it is not much different there.
Disclaimer: I'm against software "piracy"[*] and I have for the last three years refused to provide tech support for individuals who run "pirated"[*] copies of operating systems or applications, simply because this usually hurts the competion more than the market leader/nearly monopolist.
[1] http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi
[*]Personally, I find the usage of the word "pirate" for people who distribute non-genuine copies of operating systems pretty pathetic. Still, the mental image of buccaneers with parrots on their shoulders who are sitting on the deck of a ship with a blowing jolly rogers on top and try to crack Vista Ultimate on their shiny new notebooks is amusing at least
Edited 2007-03-04 16:12
Member since:2006-05-29
I found it at a local "Media Markt" the biggest electronics franchise shop in germany.
I don't use pirated software (especially not pirated OSes) so i simply won't use Vista. So far i found quite a lot of software replacements for Linux and for the rest i will have to stick with XP or switch to Mac in a couple of years.
I just can't believe those Vista prices...
Member since:2005-07-06
"Maybe we germans get butfu**ed extreastrong here,"
It is the same price here in Italy, and I have read that in Ireland Ultimate costs around 600€.
With the same money you can build a new computer, put Debian (or any other distro) on it and live happy.
Or buy a Mac Mini, including OS X.
Edited 2007-03-04 15:08
Member since:2005-07-08
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.""And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
Member since:
2006-05-29
I have seen it for 250€ (329$) but that is the OEM Version. The drawback of the OEM Version is that you have to decide if you want the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version, because only the retail version includes both.
Maybe we germans get butfu**ed extreastrong here, but it is much nore expensive everywhere outside the US than it is over there. But anyway, even 300$ would be outrageous for Vista since it realy doesn't come with that many new features.