Submitted by An anti-piracy check for Microsoft Windows is causing problems for some users who are being told their copies of operating system XP are not genuine. The tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, is aimed at cracking down on millions of illegal copies of Windows XP in circulation. Update: Microsoft isn’t the only one phoning home without consent: Apple does it too since 10.4.7. The goal is a little less disturbing (to check whether Widgets are up-to-date); however, it cannot be turned off.
“Customers have been crying out for a tool which could tell them if they have been duped,”
if you’re gonna make up nonsense for the press, at least make some effort to conjure up believable nonsense
That really is insulting. This is what happens when you have no fair competition in the marketplace and a bunch of docile sheep for a buying public.
This has nothing to do with competition.
You think they could get away with this on a truly level playing field?
In point of fact, the docile sheep part has some validity (some – many of us have to use Windows or have a good reason to use it to the exclusion of something else, such as having to run custom-built apps at work); lack of competition is purely a function of consumers resistance to buying anything else. I don’t buy the idea that MS is a monopoly anymore.
Absolutely – utter nonsense, users – legitimate users are crying out for a piece of software that does absolutely nothing for them – well apart from telling MS about their PC – Mmmm I believe that, just like the last Zimbabwe elections were free and fair.
MS needs to be a careful inconveniencing, patronizing and lying to your customers is never a good idea, no matter how big and powerful you are.
Its best not to piss in your own hat.
Given the comments on the net in the past week or so it had to happen.
An average user who bought a PC from a reputable vendor suddenly gets told by the god that is Microsoft, you are a pirate.
If this happened to me I would be rightly angry. If I had paid good money to a reputable PC vendor for a system only for some coding mistake at Microsoft to say that I am a pirate is unthinkable. The Microsoft Legal dept should have insisted that they err on the side of letting a few so called pirate through.
I smell a few class action lawsuits in the offing here.
This is going to cost them a lot of dosh unless they decide to stop this silliness… Somehow, I doubt it.
Do you really think MS would treat its customers like this if they really felt the pressure from real competition?
A good friend of mine went through this crap recently. His OEM copy from HP was detected as a pirated version. He did some online website deal where you enter some numbers from the inner ring on the CD into MS’s website and that page came back and said the CD was counterfeit! un-f*cking believable that this is what my friend spent an extra $110 for when he opted for XP Pro with his new laptop.
What really burns my @ss is that MS spends all this time trying to stop someone from pirating their POS operating system instead of spending the resources on making the damn thing secure and more stable.
So now when you go to download windows defender to protect yourself from all the piss poor security policies and code that MS cooked up in XP you can flip a coin and pray they don’t mark you as a criminal as the software checks to make sure you are *legit*
I recently removed my LEGIT copy of XP off my laptop and installed ubuntu linux. The machine boots faster, dosen’t randomly crash anymore, I don’t have to worry about malware and best of all I’m not treated like a criminal and given the equivilent of a cyber body cavity check when I go to update my operating system.
What really burns my @ss is that MS spends all this time trying to stop someone from pirating their POS operating system instead of spending the resources on making the damn thing secure and more stable.
What?!? They’ve stopped working on Vista?!?
What?!? They’ve stopped working on Vista?!?
I’m running the latest *beta* and from what I can see not a whole hell of a lot is going to change.
Its going to be an annoying, obnoxious and in your face operating system just like windows xp but with a whole new shitload of bandaids to cover over the more glaring issues.
In short its gonna be f–ked like every version of windows.
Care to elaborate on these “glaring issues” or how it’s “annoying, obnoxious, and in your face”?
How about explaining how every version of Windows is “f-ked”?
Or let me guess, you’re just posting that to get your comment score up?
Cmon man, atleast if you’re going to bash MS bash with reason.
For example, by using the latest beta are you use 5456 or their public beta? Since it’s been stated on multiple reviews the performance gains in that build. That seems to me like change is happening.
I also wouldn’t take anyone serious who proposes that MS is spending all of it’s resources on anti piracy measures..cmon man.
But again, I’d be interested to see what “bandaids” you think MS is putting on their OS…
Care to elaborate on these “glaring issues” or how it’s “annoying, obnoxious, and in your face”?
well lets see here, the beta likes to throw balloon tips up informing me of everything from updates to asking me if I want to take part in “customer feedback surveys” – I’ve got better things to do personally. Thats annoying and its obnoxious to have to deal with a freakin’ notification about something everytime I use the machine it seems.
Glaring issues is the same as always, security. Back in 2003 I remember reading about how .NET and LUA were going to help MS fully abstract the Win32 api. There were deomonstrations about how legacy applications would have ‘virtual’ registries to deal with security issues and backwards compatability, Hell my employer paid to send me to a few of these developer conferences where the hype was rich. Thats all gone. Now we have an LUA that drives a person damn near insaine while it prompts over and over asking you if you are SURE you want to do something.
How about explaining how every version of Windows is “f-ked”?
There is an anti-virus / anti-malware industry worth how many billions of dollars and you need me to explain how its f–ked ? By god man I would have thought it was plain as day at this point!
Or let me guess, you’re just posting that to get your comment score up?
I’m posting because I’m sick of it, absolutely positively fed up.
I was a major supporter of windows, just look at my previous posts if think I spend my time bashing MS.
I’ve been using the OS since version 2 and have developed software on windows for a living since version 3.0.
For example, by using the latest beta are you use 5456 or their public beta? Since it’s been stated on multiple reviews the performance gains in that build. That seems to me like change is happening.
Currently running it. I’m also running the beta of office 2007, which I actually am starting to enjoy.
I also wouldn’t take anyone serious who proposes that MS is spending all of it’s resources on anti piracy measures..cmon man.
I never said they spend all their resources on anti-piracy, I said they have been spending “all this time” meaning they are devoting resources that could far better serve their customers on bullshit imho.
But again, I’d be interested to see what “bandaids” you think MS is putting on their OS…
LUA is the biggest one. MS will never take the time to actually implement the strong ACL system they already within the OS properly. Instead they’ll hack shit together so that billy bob bumf–k’s POS software will still run instead of demanding more of the developers on the platform.
Hey I guess on the plus side if .net replaces all win32 development we might actually have a decent execution enviroment for secure software.
I’m not holding my breath. In fact beyond what I do at work I’m taking a long break from MS land.
I’ve not used Vista yet so I’ll take your word for it being obnoxious, though I don’t quite get how any copy of Windows with access to the Services function would remain obnoxious. SP2 gave us the (much needed for regular users) security centre which I personally found to be a pain in the arse. Balloon pop-ups with ‘you have no anti-vir/firewall’ appearing every here and there because it couldn’t play nice with what I use. Go into Services, and disable the git, problem solved.
There is the issue that this cuts access to Windows Update, but when it’s worth getting your patches from Microsoft (few and far between as they are for criticals…) you can always knock it on for the time it takes to update. Handily it saves me from these automatic ‘mandatory’ updates everyone seems to be having issues with too.
Vista though as I say, I’ll take your word for, wouldn’t put it past Microsoft to make certain things immune to being disabled even if they’re not required.
Please don’t feel safe that you will not be the target of malware on a GNULinux platform.
Malware works perfectly fine in the *nix world too.
This is theoretically true. I’ve been using Linux almost five years now. Number of viruses: 0, spyware infections: 0. I understand that Linux is not by design immune to these things (especially in the case that someone installs/executes just “anything” as root) but in reality, I don’t know a single person using Linux or a BSD who has ever been infected with anything – at all. Of course, everything I use is free, so there’s no adware or anything like that. People have been cautiously informing us that all OSes are vulnerable – and this is true – but aside from the Ramen worm and rootkits, I haven’t even heard of any other kind of malware infecting/affecting anyone.
99% of all of the software I install comes from my distro’s repository. The other 1% are tarballs of source code. My repositories include compiled binaries of some non-free software but they’ve not had any malware on them, at all, and I’m a complete slut when it comes to installing software; I’ll try anything. Yet, still, not one problem in this regard. There’s no Bonzi buddy for Linux as far as I know.
It may be a little annoying to hear free nixies talk about their seeming invulnerability constantly but for the most part, this is, in fact, the case. De facto rather than de jure, if you get my drift.
As for this article, this is like blaming a wild animal for biting. If you invite a badger into your house, you shouldn’t be surprised if you get bitten. If you use Windows, this is the kind of thing you should expect. I have a Windows 2000 machine and the original CDs. I’ve had no problems. I own every piece of software (all 2) that I run on that machine. I expect abject dicketry from Microsoft. If it happens, I’ll just shrug and deal with it because I have made the choice to run Windows on that machine.
*There is absolutely no reason, no negative sanction, for Microsoft to behave in any other way than it has.*
Because for the most part, Microsoft could break into the houses of its users, slaughter their families, and burn their houses down and those same people would STILL buy Windows LIKE CATTLE RACING EACH OTHER TO BE FIRST TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE. Because – they say – they don’t have “time” to learn something else. Fine, that’s fair enough – spend your “time” troubleshooting Windows and cleaning spyware off instead. Doesn’t matter to me.
It has *always* been this way. A statistically insignificant number of people (many of us) will switch, but for the most part, there is nothing Microsoft can do that will drive people away. I don’t even believe that Microsoft is a monopoly as many allege.
I quite easily found another OS, installed it, and have been using it for years now – as anyone can. I see Mac commercials on TV every night. Alternatives exist. The people who should be blamed are all of the people who complain constantly and apparently have time to deal with Microsoft, spyware, <insert your Windows criticism here> but no time to learn something else, keeping Microsoft’s momentum going out of their laziness or “lack of time.” (Lack of time rarely indicates lack of time; what it indicates is a desire to spend one’s free time on other pursuits – fair enough.)
In any case, people like this reap what they sow. Because either Windows’s flaws aren’t consuming that much time and energy, or else people would rather spend their time dealing with those than spend time switching platforms.
I’m just not particulary sympathetic to Windows users, nor am I particularly bitter at Microsoft. Hating a person or entity for their nature is a pointless exercise. Windows is closed source proprietary software sold for profit, and for no other reason.
It’s perfectly natural that they’d try to stop piracy and it is well within Microsoft’s fine traditions that this facility doesn’t always work properly. They do not care about the customer (because they’ll buy Windows no matter what is done to them), and when they’re not laughing at foaming-at-the-mouth Linux users, they’re laughing at their own customers for complaining, then forking over more cash for the next version of Windows. They don’t care, and why should they? All of the criticism of Microsoft is hot air. There’s no action behind it.
You should complain to Microsoft if it really bothers you, because otherwise you’re just going to let loose a cascade of “LOL N00B USE LINUX” posts. Alternately, you can deal with the inconveniences caused by this and just accept them as a matter of course in the same way I accept, say, crappy WiFi, broken ebuilds, and bizarre printer support/configuration in Linux. Pick your poison, and pick your irritations. Use what sucks least.
Alternately, accept the fact that there really is no free lunch – either you deal with alternate operating systems and their weaknesses and learning curves (and all have them), or you bend over for Microsoft. Either way, you pay (whether time or money). Such is reality.
Complaining is a good idea if it can improve or fix a problem, but really, the best place to take this is directly to Microsoft, and only if you can get a number of users who are willing to draw a line in the sand, to the extent that this can affect Microsoft’s bottom line.
There *are* alternatives. And not just Linux, either. If you’re a gamer and you’re sick of Windows, buy a console. But as long as you use proprietary software, be prepared to pay, the same way those of us who use free software pay our own price in terms of having to learn a whole bunch of tedious crap about configuration and kernels and stuff maybe we don’t really care too much about (I for one enjoy learning about some stuff – especially kernel stuff – but I would rather eat glass than fight with CUPS again).
One thing is certain: Consumers are a useless group for affecting change, because consumers are unlikely to do anything that inconveniences them even slightly.
Those who believe that consumers can drive change in the marketplace are idealists. It’s cute and all but in reality, the guy next door who also runs Windows and whom you think is “on your side” is subverting you – he’s going to shell out money for the next version of Windows because he “doesn’t have the time” to make a change, and make a stand.
At bare minimum, Linux and BSD can fork if everyone gets ticked off. Look at what happened to XFree86/xorg. There is no such equivalent in Windows.
On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to get WiFi working. And you won’t make your brain explode by learning the inscrutable theoretical computer science involved in getting Linux installed. Only people with huge brains and no sex lives – 190 IQ minimum, with at least 20 hours a day of free time – could possibly get Linux working and make it useful.
I understand that.
Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.
Wow, it’s not often you get to read a post that you’ve been trying to type out yourself for years. It was pure poetry, thank you, I can sleep now knowing my thoughts have been conveyed to the letter
Please don’t feel safe that you will not be the target of malware on a GNULinux platform.
Malware works perfectly fine in the *nix world too.
I’m sure it does.
It also will do far less damage as I don’t run as root on my linux system, thats going to limit where it installs. If I were to somehow get infected its going to be far easier to find and remove than on a windows system.
Considering I get my software from repositories or pure source I’m having a hard time figuring out how I’ll be infected exactly but whatever.
Atleast I don’t have to worry: I run Gentoo Linux on daily-basis, and I use Win2k only for gaming =P So no need to worry about security issues or Microsoft calling me a pirate =)
Well…I haven’t had these problems…yet…but as my Windows installations continue to dwindle…I won’t have to worry about it at all. Microsoft has lost this customer forever. I’ve just had it with the BS and as my Linux units continue to do more and more…MS will become less and less until some day soon…NOTHING.
Geez..they are already the richest outfit in the World…and they are beating up on a few million cheaters….obviously they have NO confidence in their new wonderful OS coming out…..when?
I bought my Compaq Presario last September and when Microsoft released WGA as a “CRITICAL” update I was able to set it so it would not show anymore; however, when I reinstalled the OS today I had to install WGA before I could use the “new” version Windows Update.
The “benefits” the user gets using the new Windows Update are things like “smaller downloads”, “quicker download times”, etc, but when I clicked on the details link the only thing shown was WGA. I guess the only way to make sure WGA does not get installed on the PC is to turn off automatic updates and manually download and install the updates.
That won’t work either because it make you download it before anything else
Well, you’re luckier than most. And surely luckier than I was when a few weeks back I reinstalled winxp from the original restore disks on my laptop: after finished I went to winupdate and it told me my copy is not genuine so I should just fsck off. I got so mad I would’ve easily smashed the head of any MS worker if any of them would’ve come my way. What I did was one of my sysadmin friends gave me a disk of his downloaded win updates, I installed all of them he had there, then went back to the winupdate site and then it said my copy was ok. We don’t know up to this day which update I installed made the checker change its mind, but I’m still pissed. If I ever again happen to see a not-genuine notice for any of my original installs, that would be the end of MS on my machines – well, on my desktop I hardly boot windows anyway for a long time now. Still, if I pay for a software [or a service] I like to be treated like a paying customer, not like a criminal and causing me trouble and extra time to resolve issues that shouldn’t have occured in the first place.
It is easy to experience this insult from Microsoft.
All you need to do is buy a PC running windows XP home OEM edition. Then try installing it a few times.
Microsoft will soon invalidate your key and accuse you of being a criminal.
I have found that neither Ubuntu or Slackware linux do this to me. Regardless of how many times I reformat my own hard disk.
Apple dont seem to care how many times you reload Mac OS either onto your own Mac.
As usual anti piracy measures inconvenience the genunine users.
…Ballmer is the petulant, cruel Emperor Commodus.
Ok,I don’t disagree on MS check on their OS to see if it is genuine or not, It is part of their strategy to counter piracy, but what I totally disagree about is to bother its legitimate users with horrible practices of de-activation after adding few hardwares or reinstalling thier OS; as we all know windows is highly unstable and needs continuous maintainance, even MS admited the best way to get rid of viruses is by erasing the HD and clean reinstalling the OS. For this reason I have huge hesitancy to try MS products anymore.
I think that antipiracy MS is trying to enforce might one day be the tool to kill this giant.
MS knows no one will buy Vista right away. To get the ball rolling, they need people to pirate Vista just as they did WinXP. So forbidding pirates from upgrading WinXP will encourage them to pirate Vista.
Brilliant.
apple is a company and will act like one, nothing like this surprises me anymore or even bothers me now
people keep paying companies that do this stuff, why would they change?
Win98 dropped.
WinXP stop the piracy
Vista just around the corner
Looks like a good money making stratergy to me especially if Vista has nailed down many od the piracy issues upon activation.
People put it like it’s user’s fault for being inept or dumb enough to run Windows. “As I run Linux, I don’t have to worry, take it, Windows users”.
This is outrageous. There’s a lot of situations where people just need to run Windows, and they can’t simply switch to another OS. For several reasons like applications, budget, training…
So lets please stop this “ZOMG leet” attitude.
Who are you talking at? It’s quaint and in fashion today to complain about trolling, zealoutry, and fanboy-ism, but to really succeed at it you need a troll, zealout or fanboy to point to.
Geeks, nerds, intellectuals, and most other smart people who congregate around a group of ideas are always going to have a “leet” like attitude (not that all of them do, but I’m saying some of them will). The attitude predates computers by a long shot.
Correction : it cannot be easily turned off by the uninitiated. If you check the comments after the link you come across the following :
It seems that the “demand” comes from ‘fetchadvisory’ which is in that same Resources folder.
fetchadvisory is started up via launchd – its plist file is “com.apple.dashboard.advisory.fetch.plist” in the “/System/Library/LaunchDaemons” folder where we see that it is run every 28800 seconds (i.e. every 8 hours).
For those who don’t know OsX : this means this behaviour is caused by a launchd (apple replacement for init/rc scripts/cron), which means that you can disable it by removing the job or setting it to “disabled”, perhaps using this nice gui http://www.codepoetry.net/products/launchdeditor
Caveat : I haven’t tried this yet as I am at work.
Activation / genuine advantage schemes have now come to Linux too – the new Xandros Linux 4.0 contains its own activation scheme now.
That’s because Xandros is a proprietary operating system just like Microsoft Windows.
There will always be proprietary systems based on free software like GNU/Linux; what’s important is that we’ll always have Free systems based on this same software, so the proprietary ones can be safely ignored.
That’s because Xandros is a proprietary operating system just like Microsoft Windows.
That is simply untrue. Xandros is Debian unstable with GNU tools, hardly a “proprietary operating system.” What Xandros does have is XFM (Xandros File Manager), which is their own proprietary software, and the only portion of the open source OS that is protected by license.
He didnt say it was just about Xandros proprietary stuff on the cd. And it is more than just the file manager. A good number of things are Xandros proprietary pieces and there are other things added in that while not Xandros proprietary stuff it is other companies proprietary parts which I would say that makes it a VERY proprietary operating system.
Why people would only move a little way toward freedom is beyond me. <<— that isn’t bashing that is stating that it is beyond my understanding why anyone would go that route, no more and no less.
Not the same in the slightest. Xandros “activation” is actually just registering your set up with the Xandros networks, so you can get software from those repositories…..
It is called “activation” because the whole ethos of Xandros is to capture the market of people moving from Windows, so they figure activation is a term they will understand.
The difference here is that although Xandros had some proprietary components out of the box, being Debian based, you are free to change repositories and get software/updates from somewhere else.
People are making alot out of nothing. MS has the
right to have Windows XP sync up with servers
on MS’s side if it wants too. It’s been doing it
for a long time now and people are just finding
out? As long as you have legit version of the OS
you have nothing to fever.
If you don’t like it … Use Linux ….
If you don’t like it … Use Linux ….
You’re a joke. That’s your argument ? That’s your way of trying to make MS to make better sw and not to bug genuine windows users ? Oh wait, you say genuine users don’t have to be afraid. That’s the same sh*t american police and agencies et al. tell you when they tap your phones, so you probably got used to it. We, on the other hand, are not and find this argument BS. Also, you’d really need to educate yourself on the issue to see that there are many people who got bugged by the validation check despite using a legitimate copy.
Other than that, yes most of us are better off using linux and not taking part in this whole trash being called wga. Anyway, what’s the “advantage” in all that ?
I’ve been in IT for over 20+ years. I average user
doesn’t take the time to do the little things. Like
updating anti-virus apps,still opening e-mail attachments
from people they don’t know and not using Windows
Update link to update the monthly patches.
In a Corporate world the systems are locked down now
an the updates our pushed to them.
I think most of the problems are with the OEM CDs.
I try to stay away from them. Just buy the regular
over the counter version and you shouldn’t have any
issues.
You must have missed the stories about Legitimate Users being told by the WGA software that their copy of XP is pirated, when it was bought from a major OEM and they have the Certificate of Authenticity.
Pirates, the guilty, and the unfortunate innocents who get caught by the False Positives are the ones with something to worry about.
MS has the right?
And that is exactly what is wrong with MS and it’s army of unthinking drones.
As MS has no idea what I intend to use my computer for and what data I may store on it, they HAVE NO right to make any demands on me once I have payed for my license. They have no right to force me into one program(wga) to use another program(update) that was available in the original agreement when I purchased my license.
WGA, Critical update! Dude, take off your freaking blinders. You have fallen into the “honest people have nothing to fear” crap that governments and billion dollar companys spew to get everyone to surrender their freedoms.
… to stop your mac from phoneing home. its called little snitch. it’s a worth while investment to see which of your applications try to start a TCP connection to anywhere.. port 80 or otherwise, and you can choose to block it perminantly or just till the application quits. Its the 1st thing I install on any clean mac. I control who I send data to.
It can, It can…
Yep, I moved all my machines over to Linux like 5 years ago. I even stopped supporting Windows servers at work and now support Linux server; we keep finding reason to ’86’ or current Windows infrastructure and this is one of them.
So, yeah, if you don’t like WGA, get an OS that offers a REAL genuine advantage…. Linux…
Edited 2006-07-05 07:26
The way this works is that Xandros Networks, the updating tool that is needed to download criticial product and security updates, is set as disabled out of the box, and you cannot enable it and use it until you activate your product. You can still get updates via regular apt-get or synaptic and using debian sources, but you run the risk of breaking your system, especially proprietary Xandros-specific apps which only they can update safely through Xandros Networks. So, Xandros Networks is pretty crucial to maintaining an up-to-date system unless you really know what you’re doing with other methods. And Xandros Networks is crippled without activation.
The actual activation process is fairly painless – register at the Xandros site, punch in your serial number, they send you a code, you then punch that in to unlock Xandros Networks. The code is only valid for ten activations, and you must re-activate (i.e. use up one activation) on each new install, be it a new machine or the same machine. After ten activations, you will no longer be able to activate the product until you contact Xandros Support and assure them that you are a legitimate user. It’s up to them, then, whether they grant you further activation codes or not.
Pollycat! I have missed the point here and at the forums… I must of been blind.
Are you saying that without activation, without XNetworks that you cannot get security updates?
Do widgets present some special risk to OSX? It doesn’t seem to feel the need to call home every day to find out whether anything else is not an authentic version. Or is it checking everything else but for some reason, the other method doesn’t work for widgets?
It seems an odd choice of something to make a special effort to check daily on.
There’s a big difference between an OS that checks if its authentic and licensed versus a javascript-based widget that checks to make sure its up-to-date.
Apple’s OS doesn’t do any sort of license checking and its widgets are (conveniently) making sure they’re up-to-date, as with many other third party widgets I have installed on my system. They’re all free anyway, so why should I stop them from checking back on their manufacturer site for a newer version? Heck I wish all my freeware would do that; it would save me tons of headaches checking macupdate.com for new software.
Yes, I am not saying that it is particularly a bad thing to do. The question is, why is it necessary at all? Are widgets so important, and is keeping them up to date and in sync so important? It seems like a colossal waste of effort to choose this particular thing to check up on, and daily at that.
Hi Adam,
You are right that the Xandros File Manager is proprietary software and protected by license. However, I think there are also other unique “pieces” of the OS developed by Xandros which you would not find in regular Debian unstable, such as the Xandros Installer, the Xandros Networks app (which is the one that requires activation), and the new Xandros Security Suite. In the new version 4, they also include customized versions of Digikam (which they call “Photo Manager”) and Amarok (which they have re-branded as “Music Manager”).
These things would be tricky to keep updated reliably if you did not have access to Xandros Networks and relied solely on apt-get and Debian sources, as only Xandros can really provide reliable updates to these propietary apps. For example, it’s fairly easy to “break” the Xandros File Manager in some way if not updating from pure Xandros sources. And of course, only Xandros can fix any bugs in their own software.
On top of this, of course, are licensed versions of other commercial software which is not to be found in regular Debian, such as Sun’s JRE, Flash Player, Acrobat Reader and, in the Home Premium version, Codeweaver’s Crossover Office and Versora’s Progression migraton software.
Add to this all the customizations in terms of unique artwork and there is actually quite a bit in Xandros which is not open source and which is protected by license. It is no wonder that they wish to be fairly recompensed for this work and wish to stop people just taking all this stuff for free. The question is whether their new activation scheme will achieve this goal.
Edited 2006-07-05 12:57
I have a Gateway laptop, that now insists it has an illegal copy of XP. WGA does not merely prevent installation of non-critical updates, but all updates.
I firmly beleive that this is an attempt, in the face of delayed Vista and Office 200x, to sqeeze more money out of Microsoft’s monopoly base. I simply refuse to re-purchase the operating system as I obviously paid Microsoft indirectly from Gateway.
Make no bones about it, Microsoft is a Monopoly. Sure, I am very familiar with Linux, love it in fact. But due to the monopoly situation, I have to have Windows XP Pro for work. Everyone else uses it. And try to purchase a Gateway or Dell (Non-Server) without an Operating System! Microsoft pressures vendors to not sell systems without their OS pre-loaded.
Way to bite the hand that feeds, Microsoft. Did you not learn anything from the RIAA? Can ya not be satisfied with 97% of the market share? Or are ya hitting saturation, therefore no growth, and now have to charge people twice to generate revenue? Despicable.
Personally, I am appalled at any business establishment that outright assumes that I am a criminal. For a smaller example, we have a campus bookstore that requires patrons to leave their backpacks by the front door and not proceed into the store with them. First off, I’m not going to leave 400$ (including a 150 calculator) backpack contents unsecured. Secondly, if you want to assume that I have criminal intentions when I enter your store, I will be spending my money elsewhere.
The only difference is that MS IS A MONOPOLY.
Apple will follow this way…
If they decide to give OS X license to other pc manufactures, you will see serial nrs, activation codes etc…
I think just entering a serial number thingy is creepy enough.
…or does it seem like our tools are taking control of us? Arent OSes supposed to be things that just are supposed to work?! Seems like they have become rock stars and pop stars these OSes…they are like high maintainence girlfriends or something….”update me”…”take me out to dinner”…etc etc. You get the point. All I want is a damn OS that does everything with as little bit of show as is possible. Seems to me that Linux fits the bill for that. This is becomign like a pissing contest between OS X and Windows. At least OS X is a usable not over the top OS that does not have even half the security vulnerabilities that Vista is going to have. God I am going to stick with XP Pro for a little while longer but then I am gonna have to switch to Linux it seems. I am honestly tired of all this. All I want to do is do my work, surf the internet, game, check my email and do some Office type stuff. Is that too much to ask from OS writers? I guess it is.