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Wait, don't I need Linux Genuine Advantage to take advantage of aptitude in Mint?

I mean, how does Torvalds & Clement Lefebvre know that I purchased a copy and that it wasn't pirated?

http://www.linuxgenuineadvanta...

How about Microsoft Linux? http://www.mslinux.org/ They even have Linux Genuine Advantage in place already :) http://www.linuxgenuineadvanta...

*If* such a mechanism was coded in, the nature of open source would mean it would be found by others. This in turn would compromise the trust of the ENTIRE kernel. That trust can take years to build up - but be detroyed in a heartbeat.

If I were in Linus' position, I'd be tempted to build a so-obvious-as-to-be-sarcastic backdoor just for giggles. Something along the lines of Linux Genuine Advantage; but with lots of suspicious TLAs in the comments.

Though, architecturally, a PAM module might be a better place for such a thing.

It is a semi-equivalent system.

Now with Linux Genuine Advantage!

Obligatory link to Linux Genuine Advantage (TM).

I think you forgot to mark the (TM). ;-)

Linux is always Genuine.

Not always, but at least you do have the option with Linux Genuine Advantage.

You even have to register your Linux distro.

What the crap are you talking about? I don't have to register my Linux distro.

I can install my Ubuntu system completely offline without any registration, and it can stay that way, thankyou very much. Unless you somehow didn't get this joke a few years back.

Nah, you can get all the closed-source goodness on Linux here

In fact, I think the Free Software movement should write an application to detect pirated closed-source software.

GNU Genuine Advantage? Sounds like a bad joke. No wait, it is.

I think you missed a critical update.

http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org

Let's just say that I don't run Windows for personal use even in a VM. It's just got nothing I need in it. And with very rare exceptions I don't buy software even for Linux. Sometime I do it just to encourage the vendor - RedHat, WordPerfect, X-Plane, Unreal Tournament 2003, World of Warcraft are I think the only ones (WOW under wine). In each case I tried the stuff for a few days and binned it.

I don't steal the stuff - it's just been many years since there wasn't a free and open solution for something I wanted to do with a PC. In Linux the office packages are free. The 3d modeller is free. The photo editors are free. The video editors, mail clients, mail servers, web servers, scripting languages, programming editors, version control, iSCSI SAN solution, PC Imaging solution, management infrastructure, GIS, CRM, CMS - they're all free. There's even free antivirus (what for, I don't know), and free Linux Genuine Advantage for recent emigrees who need it for nostalgia. Any tool I need is a few clicks away, and the trouble isn't in getting stuff that's freely given, it's choosing the right tool from the diverse selection offered. In almost every case the stuff is at a level commercial software might come to in a few years (Inkscape?). In some few cases there are outstanding commercial apps that are more feature rich, but they've evolved so far beyond my needs that they're difficult to learn and use and I'm better off with something simple that just does the job I want do without getting in my way.

That Windows doesn't have anything for me should be enough, but there's more... I have rather peculiar computing needs. I try a lot of platforms and I like my desktop image to stay fairly stable. In the past I've take a system image of this dual Xeon workstation and put it on by bl460c and my Atom demo board and my Via Mini-ITX board and a couple laptops too. Next month I might want to put it on the AMD quad core I'm buying. With linux I can do that as a practical matter, and it's fair game for licensing as well. With Windows that's a both a no-go and a no-no.

Given your comments here - which seem informed, educated and well though out, but with a strong pro-windows and anti mac & linux bias, with a specialization in 3d graphics rendering perhaps - I'm unlikely to be interested in your software. You can keep your precious bits. I'm fine, thanks.

Why I want copyright abolished has nothing to do with your precious bits any more than it does Michael Jackson or Inglourious Basterds. It has to do with Jazz and Rock and Roll, 1984 and Farenheit 451. It has to do with the social contract of copyright - you get protection for a short time, in exchange for which you are encouraged to create - but the works after a time pass into the culture as all intellectual endeavors must if we are to have the progress which is copyright's purpose . Your works, creative and inventive as they might be, were not built in a vacuum. You stood on the shoulders of giants that went before you. To make copyright eternal - either for code or for artists is to deprive my children not just of the privilege of extending your work, but even to stand where you stood when you did your work so they can make their own contributions to the pool of knowledge. It is to steal from them of their very culture. It's wrong and evil.

Copyright as it is is broken. It should be abolished.

Well you should try Avira Professional then. They've got a Linux version and the FIRST 30 days are FREE. With on-access virus scanning you should have the most secure Linux ever.

Don't forget to get LGA as well. It will give you all the benefits of WGA, on Linux - with the added bonus that it's FOSS!

These days you'll have to deal with the Linux Genuine Advantage.

Linux Genuine Advantage

Yeah, but only Linux comes with Linux Genuine Advantage(TM)

A lot more of those shops will switch to GNU/Linux when they realise that they can install Linux Genuine Advantage instead.

I have never used steam, but some other coments below made it seem that at least every month after offline mode it would decide it needs "re-legitimizing". This starts to seem alot like linux genuine advantage pretty quick.

I would go into more details but I am just learning how to use all the new features myself as I am only beginning the process of deploying it out to the corporate desktops.

Ah, there's the rub. There are pain points. You've a few more miles to walk in those shoes before they're broke in.

You might just get it done. From my first look 7 does look a lot better. But you should actually use those features before you start bragging them up because the devil is in the details. For Full Disk Encryption it's not the deployment challenge - it's the challenge of upgrading a system with it to $Windows_Next_Version. For the image based installers... well, the marketing feature list reads better than the documentation. Probably because the marketing feature list is the documentation.

Centralized software licensing, auditing,.... are all new features in Vista that would appeal to the enterprise.

That this is true makes me sad. I would prefer that people subscribed to open source license enforcement and auditing software. That is, if they feel compelled to have a killswitch at all.

You need Linux Genuine Advantage.

Come back when each release of Linux [...]

You come back when WGA includes source code and a patch. Until then, I'll be sending my money in the direction of http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/source/ and http://www.alienos.com/wp-content/uploads/linux_gen_adv_crack.patch

I'm trying to figure out what all the fuss is about but I can't find this WGA thing. Does anyone know what repository it's in?

http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

You can have it if you want.

LMAO thats great!

You can have it if you want.

That's another great thing about linux. You can turn that stuff off either individually or totally. With linux it's all up to you.

All the way back to the command line with no GUI at all? That's

sudo telinit 3

Or you just can disable individual features with the menu. Unlike Aero, turning off the glitter doesn't slow down the machine at all. Have it your way, whatever that is. Are you totally pumped about Genuine Advantage? You can have that too!

With the death of Windows XP those new to the Linux environment may find Linux Genuine Advantage comforting and familiar. After they get acclimated they won't need such things any more. I wish someone would write an annoying service that pops up every few minutes to ask ambiguous "are you sure?" questions, an antivirus mock-up, a "security center" gui and mock GUI firewall application. New linux users are always looking for that stuff and fearful when they can't find it.

Although Linux Genuine Advantage is a required download for all Linux installations :)

That's not true! There is Linux Genuine Advantage(TM).

"there is no Ubuntu Genuine Advantage"

Linux Genuine Advantage(TM) is an exciting and mandatory new way for you to place your computer under the remote control of an untrusted third party!

According to an independent study conducted by some scientists, many users of Linux are running non-Genuine versions of their operating system. This puts them at the disadvantage of having their computers work normally, without periodically phoning home unannounced to see if it's OK for their computer to continue functioning. These users are also missing out on the Advantage of paying ongoing licensing fees to ensure their computer keeps operating properly.

... there is no Ubuntu Genuine Advantage ...

Linux will never do this. Ever. Period.

Oh really? Never say never. ;)

Rubbish. Everything requires activation. How else will you get the Genuine Advantage? Even Linux requires activation.

So when your legit copy of Vista dumps you to a blue screen of death, you can rest assured that you are experiencing the Genuine Advantage.

Linux users don't have to be left out. Enjoy.
http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

The Windows Genuine Advantage servers went down worldwide, marking any Windows machines as pirated during Microsoft's server outage. Meanwhile, the Linux Genuine Advantage(TM) activation server was up the whole time. Truly another victory for Open Source software!

http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

This whole concept of authentication and WGA is flawed.

For the Slashdoters who feel left out, the Linux Genuine Advantage site is still up.
http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

Perhaps it's time to switch to Linux Genuine Advantage instead.

Available here.

Damn it, it is broken?! I want to benefit from this Advantage program! They should open source WGA. Bugs would be fixed immediately by volunteers, so we can enjoy it without problems!
I'm switching to Linux Genuine Advantage(TM), guys. It is better and open-source!

There is always Linux Genuine Advantage http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/ to keep it safe from piracy.

Guess that means Ubuntu users don't need this anymore.

So all the hard work from the guys at http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/ was for nothing?

But of course it's available if you do want it.

Naturally Linux Genuine Advantage is open source, and not to be outdone by Microsoft platform hackers a hack is available to auto-certify LGA without actually contacting the LGA server.

Ok, 2 AC's have posted links to http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/ .

Now, not wanting to sound like a troll, but RedHat 7.3 had an update service which was kinda like that.

You mean this?

http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org/

Here's an easy way to fix it

Send them to...
Linux Genuine Advantage

--
Windows: Why its file system still blows?.doc
Unix: README_JUST_AS_STUPID.DOC
Unix: readme_just_as_stupid.doc

Don't forget to install Linux Genuine Advantage on that fresh new Linux install!

This makes me so glad that I run Linux Genuine Advantage instead!

Hey you running that non-Genuine Linux distro! Pay up!

Linux Genuine Advantage

Fortunately for us, now we have Linux Genuine Advantage to validate Linux installations. I wonder how many of them are non-genuine...