Your Daily Dose of Microsoft

The European Union is considering anti-trust action against Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal ran a column today about the Windows XP registration process, which is apparently news to a lot of people who don't read enough Slashdot. IBM says Microsoft is arrogant. Microsoft's XP Beta program is a little more open than they thought. And finally, and most amusingly, one of the threat letters being sent out by the BSA on behalf of Microsoft was sent to (wait for it...) OSDN. Okay, no more Microsoft submissions today, please.

Comments

Hmm...

[Wakko Warner]

Does the BSA reimburse companies for the waste of manhours it takes to find and verify all software licenses?

They should, you know.

- A.P.

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Re:Hmm...

[einhverfr]

I am starting a small company devoted to promoting Linux. We will have a couple of machines running Windows in order to work out any potential interoperability problems, but nearly all machines will be running software which is freely redistributable.

I have thought about asking my business partner to turn us into the BSA for an audit claiming that we are pirating RedHat Linux 7.1 to see how they respond... It would be an informative experience, though we would have to plan ahead and make sure that the few proprietary products we have do have (again, for interop testing purposes) all the documentation associated...

I think that it is great that Microsoft is cracking down so hard against piracy. Most software piracy involves software which is "industry standard" and so harms the competitive system as much as anything Microsoft has ever done (who recently pirates Word Perfect for Windows?? Compare to Microsoft Office 2000). Hence a pirated copy of Office 2000 might have denied StarOffice or Lotus a piece of the market share. Same goes for Windows and Linux.

More importantly, these generate real business liabilities in addition to the issue of lost documentation. Adobe used to have very restructive technological measures in place to prevent the piracy of their fonts (many of which resemble Microsoft's current tactics). However, it became popular for disgruntled employees to send print jobs to postscript printers which woudl change the password on them, hence the eeprom would have to be replaced and the fonts relicensed. The very real problems that this created forced Adobe to drop these measures.

Microsoft has not learned from Adobe's mistakes. Imagine viruses which tamper with the activation process, forcing you to relicense your copy of Office or Windows... Such viruses would be an exact parallel to the attacks against postscript printers and font licensing that forced Adobe to rethink their licensing position on fonts.

This will surely cause some companies to rethink their dependence on Windows....

Re:Does it bother anyone else...

[BRock97]

You do have a choice. I just wish more people would realize that they don't have to put up with this sort of thing, and choose to eschew Microsoft.

I couldn't agree more. That is why I think a grass roots effort needs to be mobilized. Creating a website or posting this sort of thing on Slashdot won't help, it just leads to informed people complaining to informed people. The informed people need to get in touch with the uninformed. Around my house and where I work, I am considered one who has a some what informed opinion on things computer related. Lately, I have been getting asked quite a bit about WinXP and I tell people what I think. Stay with 2000/98SE. Got to get the word out! The people I feel bad for are those who buy a new computer. Ouch.

Bryan R.

that's not the issue I'm wondering about

[budcub]

Lets say I run a small business, and one day a strange man walks in my door, shows me a business card saying he's from the BSA, and demands to audit all my computers, to make sure I don't have any pirate software. That's the issue we need to discuss.

Suppose I tell him no, you can't enter, and call the police to have him arrested for trespassing. What's he going to do, get a search warrant? On what grounds? These are the questions I'd like to see answered.

If you want to use wget

[dudle]

It has to fit in the same line...

wget --dot-style=mega --header="User-Agent:Download Manager" http://svmsftwxp.conxion.com/download/wxp_pro_rc1. iso

H.

BSA?

[zpengo]

Boy Scouts of America? Geez...Microsoft is more sinister than I thought....

American Business vs European Union

[Rushuru]

What influence can the European Union have on an american company like microsoft?

Sure, Microsoft sells billions of dollars of software in Europe each year, but I hardly see what kind of "punishment" the EU could inflict to Microsoft.
-Ban their Microsoft products? Then it would pose some serious problems to european businesses and their competitivness.
-Impose an extra tax on Microsoft Products? As Microsoft is a monopoly, I guess people will still buy their products even if it's more expensive.

I really have no clue on how the EU could force Microsoft to do something against its will.

Re:American Business vs European Union

[tb3]

The same way the EU could stop General Electric and Honeywell (two U.S. companies) from merging. Check out the cnnfn story.

From the article: "The European Union Tuesday officially rejected General Electric Co.'s planned $42 billion acquisition of Honeywell International Inc., the first time a proposed merger between two U.S. companies has been blocked solely by European regulators."

Re:Does it bother anyone else...

[Erasmus Darwin]

Just don't install Windows XP. I don't use Windows anything. So I'm not succeptible.

Well good for you. Unfortunately, those of us not living in never-never land have discovered that, contrary to popular belief, there's a lot of software out there that hasn't been ported to Linux.

Don't get me wrong -- I love Linux. I use it both at home and at work. It's been my general operating system of choice for about 6 years now. However, that doesn't change the fact that there're some computer-related activites for which Windows is the better answer, either because more commercial developers supports it or the software requires less effort to install-and-use.

So until Linux fully addresses these issues (something which, as much as I'm a fan of Linux, I doubt will every fully happen), there will be a need for some people to install and use Windows. Claiming otherwise is at best misguided advocacy and at worst trolling.

Re:Getting WinXP Preview without registration

[DarkEdgeX]

For people who are copying/pasting this guy's URL, make note of the fact that there's an extra space in his (eg: ..._rc1. iso, note the space after the dot.. the real URL has no space). Also note that if you just try to download this file using IE or Netscape or [insert browser here] the file will fail to download because your User Agent won't be set to "Download Manager". You MUST set the User Agent correctly. 90% of people who say the link is broken or doesn't work are suffering from this problem.

Is it just me...

[megaduck]

...or is Microsoft being incredibly stupid? Let's see... According to this article, they've managed to piss off:

The DOJ. A thick, plodding, but huge and relentless adversary with the legal power to carve up the company like a turkey if they are ever found guilty.

The EU. I don't think that they have the legal authority over Microsoft that the US courts do, but they can effectively create a "Microsoft-Free" zone named Europe where rival tech companies can flourish.

Sun. One of the biggest server and workstation manufacturers in the world. No big loss on immediate sales (Windows on SPARC? Thank God, no!), but Sun has a lot of clout with standards committees and governments like the EU.

IBM. The 800 pound gorilla. Lord of the mainframes. One BILLION dollar investment in Linux. Army of lawyers. Need we say more?

The Wall Street Journal. This kills me. The most respected newspaper in America says not to upgrade to Windows XP. Unmitigated PR disaster.

The Open Source Movement(TM). You know, this isn't as stupid as it sounds. I still think they could make a ton of money with an MS branded Linux distro and Office for Linux. Heck, I'd buy it.

Consumers. This "registration" bulls**t is going to piss off a lot of ordinary people. It's not like they don't have alternatives, too. *Cough*Apple!*Cough* *Cough*

The truly mind-blowing thing is that Microsoft hasn't tried to mitigate any of this damage. No olive branches, no buyoffs, no positive spin, no nothing. With their blind arrogance and greed they are slowly turning the entire world against them. Good work, guys! Keep it up!

Windows XP Licenses and Consumers

[Compulawyer]

I for one question the legality of this scheme with copies of XP sold to consumers for home use. The problem is with the way it is done. Courts have invalidated terms of shrinkwrap software licenses on the grounds that the terms of the sale (and thus the company's contract with the consumer) were set at the register and that the license terms are an invalid attempt by one party to unilaterally change the contract terms.

It seems to me that unless these terms are clearly and conspicuously disclosed BEFORE the sale, it is a breach of contract and an invasion of privacy to which the consumer did not consent.

Re:Does it bother anyone else...

[Magumbo]

I just wish more people would realize that they don't have to put up with this sort of thing, and choose to eschew Microsoft.

Here's what I do to "spread the word":

I dress up in a furry penguin suit and drive around town blowing my horn in my black, white, and orange "penguin motif" 1970 Super Beetle. I've got a loudspeaker mounted on top that I blare ice cream truck sounds from. When the little kids come running outside I hand out free linux cds and say "Spread the love".

It's very important to get the younger generation involved, you see.

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Beginning of the end...

[powerlinekid]

I have no problem with Microsoft, infact they're a smart business... but their latest decision is very very very dangerous. The PC was so popular because it was open, because you could add hardware... run whatever you wanted, and had an incredible wealth of software. This is part of the reason Apple wasn't so successful... people don't want closed systems with little software. And the feeling in my gut is that Microsoft is trying to reverse the decision that the ibm developers at Boca Raton originally released the PC under. Of course Microsoft exploited IBM in the beginning, but setting a standard which they did with DOS/Windows isn't such a bad thing. Now though, by telling people what they can and can not do with their hardware, and also what they can and cannot do with their software (how long until Microsoft kills Sun, AOL, etc software compatiblity) they are overstepping their bounds. For the love of freedom of choice, I hope they fail... otherwise, if you think Microsoft is "evil" now, give them a few years. *sigh*