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World's First XP System Sold
A reader writes "New zealands largest OEM PC Manufacturer, The PC Company sold the worlds first Windows XP system. Details can be found at this article on NZoom" And so, it begins.
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What do you mean first XP system? Iv'e been running XP for several wee- err, first *sold* XP system. Never Mind.
(The above is a complete falsity contrived to humor readers, any resemblence to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental)
.
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
Is Windows XP shipping already, or is it only starting to ship on new computers now? Can it be bought in stores?
Well, I suppose that if your imagination only runs to the extent of calling a PC company "The PC Company" its not suprising you'll be first in line for Mr Gate's latest.
Get the EULA T-shirt
Now, besides the fact that this is one of the more useless pieces of news posted to Slashdot, it also happens to be a great strategy. By posting story links to PC manufacturers who sell PC's with Windows XP pre-loaded, we can effectively shut-down their online sales services to prevent customers from buying said systems. Great way to beat MS! :)
Why bother.
As if anybody in their right mind reads the EULA.
As if anybody would even care what it said if they did - it could lay claim to your first born for all the difference it makes to 99.999% of users.
Does that mean Doug-Howlett's a black guy? I've never heard "all black" before. If that's what it means, I think it's funny the NZ press thinks that bit of info important enough to include. Or does it mean something else?
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
Most legitimate users will violate the EULA, by connecting to more than 10 computers (somebody said Internet?), or by installing VNC (which is explictly prohibited - but works great nonetheless) or by doing of the many things M$ says you cannot do.
In short, you're better of pirating it.
[Disclaimer: This message is for humor only and does not encourage piracy in any way nor does imply any resemblance to real facts.]
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
M$ NZ gets its first XP tech support cal after the user added a new harddrive and XP told them they'd have to get permission from M$ before they continued ... and so it begins ...
I'm actually serious - anyone?
it's in my head
XP, basically being a polished 2k, is nice and stable - 12 days playing games, installing crap, uninstalling crap, hibernating almost every night and generally Doing Stuff isn't bad.
:)
I finally rebooted it when it took a worryingly long time to hibernate (this, to the uninitiated, involves writing all memory out to disk, suspending drivers etc so the system can come back up in it's original state) - which I think's fair enough, seeing as it's quite a large task to ask any OS to do.
XP also happens to boot very fast.. in fact, it's faster than coming out of hibernation here, and certainly comparible to an equivilent Unix system.
Most of the new GUI stuff's a bit crap, but you can turn it all off with ease. The KLIK[tm] support for networking's quite nice, with bridging, NAT etc available with a few mouseclicks. It even sets up a firewall when you set up networking, and (*shock* *horror*), it's actually quite good.
It performs at least as well as 2k, with tweaks in most of the right places, hence making it Quite Good[tm]. And it runs vim, UT, Q3 and CS - what more could you ask for?
Oh, it's a PR stunt.... not a real indicator of demand.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
MS has been giving out free copies of XP final, full retail, pro edition to pretty much every salesperson in computer stores across north america (i.e. the warez versions are the iso's of these discs). They had a fairly hot chick do the demonstration too, hell, I admit I'm shallow.
...)
MS also gave a crapload of stuff about why you should sell XP to your customers, etc, etc.
And yeah, MS is at the very least bold in some of the things they do.
How about this - before you log in, XP tells you whether you have passport mail waiting.
Buy music = goto microsoft music, digital pictures -> MS.
Allow tech support (or others) remote control of your PC? You have to be using messenger (or at least, that is what is built in) This ought to be fun when an exploit is discovered. Full system takeover is possible.
Especially optimized for P4 (MS and intel, sitting in a tree, k.i.s.s.i.n.g
No fucking AOL (which, as a DSL tech support agent is music to my ears)
Built in firewall (shitty one though)
Built in ICS
Built in passport games...
No apparant way to remove messenger.
The happy registration (which has already been cracked quite completely)
Essentially what MS is doing is creating a computer software system (aka turnkey solution) in a box. Joe user won't have to buy anything else for his pc if he buys xp. I'm sure a lot of third party vendors are going to be pissed because they won't have a market for their products, but then again, geeks never bitched when MS included undelete w/MS Dos 5.
On the upside,
MS finally got rid of netbeui, so your network file transfers won't be slow as shit over the network.
MS made the gui skinnable (almost exactly like windows blinds)
hibernate ACTUALLY WORKS (third times a charm)
it seems to actually be running stable (uptime 1 month, with my parents on it, which means _alot_, i.e. the system has not gone down since I installed it on an overclocked celeron box),
added a change user function, which allows the system
added the ability to "telnet" in and logon using the remote machines cpu power, ala X-Windows. Essentially terminal services on every machine.
It looks fischer price, and I hate to say it, but MS might of have done what they promised to do when they release Windows 95. The price is insane though, $300US for full pro edition!!!!!
Oh. If you work in a computer store and want a free (legal) copy, florida (24,25,26), texas (24, colorado(15),az(24), still have seminars going. Check
http://www.microsoft.com/retail/live/
though its kinda late. Proof of employment can be a tshirt w/ a name badge. See the evil for yourself.
Well, gnight.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
XP system sold
t-minus 19 minutes: First sold XP system booted.
-19.5: First annoying XP nag message to open a Passport account
-20: First XP "MSN Network" desktop icon deleted
-25: First realization by first XP system buyer that most of his old system settings won't transfer.
-26: First XP-inspired burst of profanity.
-28: Attempt to use legacy scanner results in crash and second XP-inspired burst of profanity.
-30: First XP-related bug report files.
And so it begins!
With XP out you won't get Win98 even by accident now. Even now it was hard to get as OEM Win98. But now? And no, ME.2k or XP are NOT good enough since they don't run even some of the M$'s own games, not even talking about the other ISV. I was trying to get a decent notebook with W98 preinstalled, no chance whatsoever.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
This is a recipe for total hubris on Microsoft's part, and a nasty defeat for them. I suspect it's better that they don't compromise or parley, because they lie anyway so why should we want them to be striking bargains? Let them be slapped down in full hubris. They can't be cured or moderated or reasoned with. I'm sure this judge has seen completely recidivist cases before.
leaving the Auckland showroom at one minute after midnight with a brand new, Windows XP-ready machine.
/.?
I take this to mean people are actually standing in line for this? Isn't today's PC consumer a little smarter than they were in '95 and '98? Have we learned nothing? I mean, doesn't everybody read
A little smarter? You missed the part in the quote about being an All Black. For those not living in this part of the world, an All Black is a football player for the New Zealand team. Now football players never really were renouned for being smart people, so I think that probably explains everything.
TimC.
It will be fun to see how the worm-writing people will use XP. It could be the decline of m$ in the business market.
Interesting also to see how the ISPs will react to DOS attacks.
"Windows XP runs EVERYTHING at root, which means every program (and even the trojans hidden within that program) has full access to all Windows services, including more advanced network services than ever before. Where Windows ME is generally limited to UDP- and ICMP-flooding, for example, Windows XP can jump straight to the main event -- http flooding aat port 80. "Cringely
"If Windows ME is a gun, Windows XP is a loaded gun.", Cringely
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
Three words: DMCA, UTICA, SSSCA!
Next step: Cancellation of the first amendment
Next next step: Death penalty for copyright violations.
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
XP rocks!
It's the best Windows up to now, strenthening on point where Windows was not that good (remote access improved with Terminal Services, stability in 9x/ME series improved with NT-based kernel, etc) and where it was pretty good (a bit less memory use and a bit faster than W2K when using the Classic interface, ClearType fonts rock on my Sony picturebook).
Some minor stuff I don't like that much: Internet time synchronizing can only be switched on or off, and a server can be defined. You can not, however, define the interval with which it updates. This is hardcoded at once every week, braindead of course..
Still wouldn't use it for 'standard' services like HTTP, SMTP, POP3, etc etc etc, my FreeBSD station handles that much too well. That said, for a desktop operating system, presenting Internet Explorer, Office, Visio, WinAMP, Explorer and X-Win32 for remote UNIX access, it's a very good solution for my purposes.
Indeed it is a sad world when a software company would dare to violate our civil liberties by designing an operating system that is hard to pirate.
Thoughtless bastards - what next, people fitting 'locks' on doors to make it harder for burglars? Selfish fuckers.
What exactly is an "on topic" post to this story?
"It shipped?? On computers?? Were they in Boxes?? Did anyone get a good look at the Hologram??"...
So instead I am going to ask some humble questions since I really haven't been following the XP thing as closely as perhaps I should have. But since I do run a couple of Windows boxes, I'm curious..
Does it run games better then Win2K? About eight months ago I got lazy and stopped booting into 98 to play games. I found that on adequate system (gobs of inexpensive ram, thank you crucial) 2k runs games quite well. So yeah, my windows boxes are my game boxes.
Suppose I had acquired a copy, should I be versed in this XP crack (that I.. Uh... Heard some hoodlum teens talking about behind the 7-11) before I install it? Or does the crack apply to subsequent installations.
Is this thing as compromised in an Orwellian manor as I have heard? BS or fact, how much polling of my box does Microsoft get away with? Suppose I whip ZoneAlarm on it and I block access to M$? Does this pretty much break the system?
Other then increased speed and stability (bug fixes) is there any compelling reason for someone running a workstation/game machine to even look at this fetid piece of shit?
And seriously... Does Microsoft really think they are going to get away with this shit? Isn't this really all about the first stage in deploying digital encryption/copyrighting on a global scale? Are they not in on the MPAA mafia's brilliant scheme to block recordable media from storing copyrighted material and also trying to "urge" and "gently nudge" the sheeple from actually enjoying said material? (media player not ripping at 128 and so on... Like anyone rips with media player...) for the life of me I have yet to find a reason as to what exactly am I missing by not letting this thing into my house...
Since OS 10.1 is supposed to be out on Tuesday (Seybold) and since I haven't slept in 32 hours and will probably spend Tuesday migrating my proper workstations to it (woo woo low level driver support, finally get my wacom tablets to run on it) I will probably sleep through all the wealth of XP juju bandied about on Monday in a beloved coma. So if anyone has any wisdom on any of this I would certainly appreciate it.
In addition to this, "at one minute after midnight it was All Black Doug Howlett who became the first customer." Nice to know our "national heros" (bleh, rugby, I could care less that most New Zealanders worship these people) are so technically savvy...
It occurs to me to wonder if, perhaps, Microsoft cleverly decided to do a test run of WinXP in New Zealand, so that if it bombed no one would notice. I mean, I doubt the average non-New Zealander/Australian even knows where New Zealand is...let alone that it's actually separate from Australia ;)
A word can paint a thousand pictures
It pains me say this, but you're right. I've been using XP betas for the past few months, and it does, as you say, rock.
Sure, I wouldn't use it for serving anything, and I rely on my linux machines for perl and the like, but for a desktop system, with an x-term and ssh, XP is the business. I'm on about a week uptime right now, and that's only because I added a second graphics card (dual monitor support is also v.v.g by the way) and it is as solid as any linux gui desktop. perhaps more so. It's full of very neat things, that only appear after you use it for a bit, that you soon learn to love.
Annoying, but true.
I may now have to go and wash my mouth out.
Remember when MS was talking about linux forking? According to the article Windows XP already comes in 3 different versions.
On another note, I wonder if all 3 are really the same and all you have to do is change one line in the setup file to access the different files in the different versions. Like back with Win95, where you could select what version to install with the oemsetup.something file.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Are Slashdotters really so astonished that Windows XP would sell *at all* that this needed posting?
XP also happens to boot very fast.. in fact, it's faster than coming out of hibernation here, and certainly comparible to an equivilent Unix system.
:)
::pretends to think:: Oh...I could ask to be able to USE my computer freely, heh, since I've paid for it. ;)
::blue screen of death appears::
::resists temptation to hit a perfectly good laptop with a hammer::
;)
My Millennium system boots in about a minute, with a bunch of slow-loaders like Norton and the Office Shortcut Bar, and LILO just past the BIOS level. How fast are you talking?
It performs at least as well as 2k, with tweaks in most of the right places, hence making it Quite Good[tm]. And it runs vim, UT, Q3 and CS - what more could you ask for?
I've always been a faithful part of the MS fold before. But all this crap I read about with not being able to copy ripped MP3's to other computers, and problems intercepting audio streams at the hardware levels...sheesh.
I'll reserve my judgement until I actually get my hands on a copy and try it out. After all, I got most of my information on that topic from the print media, and you *know* how reliable they are.
However, I will say that if it's relatively crash-free, I may indeed upgrade. After six months of dealing with Millennium, I'm ready for a change...
(Myself) "Yeah, I want you to transfer a file, like."
(Millennium) "Ohh man, I'm not sure I can do this. This looks hard."
(Myself) "No, it's not that hard, it's a twenty-kb Word document."
(Millennium) "You're scaring me! MEESTER GATESSSS! HELP!"
(Myself)
And that's not even starting in on the fact I had to format and reinstall the day after I got my computer cos it loaded wrong at the factory...
But this is turning into a Millennium diatribe. Suffice it to say that the next OS is either something more stable from MS, or *nix. And I even loaded RH 7.0 in frustration one day after a particularly high number of BSODs.
Pain(n): when you're telnetting into a box doing somethin cool, and some luser calls for help with a 'critical error' ad
No, not really. Idiots with slightly improved accuracy are still idiots.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Gee, inflicting XP on Mom and Dad. Insert reverse child abuse jokes here.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
"World's Second XP System Sold".
Personally, I would as for an OS that isn't Windows XP.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
True, since this sounds like a small shop in NZ, it's probably the full XP version, but what will happen when Dell or Gateway release their XP machines?
The entire idea of the recovery disk which typically requires one to reformat their hard drives (and note that most OEM machines come with only one HD with one partition), is a really stupid idea in the first place; I'm sure it's great for OEM support since they know how they can get back to a completely fresh, working machine, but it sucks for even a semi-literate computer user. And if I remember correctly, MS pushed for some of that in recent years. I'm sure it's going to continue with XP.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
One of the guys in my office (actually the HEAD of one of our tech groups!) is still using Win95 original. Can't even use USB devices (which is what will force him to upgrade eventually).
He's very utilitarian, and the system works for him, so why change it? Of course we kid him relentlessly every time it crashes...
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
It activates all modes of your computer, disables all checking and lets you use XP as M$ never intended.
MS Windows XP Professional -- Corporate Edition
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
Actually, use on a laptop had always been allowed before (as it was a "secondary" machine), same with Office.
That's part of why people are bitching about it -- not only did they increase the price, they removed all the allowances for secondary machines, meaning corps will have to buy twice as many licenses for people who work on the road...
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
it could make time run backwards as you suggest :)
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
netbeui gets a bad rap because it's fucking useless 99% of the time. in this day and age, very few people have a use for an unrouteable protocol, even if they do save a few bytes on every packet.
From the article: And so, it begins.
Don't you really mean: The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
Yeah, there are tons of users who setup networks in their house, but don't bother with an internet connection. Right.
(I know you're joking, but a lot of people actually think that way. So I'll rant...)
Waste is not good for the economy. It is destructive.
By the Wintel-is-good-for-the-economy logic, hurricanes, earthquakes, and the WTC disaster are also "good for the economy" because they create construction jobs. And the invention of "Mr. Fusion" would be bad for the economy.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Reasonable for would be around $20. Who the hell would pirate a $20 OS? MS would end up better off doing that instead doing some registration. Come on, I know like 2 people who are honest and actually pay for windows. MS should wake up and realize wtf is going on in the outside world.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Been listening to 2112 a bit much lately, have we? :)
Seriously, though, I'm with you on that. I don't like using an OS that discourages me from messing with it.
...for that matter, I like being able to mess with all of my stuff.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
I've never had DLL hell in the three years I've been using Linux. :))
(Debian unstable the entire time, from potato to woody to sid)
(Not to be a knee-jerk linux zealot here; I never had DLL hell in the half a year I ran FreeBSD, either.
For that matter, I've never had problems with DLL hell on my Win98 box, either. Just lucky, I guess...
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
I still use WinNT Workstation at work. It'd be the original 5-year old install, except that the HD it was on barfed.
For gaming I use 2k at home because 98 started to piss me off (and Millenium is a joke) but at work I don't need USB or Direct X, which are imho the two main differences. It also means I'm fairly happy on a 233MMX with 128MB, except when I do compiles. That wouldn't cut it for a 2k machine.
Here's some code for you to run:
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
SOCKET s;
WSADATA wsadata;
WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,2), &wsadata);
s = WSASocket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, IPPROTO_IP, NULL, 0, 0);
printf("%d\n", s);
SOCKADDR from;
int fromlen = sizeof(from);
struct sockaddr_in to;
ZeroMemory(&from, sizeof(from));
ZeroMemory(&to, sizeof(from));
char buf[4096];
to.sin_family = AF_INET;
to.sin_addr.S_un.S_addr = 0x0100007F;
to.sin_port = 0;
int sb = sendto(s, buf, 0, 0, (SOCKADDR *)&to, sizeof(to));
DWORD sbe = GetLastError();
int cb = recvfrom(s, buf, sizeof(buf), 0, &from, &fromlen);
DWORD cbe = GetLastError();
printf("%d, %d\n", sb, cb);
printf("%d, %d\n", sbe, cbe);
closesocket(s);
scanf("\n");
}
When you run as an admin, it works. When you run as a non-admin you get an error (EACCESS) trying to send or receive from the raw socket.
To put it simply, GRC is lying to you for the purposes of selling his own products and you got suckered. The rules for raw sockets are exactly the same as on Win2k and Linux - you gotta be root.
Fear: When you see B8 00 4C CD 21 and know what it means
Web sites are further more a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act since they allow intelligent people to exchange data that MIGHT lead towards the development of anticircumvention devices.
Why bother.
After purchasing the paper, Mr. Parkenfarker sat down on a bench for the very first time today and waited for a bus for the very first time. At approximately 9:13am, Mr. Parkenfarker boarded a bus for the very first time today, and at approximately 9:47am he arrived at his office for the first time today.
Following this, at approximately 9:52am, Mr. Parkenfarker said "Good morning," to a coworker for the very first time today, and proceeded to drink today's very first cup of bitter, badly-made coffee from the office coffee pot (which he saw for the very first time today at approximately 9:55am).
The significant differences between Linux and Windows XP are very few. They aren't worth arguing. You can say "Oh, but the Linux kernel is prettier!" but it doesn't matter when both OSes are rock solid. And the stability of a PC OS mostly comes down to drivers as it. Run Linux with a poor video driver and you'll have endless headaches. Ditto for Windows XP. You can say that Windows XP is bloated and slow, but you can say the same of Linux + XWindows + KDE/Gnome as well.
So it all comes down to Windows XP being a Microsoft product and Linux being free, and that there is some software you can only get for one or the other. That's about all you can argue, though most people don't care.
Few, if any, business desktop machines are shared these days - so this "feature" will simply get in the way.
But the scariest thing I heard was that XP allows users to, in essence, set up their own virtual private network (VPN) between any two XP users anywhere in the world. According to IDG News Service reporter Ashlee Vance, the user "can permit a friend to see his screen via a chat-type protocol and even run programs from the original user's machine." Microsoft will publish a way, and provide the tools, for one PC to run software from another - and take over control of another machine.
Until people like this are taught the reasons for and security implications of user accounts, the world will be rife with viruses and worms. For those who may not know better, unprivalidged user accounts are made so that processes started by them can not alter or remove system files. Malicious programs, intitated by accident, are contained and can be eliminated. Nothing is fool proof but systems that ignore such basic concepts are naked. The "user experience" can be significantly enhanced by truely portable settings, but the primary reason for such stuff is security. The only reason the author is afraid is beacuse of M$'s record of poor implimentation.
M$'s record is giving the rest of us a bad name too. It's amazing that M$ does not impliment real user accounts. It's negligence. Their users are becoming increasingly distrustful and will never learn better. Just listen to that poor idiot demanding inferior software! The reach out starts with you and me.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I read that as "World's First XP System Solid". I thought they were still a few years from a solid OS.
That was too easy. Mod me down, please.
How about if we get them to donate to third world terrorists? I can't think of a better way to disorganize and demoralize them. ObL would have to spend his entire fortune staffing a help desk.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Although I haven't installed my full plethora of Corel software yet, I can tell you that CorelDRAW 10 doesn't run well at all. Opening a file, or creating a new one, freezes the program for a good three minutes on my system, although the program runs fine after that.
Aswell, I can print. Any 'print' dialog causes the program at hand to freeze. So, after a day of looking around, I've already found two major inconveniences for a desktop publisher such as myself.
But yeah, it finally hibernates properly, boots at the speed it should, and is fairly solid. But it would be really good if I could actually get any work done on it.
So... the first one has been sold. Has it crashed yet? Been reinstalled?
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Mmm-hmm. :)
RPM hell was the driving force behind my switching from RedHat 5.9 to Debian potato long ago.
Go with debian, apt/dpkg never seems to mess up like that for me.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
WinME boots faster. (;
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.