Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Runs Out Of Windows XP Family Licenses
TrAvELAr writes: "'There is a backlog,' says Mark Croft, lead product manager for Windows XP. According to this article on IDG, Microsoft has underestimated it's popularity of the new Windows XP family license. In an effort to slow piracy within single households, Microsoft has introduced the family license which will allow the user to install multiple copies of it's Windows XP operating system at a slightly discounted price of a $10 savings. Croft also states that the savings reflects the cost of Microsoft not having to produce another disc."
I don't think a ten dollar savings is going to stave off piracy on a 90+ dollar OS. Leaving off production costs is the START of sane pricing, not the END of a plan to give a price break for multiple purchases.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
The Register some critical coverage of the same matter. Seems this may be just a PR ploy
...in an effort to slow piracy within single households, Microsoft has introduced... Ooohh, I hate all those pirates in single households. I wonder what Microsoft has in mind to stop the pirates in married households.
From the article: And here's another catch: You can't purchase additional family-use licenses based on a license of a Windows XP preloaded on a new PC. To take advantage of the family license, you'll need to buy a full packaged copy of Win XP. That's always been the plan, because most preloaded discs are already tied to a single PC, and that disc couldn't be used to install the OS on another system, according to Microsoft.
All this is is M$ once again sticking it to the customers, for corporations this makes since because there are a lot of computers that they would have to load Windows onto but for the home user this is crazy. Microsoft knows they have the home market in a choke hold and that's why they do this, you'll never see a second rate software maker like Apple do this.
Why is everyone always bitching when Microsoft tries to milk its customers? The more people get milked, the more they consider their alternatives.
Let Microsoft double its price for the second installation and make software piracy a capital offense. I assure you that would increase the use of open-source software.
evanchik.net
You mean they actually want you to buy a licence for every computer you put it on? How last-century :-)
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Why bother? I've found Windows XP to be less than 100% compatible with games. For the home user, compatability and useability rules. I've found Windows XP to be easy to use, but has some serious issues with a few games. These issues often require software developer issued patches to correct the issue. That's a lot of work for the casual non-technical home user. I simply don't recommend it. Why not stick with Win98? It is fairly stable, plays games like a champ, has much greater driver support, and is easily obtained.
Like the article stated, the average geek isn't going to like reactivating XP every time the change 6 components. There certainly could have been a better way to do it. It's just not the preferred OS in anybody's house.
Just my 2.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
I am not sure why they could not could not have tied the activation scheme into a credit card system to allow you to purchase additional licenses at install time.
Just tell the SSL web page how many computers you want to install on, pay $10-$15 for each additional license (not $80), and receive an activation code that you transmit to the central server each time you install on a new machine (and will work up to the number of licenses you bought).
I seems foolish to charge $90 for the upgrade, then another $80 for each additional, since MS only needs to sell one CD per household. With the lower price, MS still makes more money than they would off of a pirated copy, and the customer gets a licensing cost that is only slightly more torturous than the MacOS or Linux.
Regardless of what one thinks of MS' predatory behavior towards other software/hardware makers, it's in any company's interest to carefully think out and plan their consumer sales channel. MS' scheme looks pretty half-baked, indicating that it waqs not well-planned, and that nobody who actually works for the company has ever actually been a customer, and seen what it's like.
Here's how it works: You can buy a license to use your existing Windows XP disc to install the software on another PC for up to 10 percent less than the original cost of the program. So, for example, at Microsoft's own Web-based store, if you bought the Windows XP Home Upgrade version for $99, you can buy an additional license for that product for $89. If you bought a full version of the software for $199, a second license will run you about $189.
Nice math!
My handle breaks slashcode, what does your handle do?
"Wow, Windows XP is so popular, Microsoft ran out of licenses!"
So, I guess I'm one of those rare people who would dare do such a thing. I can see it now:
MS Tech: Hello, sir. What can I help you with today?
...another 20 minutes later...
Me: Hi, I just upgraded my machine and I need to reactivate XP.
MS Tech: Okay, sir. *clickety-clack* And why were you upgrading your machine, sir?
Me: Oh, I bought a new motherboard and CPU and a few other things.
MS Tech: *clickety-clack* Mmm, hhmm... and what motherboard?
Me: Uh... do you really need to know that?
MS Tech: Yes.
Me: Hmm... Gigabyte GA-7DXR.
MS Tech: Oh... *clickety-clack*... you really should have gone for the Tyan Thunder K7.
Me: Excuse me?
MS Tech: I'm sorry, sir... *clickety-clack* I'm going to have to get manager approval on this one. Please hold.
Me: But I was already on hold for 20 minutes! I just want to use my machine!
MS Tech: *clickety-clack* Sir, please be patient. Remember, this conversation is being recorded. *clickety-clack* Me: Oy, vey!
MS Tech: *clickety-clack* Sir, you'll notice the knock at your door.
In other news, Sony has announced a new Television Family License which allows all members of a family or household (up to 5 individuals) to watch the same television, without violating the Sony Home Electronics License Agreement.
"Unauthorized television piracy has been a real problem for us.", says Steve Smith, the newly-appointed Director of Licensing Compliance at Sony. "Families would buy a single television, and then would sit together and watch programs without any regard for our license agreements. Sometimes they would even invite other people over to watch programs, without even purchasing a Single-Use Event License. We estimated that we lost over $500 billion in sales last year to this problem. This [license activation] is just a way to recoup sales lost to theft."
So how does the system work? When you first plug in your television, a string of numbers representing the body shape of the person standing in front of the TV is sent to Sony via the HumanaLicense(tm) dialup system. At that point, another string of numbers is sent back allowing the television to view broadcast stations. Without the code, the TV only plays Sony promotional material over and over again. After initial activation, the TV needs to be re-initialized whenever a different person sits in front of it for more than 25 minutes. The TV can be re-initialized up to four times, after which it needs to be returned to Sony for repair.
Some TV enthusiasts are concerned: "How can Sony get away with this?" says Rick Rayman, a self-described "videophile" who often invites friends and family over to watch movies and sports programs on his high-end setup. "I already paid them for the TV, why should it matter what I do with it inside my home?"
However Sony executives dismiss these criticisms. Smith explains: "That's exactly the attitude we're trying to fix: this weird hippy idea that once you pay the money, somehow the item is 'yours' to do with as you please. First, these pirates invite their wife into the room to illegally watch TV together, next thing you know they're shoplifting flat-screens from Wal-mart."
But already hackers have tried to break the system. A hacker group calling themselves "Television Freedom Fighters" have discovered that cutting one wire inside the television removes the protection system. The group of six kindergarden students have been identified and are being prosecuted under new anti-terrorism legislation. In addition, because the information was released on the internet, Sony is recalling the televisions and solving the problem by adding a second wire that needs to be cut.
To help ease the transition to license-based TV viewing, Sony is starting a new advertising campaign entitled "Compliance is Cool" featuring an animated talking dog named Larry. Sony plans to extend the system to other types of home electronics soon.
So you would have preferred a $0.87 discount instead of a $10 discount?
Oh no sirree, don't give me it that cheaply! Charge me the full $9.13 difference.
I like this family discount idea. If I wrote to somebody at freebsd.org and asked for a family license, do you think they would give me $10 to install FreeBSD on each additional computer in my home?
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
So what this means is that I can only install hardware which Microsoft approves. I'm sorry, but having to get a company's permission to upgrade my own hardware is just too much.
And the sad thing is that we will have to deal with these systems in the future - face it, the average computer user is going to use whatever OS is put in front of them. So yes, I personally, won't have to deal with this on my own system, but my relatives will. And guess who will get called to deal with 'computer problems' every time their system crashes.
Worse, I'll have to maintain two systems - one for professional use, running the latest version of 'doze so I can communicate with my employer; and a personal system, so I can maintain some semblance of sanity. Regardless of whether or not I run a free OS, I have to pay to use a proprietary one simply because the rest of the world believes that there is no alternative...
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
At least that is what I call it, ok what are you really getting here, your getting the "right" to use their OS on another machine. Wow...
Come on, if your going to pay another $80.00 bucks at least M$ could provide you with a nice box, CD and manual and perhaps some little stickers etc...
I can hardly think of any industry where you pay 90% full price of a product and you see really no tangible "product". Granted this is the software business, but who is really saving money here, not the consumer really, only microsoft. The consumer is actually not saving anything, M$ is jacking them out of the CD, box, etc... so yeah... the price should be $10 less. Personally, I would rather pay full price for a totally new copy so I can have another backup CD of the OS in case I damage the first one.
I'm sticking with Win2k for now.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
Especially for a monopolostic company, you need to understand how consumers use your software. As usual MS missed the boat. Back in the day (before I was enlightened) and I actually used Windows, one of the important things was that I could share it with my family and a few things, or vice versa. Or that when windows totally screwed up I could bring over a windows disk and fix their system. Even if I was still uninitiated into open source I'd be looking for a new OS if I had to phone MS to "activate" my software everytime I tried to fix it, reinstall it, or whatever (or else I'd be pirating a cracked version like crazy to everyone I know). Piracy allows a whole bunch of people to use something right away, if they like it, they give it to their friends or tell them to buy it or their friends just hear about them using it all the time. It builds up momentum and sets up this environment where a bunch a people are using the software and more people see that and then buy it. Some nice priates even choose to buy the stuff they pirate and like. I dare say a large number of games have gotten enormously popular riding fame based partly in piracy (unreal tournament?), not just making sure no one at all can use the software without paying. pf
Instead of buying three copies for $580, why not take advantage of the low airfares, hop a plane to China or
Japan or Taiwan or Hong Kong and get a pirated cd with Windows XP and thousands of dollars of other
software for only $20 !!!
I am not kidding, you really can! Software EULA's cannot be strictly enforced like
in the US. I bought cds from a couple of different street vendors while on
vacation. One had Windows XP with a tons of utilites and antivirus program,
another one had softimage xsi, 3ds max 4 with 500 plugins, photoshop 6 and
scads of plugins, lightwave 3d 5.6, a bunch of professional ocr software,
maya 3, adobe illustrator 9, freehand 9, hundreds of fonts, macromedia flash,
fireworks, adobe after effects, adobe premiere 6, quicktime pro 5, media studio pro 5.0, etc...
easily $20000 of software!
Bypass Compulsory Web Registration -- http://bugmenot.com/
Does anyone in your house take any college courses? You should be able to get very low Office copies there - last verbal report I got from someone was that an 'educational' version of Office could be had for something like $50 (might be a slight exaggeration, but I don't think by much).
This XP stuff WILL NOT CUT DOWN ON PIRACY MUCH, IF AT ALL. I don't know too many people that copied Windows or Office from their friends - it was most often from their employer. Take home 2-3 CDs at night, bring them in in the morning, no one knows anything about it. And since they're not putting this 'activation' crap on copies for large businesses, I'm certain large scale piracy will continue virtually unabated.
creation science book
The family pack license is ONLY available on the full retail version of Windows XP. It cannot be purchased for the upgrade version.
Thus, to buy a family pack for two seats you must spend a minimum of $388.
Compare this to buying two over the counter upgrades for $198.
The family license itself, and the so called demand for it, is a pure marketing and PR ploy. It wasn't too hard for sales to be greater than expected, MS didn't expect too many people to actually go for this bugger at all!
Also note that demand isn't *consumer* demand, it's *retailer* demand. No telling how many of these are sitting on back room shelves, unasked for, and unloved, by actual retail customers.
As someone else has already pointed out The Reg has a good article on this.
KFG
It may be the case that someday all of the people who create digital works get compensated through some means other than per-copy payments (as some do today), but that's going to take a while.
In the mean time, if MS wants to charge money for XP, let them. MS has tried hard to keep you from having any other choices, but thanks to the combined efforts of thousands of people, there are some alternatives.