Paul Thurrott Bitten by WGA

suntory writes "Paul Thurrott, one of the most important Microsoft advocates, has been bitten by Windows Genuine Advantage. As some Slashdot users have reported, Paul installed a bunch of updates in his machine and now Microsoft thinks that he is using pirated software." From the post: "Truthfully, I can only imagine what triggered these alerts. The software was installed to a VM a long time ago and archived on my server. I no doubt used a copy of XP MCE 2005 that I had received as part of my MSDN subscription. If the WGA alerts are to be believed, it's possible that Microsoft thinks I've installed this software on too many machines, though that seems unlikely to me. I can't really say. Anyway, that's what it looks like to be a suspected pirate. Like many people who will see these alerts, I don't believe I did anything wrong. I'm sure that's going to be a common refrain in this new era of untrusting software and companies. Ah well."

Comments

Re:Everyone should use FireFox for system updates.

[Spokehedz]

Or how about not using some very suspiciously weird looking website that requires you to install a plugin, and use autopatcher which you can take from computer to computer and update them as you go along?

http://autopatcher.com/

Re:Even if done by M$FT, it's still spyware...

[gfxguy]

It's more like "mainly if you're a gamer."

The vast majority of people out there are not doing anything remotely "important" with their computers, and most are just surfing and emailing and chatting an so forth. In other words, no difference.

I run Windows at home, but then I play a lot of games, and like most people when it's my leisure time I don't want to spend half of it getting Linux to play a game I can "just play" on Windows.

I would argue it's almost exclusively gamers who need to suffer Windows.

Bag searches are optional

[alienmole]

This doesn't really affect your stand about boycotting Best Buy, but just in case you're not aware, you should know that having your bags searched as you leave Best Buy, or any other store that does that, is a purely voluntary thing. You can politely refuse and just keep walking. They have no legal right to require you to submit to a bag search, and they know it (the guards are trained to understand that). There's an article about it here.

Re:Bigger man than I

[Ginger Unicorn]

download and burn the ubuntu live cd (http://mirror.cs.umn.edu/ubuntu-releases/6.06/ubu ntu-6.06-desktop-i386.iso) and boot your pc and/or laptop with that. you'll soon see whether your hardware is detected. chances are it will all just automagically work. you'd be suprised to find that linux drivers (when available, which is more often than not) are way more plug and play then windows drivers. you dont have to install drivers, they are part of the kernel. (except when they're non GPL).

if you are a home user that is a total newbie to linux i would say anyone you ask will tell you to try Ubuntu. its the most advanced distro in terms of integration, polish and ease of use.

give it a try, it can't hurt. (you probably want 512mbs to run the live cd or it'll be painful).