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Paul Thurrott's WGA Woes Solved
David Horn writes "Last week Slashdot ran an article regarding the trouble Paul Thurrott had with WGA. It turns out that after talking to Microsoft, he was actually running a pirated version of Windows, legitimately purchased from an online vendor. Paul admits that 'the truth is, I just made a mistake. If we learn something from that mistake, fantastic, but I wasn't trying to set up a life lesson for anyone, let alone myself.'"
Newegg.com has the same policy about only selling XP MCE 2005 with hardware (utilizing the loophole) and I don't think anybody on Slashdot would say they're not a reputable online vendor...
Read my blog posts on usability.
I've been down that road. I went to one of those computer shows a few years ago to look for some now-esoteric equipment like SCSI cases, various SCSI connectors, and so forth. I checked out the software deals, bought a bunch of Norton Antivirus licenses (legit) and Quickbooks Pro. Turned out the Quickbooks CD was counterfeit and wouldn't register/activate. I called Intuit and learned it was a counterfeit. Everything appeared legit to me, but I haven't studied their typefaces or anything. Turns out the "Quickbooks Pro" silkscreening was slightly flawed, and the serial number/install key sticker was a totally different style from what was supposed to be there. The manual and packaging seemed real enough though. Anyway, Quicken met me halfway and gave me a great deal on new legit licenses - three seats (which basically came to three seats for the price of two), when they could have been real jackasses and not give me any discount at all. What I did for them was give them the name, number, and (claimed) address of the dealer from whom I purchased Quickbooks, and checked various show schedules to find the next few they'd be attending so that Quicken could send reps to to bust then. If they fucked me out of $179 with very real-looking packaging, chances are I am not the only one they're ripping off. All in all Intuit was damned courteous when they owed me NOTHING for my inconvenience.
The fact that their software is badly architected and requires admin privileges though, is not so forgiveable.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Firefox? Opera? Was it not compatible with anything but IE 6? Sounds lousy.
1. So which one is smaller then?
2. I find it amazing that Windows 2000 has a faster startup and shutdown time than anything. Am I alone here?
3. "The version of IE 6?" Correct me if I wrong, but I believe my IE 6 on Windows XP/SP2 saves web passwords?!?
As an MSDN subscriber and software license manager at my company, I actually read the EULAs that govern the use of MSDN licenses for products like the OS, Office, and everything else. It is not legal to use them for commercial purposes.
Leave Paul's little 'oversight' with MCE 2005 aside. He states in his article that he generally uses MSDN for all of his software. Given that he runs a site about MS stuff and is clearly a big user of their software, it stands to reason that he uses Windows servers, XP workstations, SQL, Frontpage for site authoring, Office for email and all sorts of other things. None of this is legal under the terms of the MSDN license.
I don't have the EULA handy, and there are many subscription types, but all that I have seen clearly state that it cannot be used for commercial purposes, or to develop/maintain your own IT systems.
Just thought I'd point this out.
# Erik