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Vista to Include Stepped up Anti-Piracy Measures
snuffin writes to tell us the Washington Post is reporting that Microsoft announced stepped up anti-piracy measures being implemented in their latest operating system, Vista. From the article: "If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager." Ars Technica also has coverage available on this new development.
I'm sure this will be cracked before it even comes out. Why should I even switch to Vista? XP is stable (relatively) and runs fast enough. When I was running 98, upgrading to 2000/XP was a huge improvement in terms of stability, but I don't see any improvements that I'll find useful. Unless games start only running on Vista, I don't see myself changing over to Vista. I wish games ran on Linux natively. I would have switched a long time ago.
Here is the official announcement made today by MS, if anyone cares. :P
I don't reply to Anonymous posts; if you have something to say to me, identify yourself or I won't reply.
I am a member of the Microsoft Action Pack (MAP) subscription. It comes with, among other things, 10 Windows XP Pro licenses. I am currently using only one Windows XP Pro license from my MAP subscription and the WGA Notification Tool flags it as counterfeit. Apparently Microsoft is distributing counterfeit copies of Windows XP Pro themselves. Of course, the WGA Notification Tool says that I owe Microsoft a wad of cash to get a "legal" copy. I got it from them, how can it not be legal?
My daughters have a computer direct from Dell. The hard drive went out. When I reinstalled Windows XP Pro on it using the activation code on the sticker, Activation flagged it as counterfeit. I had to call Microsoft and go through a long and complex process before I could get to a human who let me activate. Guess what, the new (refurbished) drive from Dell went out and I had to go through the whole process again. This time they asked some rather pointed questions, but eventually let me Activate.
I have told all of my clients *not* to accept the license agreement for the WGA Notification Tool. Too bad they won't have that option when Vista comes out.
Microsoft had better get its house in order with this WGA stuff or expect a huge class action suit. My understanding is that it is illegal to tell people that they owe you money when they do not.
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This is news because
the pirates often have *more*
functionality.
Nope, not this time
No, but are the ONLY one who never read the EULA.
M$ has had this authority for decades!
Welcome to the party pal.
They Live, We Sleep
This isn't really much different from how most CAE software is controlled. When your license key is no longer valid (expired, say) then you're hosed till you ante up (hundreds or thousands of $$) for a renewal.
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
None whatsoever. No product activation. No serial number to enter. Just an install DVD.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
Yeah, my vista RC1 copy just decided to de-authenticate itself one day (i had a legit key from microsoft). And NOTHING I did would bring the machine back up. After I booted it would get the "Your copy of windows is not activated" dialog. The online activation kept failing.
The best part is that I called the microsoft automatic hotline and spent 15 minutes playing along with the cheerful computer prompting me. "Great! You are almost there! Now read me the bazillion numbers in group five". Wonderful, now group six! It happilly gave me a reactivation key to type in manually, but vista refused to take it. I double checked the number and gave up at that point.
Oh, and since I had installed firefox as the default browser, not even the "browse the web" feature worked right! Wonderful! If this "Release Candidate" is at all indicative of the final product, it is going to drive people to Macs in droves!
-Tom
You know....I opted to pay Novell for a SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop OS that works pretty damn good. $50 bux and I am done. None of this BS where you can not put it on another machine when this one fails, you re-install, go online, and remove the dead hardware, and "entitle" the new hardware. Somewhat big brother-ish, but NO WHERE like M$! Not to mention, the 3D desktop with all the whirling and what not is just plain BADASS :o)
"My immediate reaction is "WTF? What kind of moron doesn't make things 64-bit safe to begin with?" Linus
your crack is right here. :)
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
I doubt it will be the last OS Microsoft releases, but it might be the last one they sell, at least at the consumer level.
Now that they'll have established the infrastructure needed to govern a subscription OS, I wouldn't be surprised if the next Microsoft OS will be rented year-to-year, in its consumer versions, with a mandatory and automatic upgrade if you renew once its successor is released. Product "end-of-life" will be a lot more concrete...
I mean, they've been openly pursuing software-as-service, and they've built the infrastructure to extend that to the OS.
Um nice piece of FUD there.
You make it sound like people bought new machines that could not run the latest OS. A machine that cost $1500 back in 2000, no it can't run a 2005/2006 release of an OS. My G4 mac is from 2002 and it runs the latest Mac OS just fine and will also run Leopard just fine when it comes out next year. After that, well, that is up in the air but only if they cut off PowerPC support. Besides, by then it will be hopelessly obselete anyway. A computer I bought NOW would probably run the next 5 major releases of OS X... easy. And it would cost a lot less than this thing did back in 2002.
Also the iMac models you reference have not been sold for almost four years. It makes me wonder how long you have been out of circulation.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer