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Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage (OGA)
Ant writes "PC World is reporting that Microsoft's Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27 (2006)." From the article: "Similarly, starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate the legitimacy of their Office software before they can use the service, Microsoft added. Users absolutely hated the first iteration of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program, and their protests pressured the company into revising it about a year after it launched in July 2005."
It is getting easier and easier to continue using Open Office is seems...
Microsoft is just one of the highest-profile examples of a company viewing their customers as criminals (Sony Music also comes to mind). Most of the piracy comes from people who would never buy the products in the first place. Punishing legitimate users won't end piracy and it won't boost sales. What is wrong with these companies? The more Microsoft blocks the use of Office the more likely alternatives will gain stronger position in the market. Which is fine by me, I'm tired of getting simple text documents in doc format.
I don't understand Microsoft. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is actually very easy to defeat, and I'm sure this new OGA will be just as easy. Why irritate customers when the people who intend to use without purchasing it will do so anyway? Did they buy a copy of Sony's playbook titled "How to piss away your loyal customers and then blame them for your lack of growth"?
I really don't get it. Why continue to do something after it's been proven ineffective?
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
Yeah, they need to just get with the program and do perpetual Beta versions, like Google.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Yes, users hated it, so they expanded the program to cover other products. Thanks, MS!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
The joke's on Microsoft. Exactly how many people use Online templates or Office Update? Compared to people who use Windows Update, I'm guessing not that many. And of those people who do use Office Update *and* don't have a legit copy of Office, how many of them are savvy enough to *ahem* figure out/find a way around the mandatory OGA?
An anecdote sure, but the old slightly technical guy in my office (fits the stereotype to a T) downloaded OpenOffice after MS Office was disabled on his computer. He had already activated it and registered it, but still had to activate it again to use any of the programs. Not even just update it, to use it at all according to him.
Last week he was a big Microsoft fan, this week he's researching his options.
...To never, ever upgrade from Office 97.
Seriously... The more companies make the old or cracked versions of their products more useful than the latest-n'-greatest, the less right they have to whine about illegal copying and decreased sales.
Whether we talk about DVDs or WGA or software that phones home, people just want to use what they own (and spare me the BS about licensing-vs-owning). Making that harder will eventually drive people to the competition, up to and including piracy.
This is good for open source software, such as openoffice or any competitor of MS. Software piracy helps Microsoft. When people can get the industry leading software for free (illegal copy) they will never consider the alternatives.
You mean all those worthless Office Online Templates will be unavailable to users with non-validated copies (*cough* er...pirated) of Microsoft Office?
Oh my what a blow to the software piracy market . . .
/* somewhat functional - fix later */
I think that WGA and now OGA are the first step down the slippery slope towards subscription based software. Valve's Steam already requires activation of products over the Internet and automatically updates the software as well and it has been very successful in frustrating copyright infringers. If Word was patched automatically everytime a new bug was discovered like Steam then OGA all-in-all wouldn't be that bad. Why (W|O)GA causes uproar is that you may experience a denial-of-service on your own software. If you're a pirate then too bad - go get OpenOffice, once ODF emerges you won't care about Microsoft Office anyway. But if you're a business then the "No one ever got fired for buying IBM." principle kicks in - and sheeple buy what everyone else is using which at the moment is Microsoft Office. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft Office is really nice and all but once Open Document Format get's added then there is no problem of lock-in anymore - you'll buy your last version of Word to export your information into ODF and never look back.
Shh.
Come closer, little Microsoft Genuine Advantage. Don't worry, I won't hurt you.
You're just so cute!
I think I will call you, Mini-DRM, because you're unwanted, intrusive, and I keep tripping over you while trying to use my legitimately purchased WinVista PCs!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Coming soon:
PC World is reporting that Microsoft's Notepad Genuine Advantage (NGA) program will require mandatory validation of Notepad.exe starting [insert happy date here]"
And the reason is that 90% of the current "pirates" would *not purchase what they're using but switch to a free (as in good) alternative.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
I work at a fairly large chain that sells, amongst other things, computers. None of these PCs come with Word or Office, rather they come with Works. I explain that Works may do what they want. I explain how much Office is, and sometimes I mention you can get Open Office for free, since I don't realistically think many people are going to lay out the cash in store for the software. Know what they say typically? 'I know someone who's got office, I can get them to copy it for free.' I used to mention product validation but now I just don't bother. It's just they know Word and Office and that's what they want, by hook or by crook.
The more the Evil Empire irritates its users, the more opportunity arises for other vendors.
Remember when using MS office was the path of least resistance?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Indeed. It is like software companies don't understand that a little piracy supports their dominance. Just like giving away software to schools actually helps "indoctrinate" new users.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
One is supposed to do research before a product release. However, this is Microsoft we're concerning ourselves with. If you are Microsoft, you have all of the rights and privileges that come to those who dominate market share:
- The right to do whatever the hell you want, whenever you want.
- Have the belief that you know what's best for the consumer - even when they tell you otherwise.
- That you may abuse the "uneducated" consumer whenever you wish, via a graphical user interface, or other means.
- A perfectly legitimate and exclusive concern for your bottom line alone - without regard to what that means for the quality of your product.
- The delusion that people will be happy with things like DRM, WGA, and OGA, if they'd just give them a chance.
- The delusion that DRM, WGA, and OGA will not get in the way of normal people doing normal, legal business related tasks.
- The short-sightedness that only a good, solid ivory tower provides.
- Great benefits for all of your employees.
So, no - they don't have to ask the consumer anything.
Cheerio!
As usual on /.: Does it run on linux?
Jokes aside - but MS Office is a separate product. I may buy it and run it under wine. If OGA stops updates for wine users, MS may face some other (legal) problems.
--
Even the most advanced equipment in the hands of the ignorant is just a pile of scrap.
I use M$ office at the office and at home, however, I will not pay the inflated prices for the suite at home, this just will give me the incentive to use open office at home, which when I get used to it, will make it easy to switch over to at the office. M$ is just shooting themselves in the foot here. I cannot be the only one who will do this now. Thier software is not worth that pricetag.
Clever or not, I got nothing...
I know that online office apps are nowhere near as functional as Office/OpenOffice/WordPerfect, but that doesn't matter much to me. I'm a teacher and just today switched all of my students to Google Docs (we all have Gmail accounts because the school system doesn't need to pay for the same service). We were using OpenOffice (because it's free and students could legally install it from the discs I provided), but Google Docs is easier, cheaper for us, and does what we need it to do.
Are there features missing? You bet there are. But with Firefox 2.0 we now have real-time spellchecking, and I imagine that the features are going to grow as we go. For now, it does nearly everything that we need to do and if we don't, we can just shift to OpenOffice for that task and then move back to Google Docs for the rest of it.
What I'm saying is that, for us, in our school, MS Office is unnecessary. We can't be the only ones.
Doesn't that signal a problem for a company that makes tremendous amounts of money on the product?
Yeah, I'm as old as my UID would suggest.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Or maybe MS likes pissing of it's customers...nah that can't be it!
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the (supposed) good of its victims may be the most oppressive
Could anything more plainly prove that if you want access to your OWN data, you'd better not use any proprietary tool to create/store it -- especially not Microsoft.
First they'll lock you out of the O/S; then they'll lock you out of the tools.
"Nice lot of data you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it..."
you had me at #!
> I'd like to thank Firefox 2.0 for allowing me to post here without spelling mistakes. Thanks to FF I can now speak learnedly.
;)
Well, at the very least with more deftly polished ignorance...
0. Revised, not reversed.
1. AutoPatcher
You are also making assumptions that are not necessarily valid, e.g. that all machines have internet access.
You are also looking at this in the context of single-purpose workstations. It is one thing to get a new key for one program, but what if you have to get twenty or thirty new keys? I don't know what your Real Work is, but my Real Work does not involve spending all day on the phone with software vendors.
You are also ignoring the issue of what happens if the company ceases to exist or stops supporting its software. Then it becomes a problem for legitimate users.
It would be like a security camera, if that camera wouldn't let you out the door of the shop until it certified that you were a valid shopper. Or something. Apples? Oranges?
I agree with you. A friend of mine put it so succintly. MS is like McDonalds. They take some one else's idea and mass produce something that just slightly shittier than the original but most people haven't experienced the original so they don't know any better. McDonalds has the the McFlurry (DQ's blizzard), Their 1/4 pounders (BK's 1/4 Pounder's), Salads (Wendy's Salads) ect. MS has done the same with Tabs (Firefox, Netscape), Windows (Mac), plug and play (mac), Window's media player (Winamp anyone?), I'm sure you get the idea. Like McD's the quality sucks, it's not good for you, and for most people it's the first flavour they've had so they go with what they know.
Hee Hee The drinking bird does all the work!