One In Five Windows Installs Is Non-Genuine

snib writes "Microsoft disclosed Monday that, according to reports collected by the notorious Windows Genuine Advantage tool on millions of users' PCs, 22% of all Windows installs do not pass its validation tests and have therefore been deemed non-genuine. Quoting: 'Since WGA launched in July 2005, over 512 million users have attempted to validate their copy of Windows, Microsoft said. Of those, the non-genuine rate was 22.3 percent... [T]he Business Software Alliance... reports that 35 percent of the world's software is pirated (22 percent in North America)...'"

Comments

Re:Well...

[tverbeek]

I wouldn't be surprised if every user whose "validation" fails tries at least a couple more times after that, inflating the failure rate.

Re:My policy is...

[toadlife]

Those who insist on using open source operating systems get to pay for them. Yes, that means they pay with their time.

If your copy of Ubuntu won't play DVDs, that's between you and Google, my friend:

        * If you were using Windows Vista, you wouldn't have this problem in the first place, and,
        * As much as I pity you, I can't help you. No, I'm not going to Google for 'Ogle crashing' for you.
        * No, you can't "borrow" a Windows key from me. Go and buy your own.
        * No, I *really* can't help you. If your OS doesn't work, there's nothing I can do. It's not just a matter of won't, but I can't.
        * If you think open source software is so great, follow the open source model of RTFM and Googling.

Oh, and there's a Windows UG meeting this Thursday. If things between you and Tux don't work out, why don't you stop by and install an OS with ISV and OEM support on your machine?

But I do hate it for the gamers, man. What are they going to do?

Re:Well...

[catwh0re]

I think it's important that Microsoft doesn't correlate WGA failures with actual pirate installations. Firstly for the reason you've listed above, but also because we all know that WGA doesn't even work very well. I for one know of many systems that have passed WGA despite having an illegitimate serial number. I also know of a few where they haven't passed, despite being bonafide installations from dell. I believe MS hasn't well-tracked the serials which are being pirated out there 'in the wild' and WGA is their future on clamping down on serial number duplicity.

I also believe Microsoft should 'suck it up' because if they have an 80% non-piracy rate for a monopolised operating system that is still very good returns, and the "20%" of pirated software merely helps to maintain that monopoly.

I'm certain Microsoft would prefer to keep those 20% on windows rather than have them on linux for example.

Offtopic but a reply to your post...

[adisakp]

I clicked on the link in your sig and I have some constructive criticism to offer your company.

> Photoshop has 20+ layer modes. We offer 70+ at 10% the cost. [blackbeltsystems.com]

Wow is that web-page UGLY. You'd think that a company offering image manipulation software would know enough about imaging to not have such an ugly webpage. Especially annoying shit like

* blue text on two slightly different blue backgrounds for the navigation links
* metalled embossed hard to read fonts as headers
* "link-heavy" text with more links than text (put it into a list of feature links)
* multi-column text that goes off-page requiring "back-scrolling" to read
* juvenile snipes at vague competitors rather than professional and objective feature comparisons
* overuse of exclamation points! Especially in testimonials! No Really!
* prominent google ads for a site trying to sell commercial software

For punishment, I suggest you make your web-page designer navigate this site for an hour or two: http://corson.tv/main/buttugly.htm