Slashdot Mirror
Vista Pirates To Get "Black Screen of Darkness"
jcatcw writes "Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide, and sent a letter to OEMs explaining the consequences of Vista piracy. These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"
"To help protect honest partners and fight piracy, Microsoft will continue to block product keys that are determined to be pirated, stolen or otherwise deemed nongenuine."
So, what is going to happen when M$ screws up and starts blocking products that are 'genuine'? This will happen and I'll bet that the least painful thing that a customer will be able to do is purchase a new copy. I doubt that M$ will go out of their way to check to see if a blocked customer has a legit copy.
"The ad concludes with "Don't risk it!" and "make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled."
So basically, M$ is going to screw customers if their OEMs screw M$. This should be fun to watch. Just another reason for linux.
Asshats
It's already begun!
Isn't using Vista enough punishment in itself?
nothing to see here, move along..
The Ninjas strike back!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What happens when this goes wrong? What happens when Vista is running in the Bank of America and it accidentally trips the entire network in to "Black Screen of Darkness" mode? What happens when a virus triggers this?
The first job of any operating system has to be stability. Without stability you have nothing and I can't honestly see a good reason to mess with the stability of your OS when you're making billions of dollars of profit a year. People do not have short memories when you turn off their company. They will avoid you for decades because an event like that could literally cost a company its existence.
Good enough is hard to shift. I personally think Grolsh is a superior larger to Fosters yet Fosters outsells Grolsh by a wide margin in the United Kingdom. Fosters is inoffensive and does the job well, it is "good enough." Windows is the same, it is good enough for the vast majority of people even though it is technically deficient to Mac OSX and Linux.
I think Microsoft is making a lot of mistakes with Vista. First of all, they released an early beta as the final product which left a lot of basic functionality horribly broken. Second, they added features that no end user wants at the request of record labels and the like. Thirdly, they've got sucked in to yet more anti-user copy protection.
How many more mistakes can you make before it starts to hurt? Who knows, but the competition is getting good very quickly indeed. I moved from Windows in January to Ubuntu and then Kubuntu..
To my surprise it is vastly superior to Windows XP and Vista. A year ago I would have called that fanboy-ism. Many of you are probably thinking that right now but I urge you to try it; you'll quickly learn you're wrong.
There has been much talk of the year of Linux and when that would be. The problem with the year of Linux is that you can only see it in retrospect. However, the signs are present that 2007 is in fact that year. We've had Ubuntu convince users like me to give it a go, I've heard people around me talk about Ubuntu who otherwise wouldn't have the inclination to try it. We're having people like ATI take the platform seriously and just today we've had Eve on-line announce a Linux port.
Is the year of Linux really upon us?
Simon
first post!
A plain black rectangle for a screen...
A pirate(d) edition of Windows...
Of course! They need to add a skull and crossbones!
(On a more serious note, doesn't the term "reduced functionality" imply that something is still functional? The description makes it sound like it disables the system entirely.)
So when your legit copy of Vista dumps you to a blue screen of death, you can rest assured that you are experiencing the Genuine Advantage.
Back in the day, I used to play on a certain MUD (Eternal Twilight, ROM 2.4, I believe)...there was a command, if I recall, called something like "moron." When applied to a user, each time they used a command, said command would be disabled for further use, causing the player to slowly dwindle to non-functional oblivion. Ah, those were the days. Go Vista!
-G
Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
According to Microsoft, this is obviously the other way around: websites should change themselves to support the new Operating System.
Because we don't like this "OS independency" that websites seem to enjoy at the moment.
Let's see, in order to chase after a few retailers, Microsoft suddenly turns off the computer for potentially thousands, if not millions of people? Yep, that's going to win them a lot of friends. I would expect that some countries might just make this sort of thing illegal.
This is my sig.
Sorry, it was too easy.
How hysterical. Earlier the blue screen of death came at no charge. No you have to pay to get the black one.
The only thing stopping droves from converting to linux from those live CD's is an easy network setup wizard that figures out your NDISwrapper settings and gets you connected. If that worked as easy "click, wait, prompt for passwords, connected" I'd be switched right now.
stuff |
...why anyone would want to use an OS in which the user can't be the local administrator of a PC that they already own?
You can bet on a class action as a direct result of this.
Considering other missteps by MicroSoft, it's an absolute certainty that legit users will get snagged here, and then they get to experience the famous MicroSoft support system.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
I wonder how long until some company loses a production SQL server costing millions of dollars because of this when they owned a group license. Its more then enough to stop any company from using vista if they where considering it.
It's not like that thing won't be cracked shortly after the implementation.
Besides, if all the pirated copies of Windows were to be switched to black... dang... that would be a nice day... Linux/OS X marketshare quadruples, spam is be only about 4% of internet traffic.
(Disclaimer to mods and pointdexters: no I did not RTFA, and yes I did pull those numbers out of my A.)
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
...Vista was just booting slow.
-Valiss
Black Screen of Darkness Assails the knave
Defend yourself
With your shaving glaive
And the white foam of truth:
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
This is what you get when you have a bunch of simple programmers pandering to the whims of marketing. Customers are irrelevant. Don't trust the customer, trust marketing. Mareketing 'knows' what our customers want, and what they paid for.
It scares me to no end, that companies running massive systems use this defective product, designed by simple programmers who can offer no warranty or guarentee that their product will even continue to function. The WGA 'glitch' has shown us all how much trust Microsoft puts in it's customers, I place less trust in Microsoft.
Sure, Linux may not be coded by Engineers, but I have the power to audit the code, and my base OS doesn't assume I'm a pirate and shut me down.
from the article:
the advertisement indicates nongenuine copies of Windows Vista will lose access to key features, have limited access to updates, and thus risk attack from viruses, malware and spyware.
Does this mean that whilst the USER experience stops, the virus running in the background gets to continue running?
liqbase
I am glad that Microsoft is actually backing up the restrictions that they say they have on their software. I've noticed that many Linux vs. Windows debates are about legitimate use of Linux vs. illegitimate use of Windows.
And when I try to point out to people that there are strict legal limits on what you can do with Windows, they look at me like I am making something up. "But, I can install Windows on this computer...I have a CD my brother-in-law gave me!"
So, I am just as glad that Microsoft is doing something to demonstrate the nature of licensed software. If people want to use licensed, commercial software, I don't object to it (even though I use almost totally free software), but they should realize that means they have to pay for it.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Good afternoon, as of this week, Microsoft has activated a function in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality.' This is a specific function in Vista that effectively disables nongenuine copies of Windows. Therefore anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will experience:
"The Need to move to Mac OS X"
Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d encule de ta mere.
As long as you turn off all the security features, which is fine with me, because I hate security features. It's quite visually pleasing. I've never tried Linux because it seems like it would be difficult to play games and run whatever other program I want. Why is every version of Linux I've seen competing for the most ugly GUI prize?
In other news, Apple, Sun, and a billion linux supporters simultaneously screamed their praise at this latest initiative by Microsoft.
It gets worse. Let's take that line of thought a bit further. From TFA:
Great. Just what we need: deliberately make some machines more vulnerable to attack. As if those machines are the only ones that will suffer when they get infected.
A malware infection doesn't just impact the infected system's users. Those systems then become nodes in a botnet. They pump out more spam, more viruses, more phishing. They host phishing sites. They could theoretically be used for distributed computing projects... like cracking into paying customers' systems.
What's Microsoft going to say when a large site gets hacked, using someone else's pwned box as a launch platform, and the attacker got into that box because it was pirated, and Microsoft deliberately disabled the update that would have fixed a remote root exploit?
I guess it is something to look forward to when WGA fails to work. I'm sure this feature will not stop anyone from doing what they are doing already.
And what if the WGA server is down again?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I wouldn't've thought it possible, but here we are.
One of the biggest problems in dealing with software piracy is that the copy protection mechanisms often punish legitimate users disproportionally. Who wants to put down $60 for a game that makes you put in a CD-Key, keep the CD in the drive while you play, establish/maintain an active internet connection to verify your right to play each time you start the game up? Especially when pirates get the same product for free without the aggravating restrictions?
It's never seemed logical to me that people who buy software should have to bear the brunt of copy protection when pirates get a superior experience without compensating the company producting it. So it's about time that Microsoft has figured out a way to degrade the experience of software pirates instead of that of legitimate users. Not to mention of course that it'll be nice to see Windows come down in price once this takes effect.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Let me get this straight.. Not even two weeks ago, their WGA system completely blew up leaving millions of genuine users "in the dark", and now they are do confident in their system that they are going to do something like this?
I think I will just wait a few days for M$ to shot themselves in the foot... This type of poor business behavior is not sustainable longterm...
We consult with a variety of $100m+ corporations in the Chicago area. Our last summary on Vista had three word: Don't Install It. One contractor asked us for a study (paid for by them) into Vista, and we sent them that very summary and billed them $1.50 (which I believe they paid).
I'm very open about IT developments to my clientele. I've explained to them for almost 20 years that MOST of the hype in an industry is designed to pad the pockets of consultants such as myself. Of our client base, almost none were going to be bothered by Y2K. I think we were one of a handful of consultants who didn't bill more than a few bucks for the entire Y2K fiasco, and we also let our clients know this. We make _more_ money because we are honest about the gimmicks of the trade: we don't want to make money doing work that isn't necessary. When a client takes us off a project, and the project drops in efficiency, they know we were needed. Most consultants, when fired, are a net positive to the firing client.
Vista will never run in my office, in my home, or in the homes and offices of my clients, until the third party software developers require it. For most large companies, Vista offers zero additional efficiency, profitability, or reduced downtime. How else can you sell an upgrade unless it does at least 2 of those things better than XP?
XP runs fine. I know it is hated, but it runs fine on hundreds/thousands of desktops and laptops and servers we maintain or provide services for. Is it efficient? No, but my customers know they're paying for the lower efficiency/stability by being compatible with the software and hardware THEY need (CAD, print RIPs, accounting flagship programs, etc). Vista offers NOTHING.
Let Microsoft kill pirate Vista installs: as far as I know, the only installs I'm aware of are pirated ones. Anyone who runs Vista now that we consult with gets a FREE downgrade to a legitimate XP license. That's how firm I am on Vista: I'll pay for the labor to downgrade it.
Microsoft's non-customers: in the Black
Our customers: giving MS the Red. Bank statement, that is.
I remember when I (and everyone I knew) had a pirated copy of Microsoft Word 5.1 (best damn wordprocessor ever written.) The legend was that Microsoft didn't care that we and every other student in the galaxy had pirated it, because it helped their market penetration. If they gave it away free, they'd get in trouble for unfair competition or something.
I haven't followed Microsoft's silliness for many years (pretty much ever since they rewrote MS Word so that there was a noticable delay between the keypress and the letter appearing on the screen on a contemporary top-of-the-line mac.) But I have two questions. Is my legend true? And what dark shifts in Mordor politics led to MS changing its ways?
Protect your liberties. Donate to the ACLU
...then I remembered that there was _no chance at all_ of this _ever_ affecting legit users. After all, Microsoft has a perfect track record of identifying pirated copies of their products without any false positives.
Really.
This is certain to make Vista more popular than ever.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It said no desktop, no start bar, what if using a shell like Aston or Litestep, would that make it functional again? Also using an alternative to exploring the computer since explorer.exe is reduced?
Is that, the disabler effectively steals all of the data on the consumer's hard drive. Say, I have a bunch of word documents, and suddenly, the OS is disabled. Well, I can't get to my documents now, can I. So, Microsoft stole my documents. It's like, you might repo my car, if I don't pay for it, but that doesn't give you the rights to the stuff inside it, which I can get at the repo lot.
When it really boils down to it, I would almost expect the disable feature to be the largest class action lawsuit in history against Microsoft, even in the USA. Even though, in general, I'm against this sort of big money class action lawsuits, I think Microsoft's heavy handed of theft of consumer data warrants it.
This is my sig.
... black is the new blue!
So basically, M$ is going to screw customers if their OEMs screw M$. This should be fun to watch. Just another reason for linux.
So the problem, as you see it, aside from a MS Screwup(TM) is people suffering for purchasing from a shady dealer. People who buy from shady dealers should learn not to, not really MS's problem there, it's the cheapskates who do business with scumbags. People stung will have to go back to the cheatie dealer and demand satisfaction.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Vista may actually be usable like that. Why aren't Microsoft sharing this upgrade with their paying customers?
and anywhere else where Windows licenses are prohibitively expensive: Ubuntu will never disable your computer like this. At least, not intentionally. ;)
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
What about the inevitable false positives that come of this? WGA is far from perfect, and if that is the method used to determine between legit and pirated copies, some innocent people may get hit with this. MSFT may end up rescinding this "feature" because of the public outcry.
Also,does this feature permanently hobble an installation of Vista once it is triggered? If a reinstall is necessary to have a functional system again, what about the people who don't know how to get their files back? (with Knoppix or a similar tool?) They stand to lose a lot of work over this.
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
Finally Emo kids will have an operating system that matches their souls!
Anybody remember this?
Windows Genuine Advantage Servers Down, Taking Users With Them
Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:26PM EDT
Breaking news: Some of Microsoft's WGA servers reportedly went offline last night or early this morning. What's that mean? If your copy of Windows tries to validate itself with Microsoft, it might be marked as unvalidated, or put simply, counterfeit.
The rest of the story is here.
I can't wait until Vista tries to dial home, and they have another server blackout. I wonder if MS can be held legally liable the same way virus/worm authors are? You know, whenever some huge worm takes everybody's machines down for a day or two they tally up some outrageous dollar amount due to lost productivity? I smell a huge class action lawsuit waiting in the wings.
This is going to be seriously entertaining when it happens.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Aaaah, so that's who's behind the Storm Worm...
So what do you think will happen first a) A news story about this knocking out some user in Europe who Sues M$ OR b) A cracker comes out with a patch for vista to disable this. OR c) China Nukes Redmond (and 1/2 the world) because their government used illegal copies of vista for its missle silos and the missle program assumes a black screen as a major nuclear attack against China and launches. idk, but I'd give 5-1 on a and 2-1 b and 10-1 c (I still assume China's Nukes are wired into Amigas we sent their for recycling)
The year of linux is already here.
It's just not evenly distributed.
I doubt there will be any production SQL Servers running on a desktop OS...
But that brings up a good point - does/will WGA run on MS server platforms? One major screwup there, and you'd see mass migrations to Linux in the data center. Definitely have to watch for flying chairs from Redmond, then, huh?
"A little misunderstanding? Galileo and the Pope had a little misunderstanding."
Who would run SQL Server on Vista??? It is a desktop OS.
It's pretty ballsy of Microsoft to turn on such draconian policy. Do they really think they can reliably differentiate licensed from unlicensed copies given the recent WGA debacle?
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
I simply wanted to applaud you for proper spelling of the word "existence." Thank you, sincerely. Being bereft of mod points at the moment, I could not award you by simply modding you up.
no wonder one of computerworlds current reader favorite articles is: How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years
Vista, schmista. Follow our tips for keeping your XP setup humming happily for a long, long time. so cute...
"I like to wear big boy pants."
... I bought a new HP laptop (or really, my boss did) with Vista. Ever since I've been running in reduced functionality mode. I would be happy if my mouse stopped disappearing when I run an external monitor.
Way to go M$! xD
The solution is simple http://www.ubuntu.com/
You need to revisit Tolkien. Like Microsoft, Sauron initially gave away lesser rings for free. If you needed a ring of power, Sauron was the guy to go to. There were other rings of power, available, of course. Most notable were those forged by two hobbits named Linwise Torvalds and Dick Stallyman. But their rings achieved little success, so great was the marketing genius of Sauron, servant of Melkor, who is Morgoth, Black Foe of the World.
Once Sauron had achieved market dominance (also like Microsoft), he then unveiled the One Ring, complete with Mordor Genuine Advantage.
MS has either completely lost the plot or alternative OS are really a major threat to revenue.
I'd go with option #1
BofA inturn will have to pay more for network services to assure they route everything through providers who also buy the corporate version.
BofA will like this. Because it it's a level playing field. Either other banks pay more too, or they offer unreliable service. So BofA can pass this right along to their customers who won't have any alternatives that are cheaper.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Anyone notice the date of this coming out? September 11! I'm sorry, but Microsoft is an American company, and whoever thought of September 11 is a really sick f*$(.
Actually, it's "copyright infringement".
The question is, should Microsoft then deny the victim any security updates? I can see turning the screen black and such. I have no problem with Microsoft denying the USER any functionality.
But denying security updates just means that OTHER people will suffer when that box is cracked.
Microsoft has some pretty smart people working there. I'm sure that they could come up with a way that would demonstrate to the user AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE whether their copy was legitimate or not AND REGISTER IT TO THAT USER.
Interesting. You know, the most annoying thing a virus/worm could do now (assuming you have backups) is make your Vista install think it's been pirated.
If the copy of Vista is illegal, the machine will slow down, crash, and become vulnerable to viruses.
So, how does that differ from legal copies?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
This might be the best thing for alternative OS's that Microsoft has ever done.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
than the fancy screen of uselessness?
Now we know why WGA did a while ago, they tried to activate this and discovered all the WGA servers blackscreened!
I don't want Vista at all. Not genuine, not pirated, not at all. Before you get too excited, I wouldn't buy a laptop for Linux either. For what I want I need Windows XP. I'd want it to be legit of course, but Vista is useless to me and I don't want it. It's hard to find anything new with XP these days though, and thus I am not buying anything. I may have to buy a laptop with Vista and buy XP and try to send Vista back or something. Then I need to wonder about driver support, does this new laptop work properly with XP, or do I lose something that lacks or has poor drivers under XP since they're all supposed to go Vista now for periherals?
Vista is to XP
as
ME is to 98se
THEY BOTH SUCK ASS
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
BSD security, package managed software installation, rock solid kernel, and no kow-towing to Redmond.
Keep at it Steve, you'll convert the masses yet! '^)
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
I'm curious if this reduced functionality is a function of the windows shell its self (explorer.exe)
In such a case I imagine that if this "feature" does kill explorer.exe, then simply loading up a different shell like Black Box (bblean) then atleast the local features would work even if windows update is still blocked.
Of course, their methods for stopping the windows update feature is not really clear at this point either.
The nice thing is, from here on out, we can make up pretty much any thing we want to about Microsoft "watching you", and say hey, "how else do they shut your computer off if they think you didn't pay for Windows!"
This is my sig.
I'm getting a kick out of this discussion because I am sitting here downgrading two new machines which came infected with vista to XP.
"Its the same thing they did with WindowsME"
Hey, if you knew that, why did you even try Vista?
So Microdoft has a way to determine that an OS is pirated, and the user must pass that service when starting the system. Just what will a (re)start of all systems together in an office do for the network-traffic, even considering the fact that they will not start all together on the same second. Starting for instance New York will have its impact on the internet due to the traffic involved.
But what will happen if our friends the crackers also named hackers find a way to take over those servers, or a way better, make their own anti-piracy-server for Microsoft, which kills just any installed Vista-system by black-screening it.
I think that most comapnies do not want to be involved whit this scenario, because their success is based on the availability of their systems, both office and servers.
May be this will be the trigger to switch to an other OS, unix-based or otherwise. Maybe we get the situation where diffferent OS-es will compete for different purposes, and will the knowledge about OS be growing due to the increased freedom to market your OS, which is only be bought when it merits the sale.
I prefer to think of Windows as a "Reduced Functionality" UNIX. If Microsoft wants to further reduce the functionality, it's no hair off of my butt. I look forward to the day when they start doing it for their paying customers and I can tell my manager that their functionality has been so far reduced that the company should drop support for them and do UNIX exclusively.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Microsoft. We bring botnets to life."
I mean come on... seriously, not even Microsoft can be THAT stupid. What is going on here? Did the guy who writes the anti-linux FUD not get his bonus? Did he decide to stick-it to the man by making anti-vista FUD instead? Did Stallman infiltrate MS to plantthis? Has the Storm botnet started to target OEMs by e-mailing trojans? Did an OEM switch to google and Balmer finally snapped? I mean seriously, what is going on? I mean we know they are stupid but not THAT stupid... Can you even make a marketing campaign worse than this without using the words "babies", "eat" and "we" ? I seriously don't understand this... They just can't be that stupid. This doesn't make any sense at all...
Problem solved.
mod me funny
I didn't realize somebody would *want* to steal Vista ;-)
It doesn't need to be a production server. It simply needs to happen to a CEO's desktop.
M$, Lets make it harder for users to gain any benefit from the purchase of our already nearly unusable product "Windblows Vista", how should we go about that?
Engineering Staff, We'll have it call home for authentication! we already know that doesn't work!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
People are going on and on as if it's a forgone conclusion that this will happen en-mass with legitimate copies of Vista, but this is nothing more than speculation based on MS-hate, not facts.
There are a lot of reasons to "hate" Microsoft, and credibility demands actual facts, so when it comes to pass, we can all say "I told you so". But at the present, this is a non-story.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
People will switch to Linux.
printf($randomline(sigs.txt) \n "-- "$randomline(authors.txt));
-- myself
Not to defend vista, but lets get the facts strait. It seems that there are 2 modes to the reduced functionality, Basically if you don't activate you get the black screen and are screwed. They will treat pirates the nearly same as they do in XP with updates only. Sigh, I would have hoped for more aggressive blocking. Just to give people a chance to consider the true cost of Vista.
reference
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925582
Ill summarize what you can do:
non-genuine key:
Can use Windows Vista features
Can activate Windows Vista
Can change the product key
Can log on without a time constraint to perform certain activities (no 1 hour restriction)
Can not use certain Windows Vista features such as Aero Glass and the Windows ReadyBoost.
Can not obtain some content from Microsoft Download center.
Out-of-grace period for activation:
Can activate Windows Vista
Can remotely script Windows Vista
Can change the product key
Can log on to Windows Vista for one hour to obtain a new product key or to access data on the local computer.
Can use most of the features that are available in Windows Vista.
Can activate the Windows Vista product key.
Can remotely access a shared network location.
Can remain logged on
Can run Windows Vista in safe mode
Can not play built-in games
Can not use premium features such as Aero Glass, ReadyBoost, and BitLocker.
Can not log on for more than one hour
"Don't let this happen to your customers."
...
[Windows black screen of death]
Free software means freedom.
(Logos:) [FSF] [FSFE] [FFII] [OpenBSD] [Apache]
http://outcampaign.org/
Remember the WGA outage a few weeks ago, when suddenly nobody could connect and verify their license? That was the beta-test for it on their servers.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing"
Seems that they will manage to get a full 1 hour of browsing with Vista, more than the average for the rest of us.
Seriously, how much will want people to install timebombware in their PCs? How much legal users were considered pirates by some microsoft "validation" measures in the past?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Sounds like an easy way for a rogue IT employee to take out an entire company. Simply publish that company's key (or their special non-activation copy of windows) as a torrent, bunch of people download it, Microsoft picks up on the flux of installs and pulls the plug, the entire company goes dark.
"Dear CEO,
I have a copy of your Windows Vista install key. If you do not transfer $1,000,000 to my swiss bank account by 5pm I will publish this key on teh internets. How expensive would it be for every copy of Vista you own to go dark for a few days while you negotiate with Microsoft?
Tick tock tick tock..."
Dekker Dreyer
I think it'd be quite fun to see the blue screen and a black screen battle in a fight to the death.
Years ago people would have rushed out and bought Windows. But these days people are more interested in Linux than back in 2001 when XP arrived.
I am going nitpick on one thing you wrote ...
"The first job of any operating system has to be stability."
The implicit assumption is that Vista is an OS, or at the very least is seen (or should be seen) by Microsoft as an OS. However, it is most evident that they do not see it that way. It is a product. It is a product that acts like an OS. Product first. OS second. That is their mindset. From their perspective, that is all it is--a product.
That being said, go right ahead and discuss if you so desire what should and should not go into an OS. It is a valuable discussion and can potentially lead to better OS'es. But please keep in mind that all Vista is (or any other Windows release), is a product--one that is made by Microsoft for the sole purpose of making someone $$$.
iaamoac
reduced functionality was a standard feature in Windows.
That's why I stopped using it.
I thought my HP Vista laptop already was in "Reduced Functionality Mode". Vista sucks balls. The only thing preventing me from Upgrading to XP (or anything else for that matter) is lack of video drivers.
But with Vista, an OS I'm actively trying to avoid (pirated or legitimate), I'm not too concerned.
... a "Peril-senstive" setting, meant to help people develop a relaxed attitude to,... suckiness?
I am more knowledgable than most when it comes to computers. I've built my own rigs, and am much more hardware oriented than software. The main reason why I use my computer is for games, then some business related applications. Throw in a little video editing for good measure.
Right now, I have 2 comps... a desktop running XP, and a brand new laptop running Vista. Is there a Linux distro I can pick up, and then be able to play games with little to no problems? How about new games?
I tried to get a Gentoo distro up and running on an old box, and after numerous attempts, I failed. I managed to get Mandrake up and running, but I couldn't really figure out what to do with it. I felt cool for having a box with Linux on it, but besides that I couldn't really get any thing to run.
In the end, I'll keep running some form of Windows until there is a Linux distro which allows me to do everything I do now, with little or no problems. Until then, "The Year of Linux", will continue to be a pipe dream. Its not user friendly enough for someone who knows a thing or two about computers... how is the average user going to figure it out?
Translation: Microsoft has just discovered a security hole in MS Vista, which causes a black screen instead of a blue one. The spin doctors at Microsoft immediately distributed leaflets by plane that this is a *feature*, which will prevent *pirated* vista installs from functioning properly.
I thought pirates only went after working software...
I already had this happen, had a brand new Acer from best buy with Vista pre-installed, during a recent business trip to Asia I booted up one day to get the black screen O death. I contacted M$ tech support whom informed me that I'd have to contact Best Buy for resolution, never did get the problem resolved. Eventually just had to nuke it from orbit and istall linux. Paid good money for Vista and got screwed anyway! Friends don't let friends use Vista! It seems a bit odd that the're going to such lengths to prevent piracy on Vista, you can't really buy a laptop without Vista installed these days, and it's the worst OS ever devised, no one in their right mind would want to pirate the pile O' crap. Ony good news is that it was my employers computer, so the're really the ones that got hosed. Never buying another Windows machine again, never paying for any M$ products again, apparantly having a legit license in not enough for them, they want to re-sell you the same software as many times as possible. I sent M$ an email about this, the contents of which are to obscene to quote here. M
I would've thought they activate this a month or two after launch, if not sooner. I guess they wanted to give a false sense of security that it wouldn't happen soon if at all, and/or to have people get comfortable and then get zapped, enforcing/encouraging them to get a legit copy for anything stuck in there or something.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.
Maybe they'll have to fight over your box, and it'll be...black and blue! I'll be here all week folks.
Haven't seen this one yet: Microsoft DOESN'T drop the ball. Not a single erroneous 'black screen' anywhere in the world...
Then some clever chap somewhere reverse-engineers the shutdown procedure and is able to trigger the shutdown mechanism through other means!! ie no checking if the Vista is genuine or not, just tell the system it is NOT and have it shut down. Beautiful.
'nuf said.
This is so a hoax. Think for a second: Microsoft overloading the existing BSOD acronym, would alienate millions of users.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I suppose their new programming philosophy is to create an OS designed to fail. Oh wait... They've been doing that for years, their just starting to perfect it with vista:) I've been messing with Linux for years. Thanks M$ I'll be migrating to Linux sooner then latter
Please. It sums pretty well how sad this whole situation really is.
sounds like another "it's not a bug, it's a feature" argument to me.
Some enterprising hacker could find a way to gain access to the legimate keys on people's computers, and then distribute those with duplicated copies of Vista, making them "stolen." Then, when Microsoft inactivates them, the legitimate user (who was innocently hacked) will have their copy of windows correctly deactivated.
That would suck. I hope it doesn't happen.
I am protecting myself from this possibility by not buying Vista.
Please don't compare Foster's ale to Windows. It's an insult to Foster's.
The WGA servers have been converted to a more reliable Linux server solution.
Is microsoft trying to portray themselves to be as important as the world trade center, that when their chumpy new windows product falls over that this will be a bigger deal then the thousands of lives lost 6 years ago?
Taking your money under false is actually theft. It is a sub-set of theft called fraud actually.
from my old notes:
A. Definition: The crime of obtaining property by false pretenses -- usually called simply "false pretenses" -- has these elements:
1. A false representation of a
2. material present or past fact
3. which causes the person to whom it is made
4. to pass title to
5. his property to the misrepresenter, who
6. knows that his representation is false, and intends to defraud.
B. Nature of crime: Thus false pretenses occurs where D uses fraud or deceit to obtain not only possession but also ownership (title). The crime differs from larceny with respect to what is obtained: in larceny, D obtains possession only, not title.
If you take someone's money by using a pirated copy of Windows, that's theft of money.
Taking property by knowingly exchanging a false token for that money is theft. Read the law in your state, they are all very nearly the same.
> Think about it - "IIS, no suitability for any particular purpose, and no warranty!
Which would be a fatal flaw in their EULA....... IF anyoen else sold a software product that didn't include the exact same language. Yes, software is the only product sold with zero warranty, zero product liability, zero legal accountability. Go figure. Don't believe me? Go read the GPL, the Solaris EULA, Apple's EULA, etc. Every single one promises exactly the same thing, you (may or may not actually) get a shiny CD/DVD with some bits recorded on it, and if they won't read back correctly they will replace the media. Other than that you are on your own. If you want any sort of warranty you buy exotic products from small outfits at truly insane prices, for use in life critical applications. But even most medical equipment these days has Windows under the hood. Insane? Yup.
Democrat delenda est
Laws have been changed/created over less. DESPITE what the EULA would like you to believe.
Exactly.
It's like trucks that have the "not responsible for objects leaving the road" stickers on them. It may or may not be true, but they'd sure like everyone to think it's true.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Ye gods, there be a lot of whiners about.
Seriously, what's wrong with you people? Lawsuits? Mass exodus? Venomous hatred?
MS has the right to prevent people from stealing their software. This isn't really a bad way to do it. And if you do get locked out, legitimately or accidentally, it's not the end of the world! It's not like Vista formats your C drive, or permanently locks itself down. You make a call to the 1-800 #, and poof, fixed up. Not too freaking hard! Nobody's going to get a class-action suit because of a temporary inconvenience. Once XP becomes obsolete Linux use will go up by roughly the number of cheap bastards unwilling to pay for their software, but people aren't going to flock to Fedora because their Vista install unexpectedly told them their key was invalid.
Seriously people, get some perspective. MS actually picked a pretty decent compromise here between "let people run crazy (ie Win2k)" and "lock it down so it's completely and permanently unusable" (ie what the RIAA would love to do if they find an mp3 on your system).
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
They're shutting down legitimately purchased copies, the keys of which have been compromised.
So, you buy a new computer with Vista installed. Some lackey on the disk image bench jots down the activation key and hands it out to everyone at his community college campus. After the 500th "activation," Microsoft determines that key is pirated. You now have a dead installation along with everyone else.
Good luck reactivating it without purchasing a new shrink-wrapped copy.
It is nothing but more MS fear tactics, is why this is news. Evil corporations often resort to lows like this. The next step is for them to begin suing their customers. (RIAA) I would not at all be surprised if this started happening...
I recently wrote about this ...
Short version: Genuine Vista crapped out on me, screwed up a huge download (twice!) and initially refused to realise it was genuine. Only after installing an Active-X control (God, I hate those) did I manage to get it working (and it only offered that solution the second-time-around).
A sufficiently bad experience that I just deleted the windows VM and installed Ubuntu on a VM instead. So, yes, MS screwed me out of the $300 or so for the 'Windows Vista that is licensed for VMs", but it's the last thing I'll ever buy from them. Anyone want to buy a (used once) GENUINE copy of Vista ?
I don't pirate software. I don't see why I should be inconvenienced (at full price) because MS can't find their backside with either hand - if you're going to deny fake vista installations, then MAKE SURE THE DAMN SOFTWARE WORKS. PERIOD. NO IFs BUTs OR OTHER EXCUSES. [rant over].
Simon, disgusted with MS's attitude.
Physicists get Hadrons!
I can't wait! I'm going to cast magic missile... at the screen of darkness. I attack the Screen of Darkness! Take that Microsoft!
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
So windows gives you a blank screen after 1 hour of use? What different from a genuine copy besides the fact that it's normally a blue screen and you're lucky to get an hour before it happens?
Which would be a fatal flaw in their EULA....... IF anyoen else sold a software product that didn't include the exact same language.
You must be new to marketing. ;)
It doesn't matter if you're guilty of the exact same thing. It's still a selling point. For further clarification, see 'politics'.
Ok, joking aside - there isn't anybody out there that sells a server that doesn't have a completely dismissive contract with it? Nobody? Not the servers running nuclear power plants, or submarines, or anything?
Seems...hard to believe.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
My new computer came preloaded with Windows Vista. That lasted about 30 minutes.
The shitty thing for us multi-computer users is that we have 10 different windows install disks. I maintain 3 computers (1 in entertainment center, 1 as backup machine, 1 as my main computer), my girlfriend has a laptop, and I maintain my parents' 2 computers. I have no idea which OS disk came with which computer. When I am reinstalling the OS, for whatever reason, I just grab a disk and a serial number. I have probably used the same disk on two different computers. Am I a pirate? I bought enough copies of windows, but I can't be sure that I didn't use a disk twice...
Anyway, I'm glad all of my computers are still on XP, so I don't have to worry about this.
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
I wonder what would happen of worm for Vista was distrobuted with a Virus that would patch the Vista computer to make it !validate with M$'s OS checker which would make the infected computer marked pirated.
Is that even possible? I'm no expert but I think that would be possible. If I was a Vista/M$ user I would be pretty nervous about this anti-piracy move by M$. However, since I use Ubuntu I'm safe.
I hope that made senseMy illegally downloaded copy of Vista reads as genuine anyway.
Except, I'm sure that Microsoft keeps a 'safe' list of all the companies and government agencies that have blanket volume licensing that will not under any circumstances be turned off.
Even for as dumb as Microsoft is, they have to be smart enough not to take down major corporations with their shenanigans.
Message contains 1 attachment: spam.gif
The ignorance on slashdot is amazing. Organizations run private key management servers, the machines don't ever [directly] talk to microsoft. And the server editions of windows don't even have "WGA."
Has anyone started a pool to see how long before we see a article showing it's been circumvented? Put me down for $5 on 18 hours.
I! Tego Arcana Dei.
Didn't they roll this out a couple of weeks ago and shut everyone down who was trying to use MGA?
Why so many people stuck with XP.
In fact, I'm now "forced" to upgrade several computers at home from 2000... I bought an OEM 3 pack of XP. That's right! Nine months after Vista.
A colleague went to buy a new machine for doing 3D. When they told him that removing Vista and installing XP would void the warranty, he simply said "then I'm not buying it" and walked out.
My father runs his own small accounting business, all on 2K. He's asking me what he needs to upgrade to XP.
It's ridiculous.
At this point, if it weren't for Steam and a few of the games my kids play (and my wife uses Skype a lot), I'd be Linux only. As time goes on, there's less and less we need Windows for. The kids don't "need" it, they got all the games they need on the consoles.
Anyone know a good free VOIP for Linux compatible with skype? I honestly never bothered looking.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Just kidding. I will not upgrade to Vista tho. When XP is no longer supported and patched, I will upgrade to something else. I've had it with MS.
Doesn't matter anyway since a big chunk of what I do is stored on servers.. not on my desktop.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Look at how many more people are gonna just jump for the new OS. Ok, well maybe not. On a slightly related subject my kid loves the Ubuntu box I put together for her this weekend!
If I was deep this is would be profound, if smart then wise, if a poet then verse. Here it is, you judge!
Isn't Win/DOS really just a WoW/Warhammer/${YOUR_GAME_HERE} support platform? I'm not using it for browsing, so I'm not affected. Right? Hello?
My screen, it's like, how much more black could it be? And the answer is none. None more black.
> Ok, joking aside - there isn't anybody out there that sells a server that doesn't have a completely
> dismissive contract with it? Nobody? Not the servers running nuclear power plants, or submarines, or anything?
There is said to be a few of the small RTOS vendors who offer liability for bugs, but they tend to be the sort of companies who you can't get anything out of unless it is from a sales weasel so don't expect to find their EULA on a webpage. And you WILL pay for it. Why do you think NASA is toying with putting penguins into space, because even they are finding it harder to justify the prices and it isn't like they have to buy that many licenses for their space missions. Considering all the other things that can go wrong anyway, from physical design flaws to human data entry errors no OS could protect against, the odds of a Linux kernel bug taking out a mission isn't that bad. Most software error won't be in the OS anyway but in the actual control software. Then when one considers those niche OSes have old crappy development tools and a much smaller developer pool to hire from it is hard to justify the price.
Democrat delenda est
if your effected by this...
all you would have to do is:
using Internet explorer goto url file:/c:/windows/system32/cmd.exe
in the command prompt type explorer
now u got your desktop icons and are able to use your programs...
you still have the count down but you are at least able to do some work......
a feature.
I wonder how long it will be before some basement dweller figures out how to disable computers using this feature.
photosMy Photostream
"fear as a motivator"? That's hilarious! In my world, we call that "illegal behavior has consequences".
Maybe this will be the push all the criminals need to go legit... and start using Teh Lunix!!! But somehow... I doubt it. Teh Lunix can't even compete when they are free and their competitor isn't. That should be all the indication anyone needs of how much people in the reality based community care about Teh Lunix. People would rather break the law pirating Windows, rather than use Teh Lunix.
I've been saying for a long time: if Teh Lunix wants to compete with MS, they are going to have to start PAYING people to use it. Free hasn't worked, so they need to take it to that next level. If the FOSSies REALLY want to stick it to Microsoft, isn't it worth ponying up the cash to make Teh Lunix competitive?
Users generally have to Remote desktop / Management console to a server from there desktop. If a DBA gets locked out of there own desktop then the result is the same as if the server was locked out. If you cant get to it then you cant get to it. In addition, SQL server runs just fine on Vista and a lot of smaller companies just don't know any better. It may not be an official server OS, but I am sure it was getting used as such in more then a few cases.
I installed WoW in cedega this weekend with the Burning crusade expansion. It runs great. Very playable.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Just curious ... Does anyone know a handful of people who have installed it, kept it.. and actually like it? I'm not trying to flamebait here, i'm honestly curious about this.
Maybe MSFT should complete the idea and put a list of Linux down load sites on the
"Black screen of death".
How long will this take the professional pirates to crack? Honestly, the only people this will harm are those who bought Vista for cheap on EBay thinking it was legit instead of a bootleg. It will blow up on them, and they'll hate Microsoft and go buy a new Apple computer. Hackers and pirates will just patch it.
Just have one rogue IT guy send the corporation's license key to the nearest pirate site after the company screws them over.
It'll be marked non-genuine in no time.
that the recent wga server downtime is directly related to this latest initiative?
sum.zero
blue screen of death - I think someone screwed up by allowing us to keep using the acronym. It's not like M$ wants us to be able to reuse anything else, why should this be any different...
Phagos, not logged in
Anyone who runs Vista now that we consult with gets a FREE downgrade to a legitimate XP license.
Clever marketing. Microsoft dorks them and you get to be the hero. The PR value is priceless. We can't count on Microsoft but we can always count on good 'ol Adam. It's a good investment in time because I've got money someone says, "Hey, since you're here, can you look at..." which are the magic words that mean you get the bill the call anyway. Keeps your face fresh around the office, you can schmooze while you're working, talk to them about alternative operating systems...it's a great idea. One that I fully intend to shamelessly copy. :) Bothers me I didn't think of it on my own...but I'll get over it.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Does Microsoft really have some way of remotely destroying Vista installations?
It's like a virus or remote-triggerable malware that you don't need to actually introduce, because it's already there, waiting, on the machines. All you need to do is tell Microsoft, via the right channels (by giving the license key to pirates), and MS will do the dirty work for you. The possibilities for extortion are limitless.
Please, Microsoft
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
That's interesting. I've been experiencing symptoms like that for a while now. Usually it's when I run my favorite browser: "shutdown -h +0".
That just might drive another two or three Vista users to Linux.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Who would throw away a (brand new) computer just to replace a pirated version of Vista and pay $2000+ for a Mac?
Wouldn't it be far cheaper to get a legitimate copy of Vista?
Not to mention Linux...
Oh... I get it... You meant to give us the insight into the way IUser would solve the problem?
Computer and OS treated like a new TV.
Concentrating on working straight "out of the box" and when the time for upgrade comes (because everyone just HAS to use the newest version of Photoshop) - replace everything.
Software, OS, hardware...
Fun... but not really economical.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Why are you on this site? Vista really does suck major balls. And if you want to play "video games in DirectX" then you should be using XP. A large number of games for Windows RUN BETTER IN LINUX THAN IN VISTA!!! That's because of all the memory and cycles that are wasted by that piece of crap on line after bloated line of legacy code, a pig GUI that can't compare in looks or speed or customizability (or... got any other categories for Vista's visual interface to be beaten in?) to Beryl, and 'security features' that are a joke. Well, you paid for it, might as well enjoy it. Or, on second thought, grow a brain, use it, recognize your Vista purchase is a sunk cost better not spoken of or dwelt on, download an Ubuntu Feisty Fawn .iso, burn it, boot it, install it, and get Beryl. Now you can have true elegance, speed, customizability, and looks in an operating system -- AND IT'S NOT A PIECEOF BLOATWARE, PIG-LIKE JUNK!
Then find new ways to define eras of your life other than your OS. Linux is cool and all, but you got to have a life. (And, if you're trying to be a nerd, don't be a malformed one. At least be able to evaluate an operating system. Seriously. This is one of those times when if you aim for the stars you damn well better make it cause landing somewhere else in the cosmos is going to be mean being some pathetic half-breed. Like a geek who praises Vista.)
Or that runs Dick Cheney's laptop.
Well split any hair you wish. This LOWERS Vista value to everyone.
I believe that Microsoft will discover that this is a tactic who's unintended consequences include a movement away from Vista - and to some extent from Windows in general.
Apple's moment to strike a hot iron is rapidly upon us.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Oh, yes, they'll all move to OS-X or Linux overnight ... in two words ... f******g b******t.
The tech savvy user will have no problem in finding the cracked dll or whatever out their in warez-land.
And the non tech savvy home user will either go back to the store (where a tech savvy technician will install the cracked dll), or contact a mate he knows in the pub who's a genius (and will also install the cracked dll).
They aren't going to see their N hundred dollar investment go out of the window because some linux fanboy on slashdot convinces them a better move is to reject the antichrist and switch religion to linux.
They'll crack it, just like they've been doing since XP. (Whether their copy is genuine OR pirated).
Now will all you doomsayers get back in your respective caves please.
My nephew got a laptop with Vista Home Premium preinstalled from NewEgg. A few weeks later, it stopped booting up and made him activate. The online activation didn't work, and the phone activation didn't work the first time either. After about 30 minutes of messing around, I got on the phone with an actual person, read him the numbers just like I had just read to the automated phone system, then he gave me ANOTHER code to enter in, and everything worked. Pain in the ass....
After skimming over the posts (no, I'm not reading every ~300 of them), all I see is bitching. How MS controls your software! Games have been doing this for years, reducing or eliminating functionality if your found to have a cracked version. Someone correct me if I get the wrong titles, but in Godfather, if you have a cracked copy, once you get into a car you can't get back out, sure, you could play through the game like this, but who would? It essentially makes it a trial. Operation Flashpoint, after about an hour of play your rifles accuracy would slowly degrade until there was no way in hell you could hit anything. Again, they turned a pirated copy into a trail. Nobody has ever said anything about this. MS is doing about the same thing from what I see of the situation, 1 hour trial, then, blam, no more pirated copy. I'm sure accidents will happen, but the first one where a major business gets shut down by accident will cost them a healthy lawsuit, I'm willing to believe MS will go farther to prevent this than most people believe. Until I see headlines where massive amounts of legit costumers get cut off, I'm going to sit back and compliment MS for catching pirater's a bit off guard, and follow with interest how crackers will get around this "feature". I will never admit to owning an illegal copy of Windows, however, if I did and this happened, guess what, I earned it for not buying a legal copy or using Linux. I'm not going to start yelling "M$ pwnz my box and it's not fair!". I hate people that use M$, it simply shows how unintelligent, uncreative, and childish the person behind the keyboard is. I hate MS for a lot of reasons (and love them for just as many), but I can also respect their business practices. Note before you flame that I didn't say I admired them as ethical, honest, or fair, simply that I respect them. You got caught pirating, your computer no longer works, sucks for you. BTW, I run Windows Ultimate OEM, which I paid for, and I'm not sorry I did. No, it isn't something your dad that surfs e-mail should run out and get. No, a large corporate entity shouldn't run out and upgrade every machine. Yes, it has it's bugs (which are both frustrating, but, in a perverse way, fun to fish out and fix for me), but none I haven't been able to correct, I expect bugs in software with as many lines of code as Vista has. For me and my purposes, I'm glad I got Vista. With my rant over, I await childish flames from users who hate "M$", and look forward to legitimate discussions from those of you who, regardless of operating system preference, are able to take a relatively unbiased view of the situation, and present intelligent arguments. -BeanBagKing
This MS policy made me do what Apple with all their marketing might couldn't -- it made me switch to OS X! So long MS arm twisting. So long having to prove my copy of Windows was genuine although it came pre-installed.
Like anyone would know the difference..
Baboons are cute.
First off, you know as well as I do the copyright infringement is not stealing. There are a lot of reasons for this that I won't go into now.
Why it's horrible:
It puts the punishment of a crime onto someone who may not have committed a crime. If someone bought a computer, and unknown to them the company the built the computer didn't have licensing they are going to be punished. It also applies to people who bought there computer from someone who may have had there OEM licenses pulled who will lose there OS.
Of course, as always, it will not hurt the pirate at all. Somewhere in the code there is a JMP in assembly. Removing it means the OS won't be effected.
"Nobody's going to get a class-action suit because of a temporary inconvenience"
haha. Wait until a block of licenses gets shut off by accident. Quite frankly, looking at MS's history with the kind of activity I have no doubt many people will be getting there system shut down. If you sompany looses just 1 hour per system, that quickly asdds up to a lot of lost money.
"Once XP becomes obsolete Linux use will go up by roughly the number of cheap bastards unwilling to pay for their software, b"
Nice Ad hominem, jack ass. It really shows you lack of imagination.
For the record, were I work there are many hundreds of computer that aren't going to VISTA because of this very topic. We are far from the only organization doing this.
""let people run crazy (ie Win2k)"
What was wrong with that? MS made a LOT of money from Win2K. It's not like they took a loss. Considering how much money this is costing them, and the negative PR, and the risk I would be surprised if in 5 years this had gone away.
This is nothing more then a step to having to use MS as a service, nothing more. If piracy had have the impact MS says it does, they wouldn't exist. Think about it, they can still charge 100+ for a product that competes with a free version of itself.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Windows Genuine Advantage": Naming it that way is really an grave insult.
They must have laughed their asses off in that meeting.
Baboons are cute.
... the innocent, the corrupt. Fear is Bill Gates' ally!
I can't believe that 400 posts in this thread fail to mention that this is a hoax.
European Linux user, living in Antwerp
One of the standard things I do when I'm forced to work on an MS-Windows box is hit CAD, bring up the TaskMangler and kill explorer.exe and all its b@st@rd children (I know, redundant). Half or more of the poxy processes disappear from the list. Icons and taskbar gone. Then I go to File->New Task(Run) and type in explorer.exe .
Bingo! Fresh, less poxy desktop.
Stop preloaded OS. Make the customer purchase a full retail boxed set with disk and install it and activate it himself. Even with a new computer purchase, make them do it themselves, open the shrinkwrap, install it, click on the agreement and activate it. Even that isn't perfect, obviously, as CD pirates have proven, but then again, they can't have it both ways, complaining about piracy then doing *nothing* about it all over the world for years and years in order to garner mindshare.
Basically, if you are honest and have paid money for the product in one of the richer developed nations, MS makes YOU subsidize their shady otherwise dealings with the rest of the planet, and has been doing so for a long time now, and will continue to annoy you with anti piracy "features".
They really are a truly rank and dismal company. Why people just continually put up with their stuff is beyond me, I gave up on them way back in the 90s, just too much expensive buggy crap from them. Just not worth it. Like the MAFIAA and their products, just not worth it anymore.
Oh, as to pirated installs getting pwned and causing problems? It is called "maintaining an attractive nuisance" and people should be charged for that. If you can't even be bothered to learn how to drive and weave all over the road, too bad, you'll get a ticket. If you can't be assed to get a legit install and follow better security routines and etc, too bad, you should get a ticket. And people should be allowed normal warranties with software "products", if it is not suitable for purpose-such as being connected to the internet-then they should be able to sue over being sold/leased/licensed a DEFECTIVE PRODUCT.
That is the biggest snakeoil scam out there running, software with full capitalist pig profit protections and no warranties mandated by law. You would think by the 21st century now we might have eliminated "caveat emptor", but no, an industry that makes hundreds of billions a year and claims with much righteous indignation that they are "white collar professionals" still needs LEGAL PROTECTIONIST TRAINING WHEELS and is too chicken or lame to code to some acceptable standards so they could offer warranties. Every other professional industry out there has minimum warranties and some sort of acceptable use standards, but software? Nope, they claim they aren't good enough to code that well, and you know what? I believe them! The entire industry is still wearing short pants and sucking on lollipops.
And no, this isn't flamebait to anyone (just generally ranting, decided to stick it in here, not directed at anyone personally at all), this is serious, and actual warranties would help the industry! Think about it, no more having to ship crap you know is crap because some marketing weasel or PHB told you, you would get to actually develop better-more functional and more secure- code. It would help eliminate those (individuals and companies) who really shouldn't be in the code writing business as well, keeping wages up. And the code that you use from other guys would be better as well! What's not to like, make more money, have better code, less crap from the investor boss class, better job security, and the internet becomes more secure? There's nothing wrong with any of that is there?
If anyone wants better code, push for mandated software warranties and software lemon laws, same as with any other product. Those that can "hack it", will, those that can't go back to doing something else. Works with the rest of business, and it can work with software too if you stop fighting it.
In most of Asia, they KILL your ass for piracy (even software piracy!)
As long as you're getting away with it, fine; when the shit hits the fan, its "show trial" time and a swift execution. (There's a guy who used to accept bribes while running the Chinese equivalent of the FDA. He's now in TWO boxes.)
I'm sure that Bill G. doesn't have to be reminded of that fact.
I'm also sure that its not keeping him up at night either.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
my first thought. jesus, look at this poor hardware struggling to run just the base system.
my second thought. this isn't even worth stealing.
So now it's possible to disable Windows machines remotely, how long will it be before someone writes a worm exploiting this? How long will it be before people start getting ransom notes in their inbox demanding cash "or the PC gets it"? And imagine the resulting chaos...MS would have to re-activate hundreds, probably thousands of computers that were maliciously disabled, presuming they can do that remotely too. The irony of course being that any affected machine would be incapable of updating itself with a patch to fix it. Machine gets infected, goes into reduced functionality mode...MS releases patch, but reduced functionality mode means that computer won't get said patch. Marvelous idea!
Seriously though, I could never use an operating system that not only could at any time be remotely triggered to lock me out, but that actually has that functionality deliberately built into it.
This is like a Judge Dredd strip I read years ago where in a hostage situation, Dredd killed the hostage. Microsoft is saying "You've been unlucky enough to buy Vista from a dodgy OEM. We're going to compound your misery." Since I doubt the consumer has any comeback whatsoever on this.
Microsoft are just a company that sells misery really aren't they.
iPhone users demanded a refund and got one.
There are examples all the time of pissed off consumers making companies change things, even if sometimes only slightly.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Actually it's fraud. Copyright infringement is making an unauthorized copy of Windows. Fraud is when the OEM takes your money and hands you a bogus product.
Why don't you go ahead and change some bits in a banking or trading application to credit your account instead of the proper one, and see what they call it.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Not like me now on my Linux box drinking a nice pint of British Real Ale... mmmmm!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
...how are you supposed to tell the difference between the usual Windows bug from Microsoft locking you out?
Seriously - buy a Mac laptop, and a copy of XP somewhere. Apple supports Bootcamp after all with current updated Windows drivers (which is a big part of what you mean by "support") and of course the hardware is fully supported by Apple as well as far as repairs go.
And if you want to use OS X most of the time Parallels or VMWare Fusion works well for everything but games.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We are just lucky that the Microsoft WGA mechanism has worked so flawlessly in the past. ...
Not a single hickkup or false positive, no issues at all with genuine copies being correctly authenticated and
Wait, what do you mean "Today is not not opposite day"?
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
If you take someone's money by using a pirated copy of Windows, that's theft of money.
Actually it is fraud: you tell them you are selling them a legal copy of windows and then you sell them an illegal copy. Making an illegal copy is copyright infringement.
Did they determine that 9/11 was particularly auspicious?
I don't discount Linux entirely, as I've said, I've never had it installed on my own computer. At the same time I've never seen a need to make a switch. A Vista upgrade cost, what, $199? It's not as though it's like replacing the transmission in your car. I personally have never had problems with Windows. If I ran Linux I'd imagine I have to sit and tweek things to get programs to work correctly. As for the processing power needed to run Vista, is it really that outlandish? Perhaps it was a little high for when it was first released but, it's not any more. Vista runs like butter with 2 gigs of ram and a duel core processor. Considering what will be the baseline system in a few years when Vista gets to the end of its life I think that's totally within reason. If you want to talk about a rotten company talk about Apple. I find OS X maddenly restrictive. It's Apples way or the highway.
I've been a Windows person for too many years to count. I've tried Linux distributions on occasion, but always ended up frustrated with compatibility issues. Also, my job has always been MS related and I've stuck with Windows XP. Frankly, I hate it so I'm asking for some help. I tried Vista and think it is a pile of shit.
.NET 2.0/ASPX/C#) (I know I can not convince my employer to switch, so I have to be able to develop for it).
I need to be productive and need to run this stuff on whatever OS I switch to. Eventually it might be Apple/OSX, but for now I can not afford a new box.
- Standard Fare, Browser, email, etc. (got that covered with Linux or OSX)
- Quicken 2008.
- Excel
- Visual Studio 2005 (Mostly
Is this even possible? Can tools like VS or the express editions be run under Linux using something like Wine?
Please let me know if this stuff is even possible. I so want to switch.
Why don't you go ahead and change some bits in a banking or trading application to credit your account instead of the proper one, and see what they call it.
IANAL and all that, but I believe it's both, just to different parties. It's a copyright violation against MS because they're distributing an unlicensed copy, and it's fraud against the consumer because they're giving them a bogus copy when the consumer believes they paid for a legitimate one. Of course, MS punishing the customer sounds like a very bad idea, but since when has that ever stopped them. I also wonder about the timing of this considering the recent problems they've had with the WGA server going down and many legitimate customers being flagged as pirates.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
So they've finally come up with the best motivator to switch to Linux. lol
diginferno
Thats pretty arrogant, you think everybody with a pc has time to learn how to use linux? You think my grandparents are going to learn it? Get real, not everybody has the time or the inclination to go through the linux voodoo dance.
I thought the "Reduced Functionality" option was on by default in Vista
Are you saying a house cannot be stolen? Tell that to the people that have lost their houses due to identity theft where the criminals sold their house without their knowledge.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925582
That would be fraud, not theft.
To make Windows Vista even more unpalatable to users everywhere! Keep that bad press coming Bill...or whoever the stuffed shirt MBA or hot shot lawyer is who's running Redmond these days.
Avast! If ye be usin' a scurvy-infested copy a Winders Vista, you'll be sent to the deep, dark pit of Davey Jones' Locker!! ARRRRRR!
sudo eat my shorts
I can't believe nobody else has mentioned this... for shame
From the same Wired article:
No black screen, but all the other niceties promised by the Microsoft Experience are there.
The person would have committed fraud with the bank to obtain the property, but it still is theft of the house title.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
The only thing stopping droves from converting to linux from those live CD's is an easy network setup wizard that figures out your NDISwrapper settings and gets you connected.
That will work as soon as chipset makers abandon NDIS and use something sane instead. They will do that when people dump windows because microsoft releases a dud like vista. The only thing holding the microsoft empire together is money. When that's gone, hardware makers will have to do something honest.
While preventing piracy is Microsoft's right, it's interesting to see why they only activated this functionality now.
Why not activate it earlier? Then customers would find out pirated copies didn't work earlier. But it wouldn't do much good to Microsoft as those customers might just switch to other alternatives. Now, a customer tries pirated Vista and "ohoo, it works", and happily use it for months, then suddenly it breaks. What are their options? They already put the OS into production, and now caught with their pants off, there is little time to plan for a switchover to another OS, chance is they'd have to buy a genuine version.
I suggest Microsoft turn it on and off every once a while to bring more revenues this way.
Damn my expired mod points! "Hoax"-my-ass; it might have been a minor overstatement, but it's not a hoax by any means.
That wired article basically concludes by saying "Well, sure, Reduced Functionality Mode exists, but you still get to browse for an hour at a time... and your monitor doesn't go COMPLETELY black."
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
There, fixed the title for you.
I'm wondering how long it will take some genius at Microsoft to come up with the idea that they can start getting monthly fees from Vista users by just shutting them off every month if they don't pay up...
I'm so tired of staring at the flying anus pointer when you perform simple tasks.
I wish I could agree that Apple's moment to 'strike a hot iron' is a good thing -- however, Apple is just as bad about vendor lock in as Microsoft is. Some might venture to say worse. Especially in a situation like this where our main gripe is Microsoft's overall control of your computer regardless of the situation. Apple can in theory do the same thing, but so far, hasn't bothered except to make it overly difficult to run their flagship OS on standard off the shelf hardware.
Oh well, maybe someday we'll see a cool thing like Apple's hardware actually becoming as cost-efficient to own as normal x86 hardware...but I don't intend to hold my breath.
When I check my Google analytics account I see more people using Windows 98 than Vista when surfing my web sites. How long has Vista been out now? Can I call its launch a complete failure? Yeah I hate fuggin M$. Linux is king in my world but the results speak for themselves. Vista is not popular and stupid moves like this are some of the reasons I will never go back. Peace!
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Microsoft are just a company that sells misery...
And misery loves company. I know only one socially acceptable solution. Buyer beware.
What?
The first actually informative post I've seen in this thread...
What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
I just spend two hours "downgrading" to XP on my new laptop. Pirating Vista would be like stealing a Yugo.
If Apple were to release their OS, without throwing in Intel's hardware, it would be. Unfortunately Apple continues the straight and narrow as a hardware company. Part of what saves Apple from something like this is controlling their empire with tighter leashes than Microsoft. I'm not putting them down but if they were to start releasing the OS without requiring their relabeled hardware they would be fighting similar issues. Apple is out to make money just the same.
"Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode"
I thought they did that when they released Vista. I've used MS software for 25 years, and developed software for it for almost 20. I always had a mixed attitude towards MS. They did some things well, and many things poorly, but Windows NT/2000/XP were pretty decent overall, and I enjoyed (and still enjoy) using them. I replaced two laptops this year, which of course meant I got that total turd of a product, Vista. Having experienced Vista, I have fully swung over to hating Microsoft. I promised my wife that the cheapest laptop I could buy would blow her 6-year-old lappy out of the water (plus there were other reasons it needed to be replaced). However, despite the fact that the new machine had a 40% faster processor and 3x as much memory (1.5GB because I bought extra memory), it was substantially slower than the creaky old Toshiba running XP. Putting Vista on this low-end Gateway was criminal, and the fact that Microsoft would let a company saddle their hardware with this bloat, and the fact that Gateway would cripple an otherwise decent little machine is insane. It would be like selling a car with half the cylinders broken, dirty plugs, and broken springs sticking out of the seats.
Microsoft needs to die. They are now completely useless, and now completely evil). Until I experienced Vista I would have never said that, but with this release, they have reduced functionality, performance, and managed to spend 5 years building an OS that nobody could ever want with new features that no one would ever choose (except for maybe the shiny UI, which isn't as stomach-churningly ugly as the XP Playskool theme, but it's not great). I tried installing XP on the poor little Gateway, but it couldn't even find a driver for the network adapter (I was as surprised as I was disappointed, plus it couldn't ID the wireless adapter, the video card and a number of other devices). Rather than struggle for hours trying to identify the network adapter, copy drivers from another machine via a USB stick, I installed Kubuntu and had the little lady up and running in about an hour... and I can't tell the difference between her bottom-of-the-line Gateway and my middle-of-the-line HP (also running Linux) when it comes to browsing and e-mailing, which is most of what she does. To me, this is the year of Linux, and Vista is a total abortion that will hopefully prove to be another nail in the coffin of a company that clearly has nothing to offer other than to feed its fat, bloated and decaying corpse with everything it can wring out of its monopolistic actions from the last 20 years. Microsoft is not irrelevant yet, but we have seen, years ago, the last of anything positive they have to offer to the world of operating systems.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Don't believe me? Look at all the people who were perfectly happy having spent $600 on an iPhone until they found out other people were getting it for $400.
Not trying to take Microsoft's side or anything, but I couldn't let that one go unchallenged...
There's an even lower level of reduced functionality than Windows out of the box?
Post was trying to point out is that if a Key is *incorrectly* marked as invalid then they have done nothing wrong and nor has the OEM.
Simply put, keys made with a keygen that match your brand new copy will mean that your legal copy has pre-expired keys. In an office, a key borrowed from a CD(DVD) and posted online as an enterprise working key could kill an entire office at once as the key becomes invalid. This could be fun in the next few days. The ways to DOS Vista machines has just grown by leaps and bounds. I just hope Microsoft has had the insight to massively increase the number of people in their support center.
The truth shall set you free!
...with Piracy.
"Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"
The real reason for this? Push resellers to push Vista in order to:
a) pump up sales of Vista
b) crowd out any competitors
This would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.
2002 - Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Windows XP and announces that it will lock out pirates
2004 - Microsoft releases Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and announces that it will lock out pirates
2005 - Microsoft introduces Windows Genuine Advantage and announces that it will lock out pirates
2006 - Microsoft announces increased tightening of WGA to lock out pirates
2007 - Vista. Lather, Rinse, Repeat
The funniest and most ironic part is that Vista is a huge steaming pile of crap. After nearly 9 months of struggling with Vista (that runs like molasses on a fast dual core machine with lots of ram) I gave up and went back to XP.
Microsoft will be doing people a favor by shutting them down.
I bet next week we will see explorer chewing up all the memory billed as an "anti-virus" measure - see, if there is no free memory, viruses cannot run. Trust us, its worth the extra money. Upgrade now.
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
those would make for nice wallpapers/screensavers and for a few unlucky souls possibly even heart attacks :-)
If they manage to stop ALL piracy, then the incentive for people to use their software will decline in general.
its a net win for them to saturate the market with their software, even if its pirated, as that helps push out competition.
Personally i dont care either way, i refuse to use their products and suggest the same to others. Not that they care much due to their size, but i have steered at least 100 users away from their products over the last several years.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Run Linux....
Or at least an older Windows, Vista sucks
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
I'm so happy. I was getting tired of blue. :)
You'd think MS would be glad anyone (pirate or not) was using the product and helping to hype it.
Seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot here. Think I will stick with XP...
But I thought "Reduced Functionality Mode" was the NORMAL operating mode for any version of Windows!
Bwaahahahahahahaha!!!
Little pissants! Is that all you've got, huh? Are you nuts? Come at me!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
> This LOWERS Vista value to everyone.
Wow, now they OWE me money for Vista existing, cool! Where do I go to collect ?
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Microsoft is pretty bold making statements with such implied performance. A whole hour on the Web before locking up has got to be some kind of record.
This is like when my wife, who teaches high-school computer science, gives out free student copies of Visual Basic .NET for the kids to install at home only to find that Windows refuses to install it because all the kids have pirated Windows! HA HA, that's just awesome! MS are dying.
Meh.
Oh well, maybe someday we'll see a cool thing like Apple's hardware actually becoming as cost-efficient to own as normal x86 hardware...but I don't intend to hold my breath.
Of course not. The whole point of Apple making custom hardware and tying the OS to it is so that they can charge a premium for both. The premium survives because people who want OS X don't have an alternative.
Of course you could run pirate OS X on commodity hardware, but then I'd expect the Apple equivalent of the black screen of death to make doing so inconvenient.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I only installed Vista to suss out DirectX 10, being the games fanatic that I am. New games, such as the BioShock demo use the new DirectX 10 functions to produce better eye candy and frame rates etc.
If I go home this afternoon to find the BSOV (Black Screen of Validation?) well, I guess I won't be buying any DirectX 10 games anytime soon. The good news is that I dual booted with my old copy of winXP, so it's not completely game over for myself. I'll just be playing the classical DX9 games until I can get my hands on a copy of Vista that works.
And no, I wouldn't steal a car. Forcing anyone who's interested in playing PC games into an unnecessary upgrade of their operating system is just corporate greed.
Hahaha! That's a good one! Oh wait, you're serious?!?!%#!
You left something out: Hz, B, B, Hz. "G" is not a unit.
Now I checked it out on Apple's site: The Machine you spec'd out above is indeed just under $5000.
But a NVIDIA 7300GT? That's a sub-$100 budget card now, and was never a top of the line unit. Definitely a dog for a machine with that kind of horsepower, but it's the default for the system
If you don't want a POS video card, you have the option of buying multiple 7300s (overpriced at $150 a pop, ok for lots of monitors doing 2d, but no SLI) a x1900XT 512MB (for $250, nearly market price) or a Quadro FX 4500 (for $1600, $600 over market price) SLI and Crosfire don't work at all.
Sounds like Apple is still up to their old tricks of screwing you over in the video card dept: Shitty default with limited overpriced upgrade options. Question is, can Macs even use regular OEM cards, or is there something hardware locked still?
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
Macs struggling "being in corporate business world" is not Apple's fault, nor is it relevant, since all Macs can now easily run Windows. You can be a single PC house all day long, and the Mac will stay play along just fine (and usually better than the PC brand-du-jour). "Completely clueless" users will appreciate the fact that on a Mac, you don't need a BS in computer science to unzip a compressed file, a Master's degree in Engineering to configure hardware devices, nor a PhD to, oh, lets just pick, remove malicious code from your system.
I recently configured a MacBook vs. a Dell Latidude, and the Dell was $19 cheaper when equally configured. I would say that the industrial design alone is well worth $19, not to mention getting a superior OS with the ability to run the inferior OS at the same time. So no, Macs DON'T cost any significant amount more. What you seem to be confusing (and many people make this mistake) is there is no basement-bottom offering from Apple. The cheapest Mac is not a budget model (although I would argue budget PC's are a complete waste of money anyway), BUT when compared to equal PC offerings, the Macs are the same price. In many cases, especially the higher-end you get, the Mac becomes a significantly cheaper computer to buy.
We are stuck with windows because this kind of cut throat bullshit is exactly what ALL of the major corporations want.
Microsoft is out to provide a system for which they can control and distribute anything, including movies, books, audio, software applications and games digitally.
They want to lock it all up first to prove that it is possible. To prove that you can not do anything they dont want you to do. Its just a matter of time.
Unfortunately there is no solution. Linux is not a solution until the major applications support linux.
Linux also needs support from the gaming industry as well BUT.. what linux needs first is a solid easy to use OS. Its a great os, but its got a lot of lose ends, none of which i'm willing to put up with until there is the software applications i need on running on linux.
We use Linux. :)
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Microsoft has been fighting piracy for a while now, deactivating pirated sofware. Obviously those unintended consequences don't seem to exist or else your theory would have come true a while ago.
Linux Genuine Advantage has been cracked.
http://www.alienos.com/articles/2007/02/02/linux-genuine-advantage-cracked
Better stay from here to keep the lawsuits away for using this illegal code.
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3610011/Linux_Genuine_Advantage_Crack
The truth shall set you free!
Not just software vendor lock-in, but hardware lock-in too.
Not much software vendor lock-in when you can install Linux or Windows. I am currently typing this in Ubuntu 64-bit on my Mac Pro. I have also successfully installed Windows (XP and Vista) in various forms in both VM's and natively on this machine.
#!/
www.gentoo.org
(just watch so you don't void any warranties fixing the problem)
Since nobody wants it, nobody will pirate it. Totally brilliant strategy by MSFT!
it is sustainable long term.
So...
/no hope/ for anyone using any OS that is targeted. :(
Considering that 99.9% of everyone replying has been duped by a hoax. Can you now really say that social engineering tricks wouldn't work on Linux users? Even the "smart" ones as we all must be?
With attention to detail as absent as it can possibly be with everyone here as demonstrated clearly by this sincle article+followups... there is simply
This article thread is amazingly enlightening!
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
I disagree completely. You are not only required to purchase their OS whether you want it or not (Remember all the whining about Microsoft pushing their OS with hardware purchases?), but you're tied to buying their hardware forever if you want to keep using the OS.
Windows and Linux are, oddly, the more open choices here, in that they run on any modern x86 or x64 platform, whereas while MacOS may be capable of running on other platforms, you can't do it due to vendor lock-in.
The day I can install OSX in a virtual machine on hardware of my choice without violating Apple's license is the day I retract this argument -- Until then, it holds.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
Whenever I run across a client machine which was purchased with a legal copy of Windows and need to restore, I often install a hacked/pirate copy of Windows due to the hassles in digging up an official copy of Windows and reactivating. Microsoft is pooping in the shoes of their customers--those who own a genuine copy of Windows, which is unlikely to validate. Death is the appropriate penalty. I hope Microsoft dies.
Sent from my iPhone
I coulda swore I saw an article someplace where Microsoft was begging people to buy Vista. Anybody got a link to it?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
...but for laptops, I go apple.
Pray you don't have to replace the hard drive. It's a fatal flaw.
What?
In the not-so-distant future, "Microsoft" will be that sales guy who floats to your door on a lazy Monday afternoon, selling copies of "Amazing Word".
After you've fought him off with a broom-bot, you will go back inside your house to be greeted with a "Welcome back, can Ubuntu offer you a drink?"
Just when you sit down on the couch with your healthy fruit juice, that other sales guy comes knocking, selling Mac parts.
"we've got trenchcoats and bad attitudes" - John Constantine, HellBlazer
This is the most honest move Microsoft has made in 20 years.
People will never choose a competitor when they can have the defacto standard choice for free. Now they will have a far worse time than difficulty obtaining updates when they pirate a copy of Windows. Once people want something better than WinXP, they will look at other choices (unless MS also lowers the price of Vista significantly.)
Even if Vista gets cheap, it's still going to be a case of shopping, which is something most people simply never do when it comes to an OS. So I can't see how this is a bad thing. Sure, M$ may make a mistake here and there but that's something everyone does, and it's something they will fix for you with a phone call.
You should be happy for any increase in attention the masses may give to Linux or Apple, depending on your religious preference. And regardless, you should be happy that the reigning king of OS distribution is playing a little more fair by enforcing the value of their product in both directions.
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
You might want to hire one of those $40/hour consulting monkeys to setup your DNS records and get your Web site working.
My WMV to DVD Converter 1.1.43 Freeware download by Stakwheimedia MyVideo WMV Converter fast convert WMV files to all popular video formats such as DVD, VCD, SVCD, AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, RM, MOV, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, Xvid, ASF, etc. Categories: wmv converter, DVD to WMV, WMV to AVI, WMV to MPEG, WMV to DVD, WMV to Zune, WMV to iPod, WMV to iPhone http://www.vista-download.net/
Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide
If the fact that Vista includes client-side software to do this, which Microsoft can "turn on" at their whim, isn't enough to keep people away from Vista then I don't know what is...
"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe
More like:
2002 - Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Windows XP and announces that it will lock out pirates. Slashdotters predict the demise of Microsoft.
2004 - Microsoft releases Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and announces that it will lock out pirates. Slashdotters predict the demise of Microsoft. MS still not dead.
2005 - Microsoft introduces Windows Genuine Advantage and announces that it will lock out pirates. Slashdotters predict the demise of Microsoft. MS not dead yet.
2006 - Microsoft announces increased tightening of WGA to lock out pirates. Slashdotters predict the demise of Microsoft. MS blatantly refuses to pine for the Fjords.
2007 - Vista. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. MS still hasn't had the common courtesy to die.
See a pattern here?
People, please, this will NOT "ruin" Microsoft. This will NOT magically make people adapt Linux, generate world peace and end hunger and all assorted nastiness. Get a grip.
I've been suffering this black screen of death for the last 3 weeks. Almost everytime I wake my laptop out of hibernation and then use VNC, it locks up with a Black Screen of Death. Its just like a Blue Screen of Death just less helpful. All this time I thought it was a bug, silly me. (This is a genuine copy of windows vista)
www.hackzilla.org - because I can
They've been doing this since XP. Never had to call Microsoft and explain that you're not a pirate, you're just reinstalling your own software? I have. Many times. Thank god for alternative operating systems.
Absolutely, it's appalling that when I want to replace the drive in my MacBook I have to:
Reverse the procedure using the new hard drive and I'm done.
Damn you Apple, how dare you make my life such a misery.
(Now to start Googling on how on earth I replace the hard drive in my Toshiba - the computer that's actually broken...)
Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.
I'm curious about this "premium" Apple charges. Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is $129 US, straight from Apple's website. That's the full version, no dicking around with a half dozen or so "different" versions. Vista Home Basic, which nobody recommends or wants, is $99.95 US from MS. Home Premium, considered the minimal acceptable version of Vista, is $159.95. Vista Ultimate, which contains most of the features of OS X and vice-versa, is $259.95. That's $130 premium for the MS product.
As for the hardware premium, various reviews have pointed out that, for desktops, it's fairly consistent with the likes of HP, IBM, etc. while the laptops are generally a better value.
Having a machine with a nice GUI on top of a proper UNIX is awesome. The only thing I'm going to miss is gaming, but my old XP box was starting to get unusable for that anyway (and hey, I'm getting sick of the copy protection/activation/SecuROM/rootkit BS the publishers are using to kill PC gaming).
- chrish
At least in my case one of theese was very tight nessecitating using pliers to turn the jewlers screwdriver.
7. Find a torx screwdriver of just the right size
8. unscrew the hard drive from the carrier
Theese last two steps are for some odd reason ommitted from apples guide, maybe they planned to sell hard drives already mounted up for the macbook but I can't find any such drives on thier website.
Reverse the procedure using the new hard drive and I'm done.
bearing in mind that the HDD/ram shield has some padding on it which makes it awkward to get back into the right position.
but yeah it's not too bad by laptop standards.
However if you want to replace the hdd in a macbook pro or and old style iBook it's much harder.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Insert Ubuntu LiveCD, Follow steps, Erase and use entire drive for Ubuntu...Enjoy.
Already upgraded my hard drive to a 200 gb. It wasn't very hard.
You might want to hire one of those $40/hour consulting monkeys to setup your DNS records and get your Web site working.
Host was moving to a new data center, took 2 days instead of a few hours:
http://status.nearlyfreespeech.net/
Jackass.
Well...Maybe they made some improvements over the G4(where I did have to google for instructions), where you had to remove very many tiny screws on the top and bottom of different lengths that you need to remember where they went, remove the RF shielding that's underneath some tabs and on top of others, separate wiring with the high risk of breaking them...as opposed to my Toshiba and every other PC laptop I've removed hard drives from where I remove one simple phillips head screw and slide out the tray and then remove the normal four phillips head screws to separate the hard drive out. It should never be more complicated than that.
iMacs were even worse. And the Mini? Have some paint spatulas and glue ready. Every bit as insane as iPod battery replacement. Fashion is nice, but not at the expense of accessibility.
What?
I operate for 4 years WinXp configuration WITHOUT start menu or task bar, and no desktop. I use LiteStep that takes care of these 3, thus i don't run Explorer.exe process that implements the aforementioned things.
But you don't just pay once for OS X, the point releases are all $129 so you end up paying that each year
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10-3.ars
Sort of like paying for service packs
And most studies I've read show Mac hardware is priced at a hefty premium.
Still I guess if you're a Mac user you'll rationalize all this away, much like owners of premium things always do. And whilst I don't like Macs personally I can see that they are well designed for technically unsophisticated users. Like musicians and liberal arts graduates, or damn hipster emo kids.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Can you say "September Fools Joke"? Has anyone actually observed a Vista black screen (other than during a routime crash of a lame OS)? Is this a worldwide MS worm attack? Could Micro$soft get it right, even if they tried? Does anyone need another reason not to install Vista? Enquiring Minds Want to Know
Wasn't that Judge Andersson, actually ? At least she killed some kid to prevent demons from sacrificing him to open a gate to Mega-City 1...
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
I remember I went to a computer fair some years ago. One of the guys selling OEM copies of xp had removed the exposed license stickers and placed them face down in the shrink wrap. He also had a "No Cameras" sign up. I asked him about it and he said "kids" were stealing the codes. In the years since I've encountered a few instances where the system being built would fail auto validation and I would wonder if some Fry's stock boy with a phonecam was padding his income with legit codes.
So (I don't build systems anymore)... do OEM Vista packages have the code on the shrinkwrap?
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
It wasn't extremely valuable to me to begin with. XP does a better job.
This sig all sigs devours
For years, Microsoft has been shipping stick-on labels with the product serial number on it. Look at the back/bottom of your desktop or laptop. The sticker is supposed to be hard to counterfeit and an indicator that you have "genuine Microsoft" installed. So the OEM has to counterfeit the label on your doomed box, or else deliver a box with no label. However, buyers of an OEM copy of Vista from, say, an online store may find the install results in an unsuccessful validation. I did. Try calling Microsoft with an OEM product code and asking for support will get you to four different countries in less than 15 minutes. If you have a validation problem with a (legitimate) OEM copy of Vista, I recommend trolling the MS knowledge base. That's your only recourse as a do-it-yourself system builder.
If you take someone's money by using a pirated copy of Windows, that's theft of money.
Circular reasoning. Nobody's taking anybody's money if they never would have bought anything anyway.
Ownership, by definition, is the right to control something. Any ethical (not legal) argument based on "because they own it" is bogus.
---
It's wrong that an intellectual property creator should not be rewarded for their work.
It's equally wrong that an IP creator should be rewarded too many times for the one piece of work, for exactly the same reasons.
Reform IP law and stop the M$/RIAA abuse.
I'm glad you took my accusations of insanity and uninformedness(?) as they should be. Perhaps you aren't so crazy. Still, Vista is a hog, and yes, you're right, even hogs can be satiated. HOWEVER, an OS should be very usable on a mid-range computer when it's released. Period. That's my line, anyhow. And I think it's reasonable: Linux always manages it, and even XP did. The secret? In Linux, you have OPTIONS galore. And, on OS X being ultra-restrictive and Apple rotten: I disagree. OS X leaves a lot of customization to be done by the user -- it's UNIX! It's going to be POSIX compliant with 10.5, I believe, and it's damn close as it is. Outside of the UNIX-y parts of the OS, I can't see where there's a lot less options left the user than in Windows... And, I have a computer just like the one you described for running Vista. That's well and good. HOWEVER, as I wrote in my other nasty post in reply to a post of yours (meant to be taken not-too-seriously in its venom but very seriously in its recommendations) Linux just has so much to offer, so many superiorities. If you follow my instructions, and install Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, on your dual-core 2 gig'er (what I'm typing on fits that description), and install Beryl, you'll feel like the prettiest girl at the dance (if you were a girl at a dance and your GUI counted as clothing). My point is, your desire for aesthetics will be far more pleased than with Vista. There's no way around it -- Beryl looks so much better and has so many more options... Trust me. G'day Marsten!
> after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop Another feature! The browser automatically switches to full screen mode after 1 hour, and perfectly displays those websites with the black font on the black background. They should charge extra for this...