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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.'"
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case...
We just had a customer in with a Sony laptop (factory install of Vista) that wouldnt boot (complaining it wasnt a Genuine Copy of Windows - please insert Vista CD In the end, this will definitely hurt consumers - as well as pirates.
Here's MS's biggest (upcoming) issue. Their OS is installed on the majority of computers out there... even a 1% failure rate in properly detecting a Genuine copy of Windows smells to me of a MASSIVE lawsuit. I think they are taking quite a gamble...
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
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.
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
The problem here is one I've been warning people about all along. Unlike Linux or OS X, when you use XP or Vista, you do not have control over your computer. Microsoft does. All your work is at risk; all your data, workflow, applications, etc. The computer can be told at any time to stop responding to you based upon policy at Microsoft; you accept this behavior when you click OK in the installer. The current event is one example; all they have to do is have another server screwup (they've had several already) where your validation doesn't validate, and you're down. And in this case, as TFA notes, you're down *and* you're letting malware in the door. Which Microsoft will happily sell you software to combat, which is certainly something to consider more than a little cynically.
If you support software that enables the seller to shut it down after you have jumped through whatever hoops you need to to install it, you're at risk. This is true of productivity software such as editors and image processing applications, and it is even more so for an OS, where *everything* you do can be affected. I rejected Windows as a serious use platform for myself and my businesses because of the activation malware as of XP; been on OS X since I left Win98. If Apple ever decides they have the right to shut me down post-install as evidenced by behaviors that we're seeing out of Microsoft today, I'll be running Linux on the desktop before you can say boo. I already run servers on it. And Linux is getting better all the time.
The problem, as always, are the sheep who accept this kind of behavior from bad actors. They form the majority of the marketplace and the rest of us are constantly affected by policies that use the known compliance / ignorance of the majority to inflict heinous policies.
You bought it; you should NEVER be screwed with by the company you bought it from. Not on purpose, and not by misidentification. In the case of Microsoft, they built in the capability to screw with you and have demonstrated they can and will use it. If that's not a wake-up call, I don't know what is.
Piracy is a fact of selling IP. But any non-zero chance of evaluating someone as a pirate when they are legitimate is unacceptable; far better uncountable pirates get away with it than one legitimate customer, that kind person who has supported your efforts, be so accused. Further, computers aren't hobby machines any longer; sometimes our lives, our careers, our family's welfare depends upon them. Don't allow evil actors like Microsoft to take control of your resources. You owe it to yourself and everyone around you.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
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!
What a great new denial of service attack. Get hold of a corporate Vista key, get it blacklisted, sit back and watch the fun. Virtually untraceable.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
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'd love to see Windows Technical Edition, made for people who don't need bubbles or wizards or Image viewers or all the other crappy parts.
I'd pay for that.
Hmmm... nowhere did I say they wont help you... though there are reports of some issues getting that help for these problems.
The situation's resolution ranges (been there, done them all) to one of the below scenarios... in order of how many times I have encountered them (most frequent up top):
Yes, most of the time MS will help you. But honestly, if this were any other product, would you settle for one of the above hassles? Let's say you had a car and your OnStar system erroneously locked it because IT or GM decided it was stolen... and you had to jump through hoops to prove it wasnt before you were able to do much more than take your stuff out of it, or play the radio...
I'm not assuming they wont help me... I'm pointing out that their method still has flaws in it, and could potentially lead to a lot of angry, fully genuine (ie: HP, Sony, Dell, Compaq, etc) customers, who may end up suing them.
Someone else pointed out "Well, gee, the machine works still... you can still copy your documents off it to another machine... you just cant run virtually any app, or surf the web..." - which baffles me... I think he must be losing his mind if he calls that "working"... a computer isn't a 40lb USB drive. And, even if his position made any sense, not everyone has a spare machine.
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!