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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.'"
"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
Isn't using Vista enough punishment in itself?
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
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.
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.
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.
Yes, it does. My guess is that M$ turns your computer into a node for some sort of grid computer they are running, which will run DDOS attacks on mirrors.kernel.org.
Palm trees and 8
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
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.
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?
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)
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 $1.50 (which I believe they paid).
I'm very open about IT developments to my clientele. I've explained to them for almost 20 years that MOST of the hype in an industry is designed to pad the pockets of consultants such as myself. Of our client base, almost none were going to be bothered by Y2K. I think we were one of a handful of consultants who didn't bill more than a few bucks for the entire Y2K fiasco, and we also let our clients know this. We make _more_ money because we are honest about the gimmicks of the trade: we don't want to make money doing work that isn't necessary. When a client takes us off a project, and the project drops in efficiency, they know we were needed. Most consultants, when fired, are a net positive to the firing client.
Vista will never run in my office, in my home, or in the homes and offices of my clients, until the third party software developers require it. For most large companies, Vista offers zero additional efficiency, profitability, or reduced downtime. How else can you sell an upgrade unless it does at least 2 of those things better than XP?
XP runs fine. I know it is hated, but it runs fine on hundreds/thousands of desktops and laptops and servers we maintain or provide services for. Is it efficient? No, but my customers know they're paying for the lower efficiency/stability by being compatible with the software and hardware THEY need (CAD, print RIPs, accounting flagship programs, etc). Vista offers NOTHING.
Let Microsoft kill pirate Vista installs: as far as I know, the only installs I'm aware of are pirated ones. Anyone who runs Vista now that we consult with gets a FREE downgrade to a legitimate XP license. That's how firm I am on Vista: I'll pay for the labor to downgrade it.
Microsoft's non-customers: in the Black
Our customers: giving MS the Red. Bank statement, that is.
So basically, M$ 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
I'm honestly hoping this was typed in sarcasm.
I use sudo in my everyday conversations so I can gain root access.
Vista may actually be usable like that. Why aren't Microsoft sharing this upgrade with their paying customers?
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.
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."
Except it is a stolen car, and you don't get your goods out of police impound. Usually impounded (and thereby forfeited) goods are auctioned off to whomever wants them. At least they are where I am from.
In response to "stolen" data.... Ever used a PE boot disk? Works wonders on borked installs to get data off a hard drive where the native OS won't boot. You are still in possession of your data. They are simply refusing to facilitate that retrieval, since you are not a legal, paying customer.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Actually, it's also "fraud", or "dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception", depending on your local criminal code.
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.
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
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.
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.
All of your examples neglect the possibility of being wrongfully accused. If I report your car stolen and the police enforce it blindly, you have venues available to retreive your rightfully purchased things, including your car. In this case it is slightly different. the accusors and enforcers are the same entity. They are also not infallable and are also in a high profile public position to attract virus writers and others who have the means to innitiate a failure of this system. since it has no checks and ballances outside of their control you will be left with only the legal system to argue against this multibillion dollar company with lobbyists and campain funds, let alone legal earmarks far in excess of your income or credit.
It would be at minimum an uphill battle even if you had all the documentation available to prove that you deserve the use of your legally purchased OS. They could always say that your key was leaked and therefore forfit as part of the EULA you agreed to without seeing. You may be able to use technology to retrieve your data because you are tech savy and aware of alternate methods, but are you a valid representation of the general Windows User base? Would your mother or grandmother be able to do these things if they did not have you around? Or would at a minimum have to pay a tech to do it for them, and is that "Right" to punish them monitarily for using the pretty new OS?
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
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.
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 $300 or so for the 'Windows Vista that is licensed for VMs", but it's the last thing I'll ever buy from them. Anyone want to buy a (used once) GENUINE copy of Vista ?
I don't pirate software. I don't see why I should be inconvenienced (at full price) because MS can't find their backside with either hand - if you're going to deny fake vista installations, then MAKE SURE THE DAMN SOFTWARE WORKS. PERIOD. NO IFs BUTs OR OTHER EXCUSES. [rant over].
Simon, disgusted with MS's attitude.
Physicists get Hadrons!
I wonder what would happen of worm for Vista was distrobuted with a Virus that would patch the Vista computer to make it !validate with M$'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 senseActually, I think Microsoft should force the user to download security patches. I know most people I talk to think that waiting for software patches is punishment, especially over a slow modem.
"You are required to download 900MB of patches. Estimated time until completed is 8 hours, 23 minutes. Allow us to stream this anti-piracy movie while your computer is inaccessible. Download time now increased to 10 hours, 42 minutes".
No, because NetworkManager doesn't work properly yet. For example, NetworkManager cannot connect to any network with a hidden SSID.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
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..."
Microsoft has some pretty smart people working there.
Microsoft is driven by marketing, not by smart people.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
I can't believe that 400 posts in this thread fail to mention that this is a hoax.
European Linux user, living in Antwerp
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.
"Let us play this MP3 file you've got here. Whoops! Download time now increased to 13 hours, 15 minutes."
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 +++
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.
I realize you made this comment in jest, and I'm certainly no fan of MS, but since you got modded insightful I feel I need to point out the speed reduction chosen by MS was picked to not be noticeable on anything less than a gigabit connection. So, unless you're downloading at over 1Mbit/s from your ISP (and in turn every hop to the MS update servers), there won't be any noticeable change in your download rate.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
Clever marketing. Microsoft dorks them and you get to be the hero. The PR value is priceless.
:) Bothers me I didn't think of it on my own...but I'll get over it.
:)
That's the plan! Actually, the referrals that we pass on from the "good business" freebies could be very profitable, so there's more than just a simple "return customer" PR perspective there. Nothing better than one CEO saying to another "This company actually downgraded all our new accounting PCs from Vista for free, and they're running so much better."
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.
Actually, if it was minimal work, I'd probably cover that, too. Some clients LOVE seeing freebie invoices, especially since the freebies always say "September 10, 2007: $620, Discount: $-620" But of course there are always issues beyond that service call that would bring more cash into the near-future than we'd lose.
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.
Here's another one for you that worked for some subsidiaries I helped start:
Take the going market rate for small-sized businesses (5-50 desktops, 1-3 servers) and nuke $5-$10 an hour off of it. If the going rate is $80-$120, charge $75-$110. Offer a $10/hour preferred-bonus on all hours billed, and place that bonus on your monthly invoices. If your invoice is for $1500 one month, $1200 the other and $2000 the third, the third month's invoice would say "Bonus Available: $440" Include with your invoice a small catalog of bonus options and let the customer use their bonuses to purchase them (for the business, for their home, etc).
The subsidiary that did this increased their market share significantly over just the first 3 months of me working with them. The bonus hardware was offered at MSRP, so the actual bonus dollars only cost them $3-$6 per hour, and the bonus hardware was not covered under any labor warranty, which increased the service/maintenance cost over 3 years to cover double to triple the cost of the hardware. If I remember correctly, one customer (a headhunter) replaced their entire workstation and server network (maybe 10 machines and 1 server) in 2 years with "free" bonus hardware, and the CEO got a laptop for his kid for college "free" also. Net profit dropped only 3% versus expected profit, because gross billing was way up due to the bonuses.
The new subsidiary I am starting in Northern Illinois will be taking the idea to the home support group (sort of like geek squad, without the geeks, focused on home networks of CEOs and management types who have terrible luck getting their in-house guy to come over). "Free" stuff like Tivos, restaurant dining certificates, and golfing certificates should do very well in the 5 areas I'm hoping to target.
When people in IT complain to me that there isn't a lot of work, I just have to shrug. There's work at every price tier we investigated: from the $40/hour consulting monkey (no offense) to the $300/hour consulting guru. The problem is marketing: don't be a geek, be a business owner. Don't be a geek, be a parent. Don't be a geek, be a music nut. I'll never understand the lack of inspiration in the IT field, if we took most of our ideas nationally, there'd be huge profits ahead. Too bad I'm too A.D.D. to focus on a national roll-out
Good luck!
An OEM copy is tied to the motherboard. If you replace the motherboard you must replace the copy of windows even if the version of windows is exactly the same as the one you would be purchasing. I consider that to be fraud. Most customers don't know this when they buy the computer. It's like saying you have to repurchase your property just because you decided to build a different house on it.
The retail version is not tied to the motherboard. It means that you can remove the software from your computer and install it on another one as many times as you like.
The consumer is not aware of the differences between OEM and RETAIL copies of the OS (and other software). This puts them at a disadvantage. One thing a systems integrator can do to keep customers is to sell them the retail versions that way they don't piss the customer off by telling them they need to re-purchase that same software (where the bits do exactly absolutely exactly the same thing as the one they currently have).
The OEM license is to Microsoft's benefit. The RETAIL copy is to the consumer's benefit. In the long run Microsoft makes more money off the OEM copy. In the long run the systems integrator makes more money off the RETAIL copy. The difference in price is about $20.00 (at least that was the average difference between retail and oem copies of XP).
So, it is worth $20.00 more to ensure that you don't have to pay Microsoft hundreds more in the future when that motherboard goes out. Many boards go out because of cheap capictors being used in the manufacturer of the board. And, capacitors can go at any time.
Microsoft has also gotten very aggressive in enforcing the OEM license. The consumer that purchases the copy from a royal OEM (Dell, Sony, Gateway, HP, etc) have no choice. They are essentially borked. If they had purchased from a quality systems integrator that builds custom units then they'd be much happier down the road due to more upgrade options, no vendor lock in with proprietary components and designs (such as the BTX motherboards), etc.
Just be fair to your customers and get them the real RETAIL copies and build them computers with quality motherboards so they don't feel punched in the stomach when they find out that they have to pay all this extra money to get their unit back up and running.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
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
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.
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.
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...
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!
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.
That analogy certainly doesn't fit very well. After all, the consumer paid for a bag of flaming shit, and not an Apple.
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
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
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>.