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Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Plans
Slatterz writes "Microsoft has announced that the forthcoming Windows 7 operating system will contain a number of piracy 'tweaks' it says are designed to protect the interests of customers. Under the new regime users will be expected to validate their software in a much more precise way than before. Other Microsoft operating systems and anti-piracy measures, including Windows Genuine Advantage, allowed users to delay 'activation,' but Windows 7 will make it harder to ignore repeated messages. According to Joe Williams, general manager for Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, counterfeit software 'delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products, particularly if users do not know that their software is non-genuine.' Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before Microsoft was able to resolve it."
So they can halve their user-share.
My work here is dung.
"counterfeit software delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products, particularly if users do not know that their software is non-genuine."
Since it's byte for byte identical whether it's "counterfeit" or "real", what does that say about Windows 7?
it says are designed to protect the interests of customers
Hahahaha!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Are there really people who have a pirated copy and really believe that it's a copy that they have a valid license for? I seriously doubt that more than .05% of people who are running pirated versions of windows actually thing it is geniune. This is just going to annoy people who got mislabeled as pirates, while all the pirates find an easy way to disable this "feature".
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It's amazing that after all this time Microsoft still believe they can win the fight against piracy. As long as there is someone that builds anti-piracy measures in there will be people willing to hack around and take them out. Equal and opposite forces. Look at the iPhone for example; it took very little time for people with no previous knowledge of the device to have a working solution for jailbreaking the phone and installing pirated apps. MS needs to come up with viable solutions instead of crippling the user's experience.
Oh, shit, that's right, we're talking about Microsoft. Never mind; carry on with Ubuntu installs. ;-)
=Smidge=
Is it just my observation, or is eldavojohn an idiot?
because they buy their copy of windows with a new PC from Dell or HP and it's tied to the hardware and probably won't need to be activated.
for the DIY it probably makes sense to buy a technet sub and get "free" Ultimate copies of the OS. my msdn license keys for Vista say up to 10 activations and you can give it out to other people for "marketing purposes"
...it says are designed to protect the interests of customers. Under the new regime users will be expected to validate their software in a much more precise way than before... Windows 7 will make it harder to ignore repeated messages.
That's it - I cannot top that - I can't even try.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
Any code made by someone can be broken by someone.
Some consumers have already realized they don't have to put up with this bullshit, I hope more do every day.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
As long as this doesn't victimize legitimate users. That's where the whole anti-piracy thing usually breaks down.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
So what, you thought MS was a bunch of open source hippies all this time who were only being stopped from releasing the source of the entire OS for free by the tyrannical Bill Gates?
"Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before Microsoft was able to resolve it."
WTF do you care what happens to people running pirated copies? Why don't you tell us about all of the times WGA has screwed up legitimate installations with false positives? I've actually had to "hack" a few falsely tagged installations so they'd run until I had time to go through the hassle of getting my system re-legitimized. And I don't maintain that many windows systems. I can only imagine the shitstorm that could be caused in a company with thousands of identical systems that, through some quirk, got nailed with a false positive from WGA.
WGA does absolutely nothing to protect legitimate consumers. Nothing. The only thing WGA can do to any specific installation is disable it. It can't ENHANCE or IMPROVE the system in any way.
Can you really blame people for piracy when you set the retail price of a license at $100-$200 and the big OEM price at $10-$50?
Pretty soon it'll be easier to get a windows license by buying a netbook and throwing the hardware away.
I thought that was all Steve Ballmer's fault? :P
TFA contains some of the most gratuitous and blatant lies I've seen in print since the 2008 U.S. elections ended.
So, Microsoft goes to great pains to refuse to patch software that it thinks might be pirated. Then, someone finds and exploits a bug in Microsoft's code. Malware problems affect everyone because the distribution of the patch is restricted. As a result, customers should be more careful to be sure that their software is genuine, and Microsoft is going to help them do this so that their systems can be properly patched for everyone's protection.
The mind reels.
I could almost understand Microsoft's point if they didn't consider installation of an OEM version of Windows on another machine after the original one has failed to be "piracy."
Do what you have to to protect your bottom line, but do not bullshit like this. Customer interests would be equally served with an unobtrusive alert that would let them know that the software is probably counterfeit but not interfere with their work.
Although, I doubt it will really help MS financially. Everyone else is moving away from DRM - think of iTunes - and throughout the history of commercial software, most successful companies were the ones that stayed away from parallel port dongles, non-standard floppy formats or entering "word 6 on line 5 on page 15 of game manual". This included Microsoft until a few years back.
Besides most of their profit comes from OEMs and business users. Neither group is likely to use counterfeit software. On the other hand, they will be royally pissed off if this affects even 0.01% of their users.
Why try to stop the piracy?
They would be far better-served by selling the Home/Pro versions of the OS at $99 / $149 and allowing easy transport of licenses.
They only lose tons of money when trying to stop piracy.
I WOULD pay for it if it meant I could have a physical copy of the OS (on a PRESSED disc) and I didn't have to deal with activation and other such bullshit.
I would encourage others to "just buy it" if it meant I could easily wipe their Dell and install using their key/disc (seriously, supply customers with the OS installation media, not just an image of your machine on a hidden partition on the hard drive!).
The big money is always in the volume licensing, and OEMs.
The only logical thing I can think of is the OEMs bitching at MS to fight piracy and to keep the MSRP up while keeping their severely discounted rates low.
OEMs need margins wherever they can get them, after all.
Microsoft executives are "customers". They buy things!
You didn't think they meant "Microsoft's customers", did you? ;)
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Ya know..... everyone seems to ignore the fact that this *really* isn't gonna affect the general user/business in ANY WAY... it's just not... Absolutely nothing will change with piracy either. Basically all MS is saying this time around is "something's gonna happen about some stuff in Windows" Also regarding the "more than a million crashes", I'm sure this is fudged to a great extent, while maybe many of these crashes were on pirated systems, it doesn't mean that the crashes were caused by piracy. I don't know... this whole article seems so....... meh.
The words all make sense by themselves, but collectively it is like he is trying to redefine every word he uses.
> "Consumers face potential identity theft, system failures and unrecoverable data loss,"
That isn't a consequence of piracy. It may be the consequence of malware, spyware, worms, or viruses, but you can't blame piracy for any of that.
> "Customers want to know that they are using the genuine high-quality Microsoft product they paid for, and they want to know that their systems are more secure and that their software does not contain malicious code"
What about customers who want to use Microsoft products without paying for them at all. Not to defend them, but that is what we are talking about when we discuss piracy. If someone takes a "genuine" copy of Windows and disables your license validation code, what does that have to do with making their system more or less secure and what does it have to do with malicious code. If anything, a hacked copy of Windows may be more secure and less malicious because it isn't "phoning home" to Microsoft.
> "We see many cases of customers who wanted to buy genuine software and believed they did, only to find out later that they were victims of software piracy."
Wow. This one just made my head hurt. They are completely trying to redefine victim here. That's like calling a bank robber the victim of his crime because he stubbed his toe running out of the bank.
I guess I'm supposed to read all the above and think that Microsoft is acting benevolently to make sure no malicious code has been inserted into the operating system at install time. If that was really some sort of crisis that needed to be solved, they could simply ship install CDs with known signatures and provide a mechanism for checking those signature. Problem solved with no need for checking hardware configurations, issuing serial numbers, tracking activations, etc.
What a bunch of asshats.
Usually the pirates disable those incessant messages begging you to register. Which is the poorer experience?
Believe it or not, there's actually something to say about ensuring Windows is "genuine" as such; and really this is new to Vista +...
I've seen a few Vista installs now where Windows was completely screwed (no laughing at the back) for no apparent reason, and more importantly would not update. On digging around a bit more, it turned out almost in every case they'd downloaded it off bittorrent/emule, burnt it to disc, and fired it up.
Thing is, Vista is more flexible than ever for OEMs and system builders to streamline their own stuff into the install process so this is a hackers dream; take most popular OS on the planet; "Customise" it with rootkit/trojan; release to downloaders via bittorent and tada...pre-rooted Windows for the pirating masses.
So that's why there is some value in knowing your Windows came from Microsoft direct (rather than some h4x0r)
throw new NoSignatureException();
People are going to be shocked when they discover that the version of Windows 7 they acquired through a Torrent site (at $0 cost) isn't genuine.
1. clamp down on piracy and get people to pay or register quicker
2. get new people to get addicted quicker
3. help obtain a closer-to-the- the PAID SEATS/licenses count and reduce shareholder qualms
4. get a better handle on which OS are run on multiple machines (real and virtual) and at what general locations
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Duh. Why do you think they came up with Starter Edition for netbooks?
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
counterfeit software "delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products
Obviously he hasn't tried Johnny's Ultimate version of XP. It's awesome! A great experience and it offers great satisfaction. MS should hire him.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Oh, you mean like that time that the Massive Microsoft WGA meltdown fingered legit Vista and XP owners as pirates?
;-)
Lot's of fun I think - but since Microsoft is changing the name from WGA to WAT you should trust them to put the kill switch in your computer
I'm so happy I can do all my computing without having anyone's kill switch in my computer... sorry was I gloating?
I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress -J Adams
To ass rape people in poorer countries that couldn't afford to be ass raped at the higher premium cost?
"Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before Microsoft was able to resolve it" I assume they formatted the disk and installed Ubuntu on the system.
OEM licenses aren't transferable, so technically you still would not have a legit license in Microsoft's eyes.
"Williams also hinted at tools pitched at enterprises designed to improve and speed up company-wide systems authentication. "When customers see and use the tools we are providing to support Windows Vista and Windows 7 deployments, we think they will be impressed," he said."
Riiiiight... tools. I see one tool and that's the asshat that thought this a grand idea. I have an MSDN subscription so I can have whatever I want from MSFT and I am so sick of DRM, Genuine Advantage, Activation and so on I might start punching babies soon.
This isn't a tool you f*ing jack*ss, it's a pain in the tush. A tool is something that will help you perform some desired action or reach some desired end. I'm fairly certain that no one in the world is just shaking with anticipation and excitement at the thought of using your "tools" to activate their copy of Windows 7...
Eye for an eye and half of the world will have just one eye!
To Trash-Bin with the whole thing already!
YOU SUCK!
Seriously, does anyone REALLY this to work? All it will do is cut down on the absolutely MOST casual pirates and annoy legitimate customers. The tighter they make it, the more this is true. Determined individuals WILL ALWAYS find a way to circumvent their measures. ALWAYS.
I'm not likely to pirate an OS...I like being able to run it with all the updates and I'm happy knowing that my software is legit...but that's certainly not even a close consideration as to what most people are going to do.
Look, if you don't like paying MS for your OS, DON'T USE WINDOWS!!!
"We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
Wait, I thought this was an article about Windows not Linux.
I am hear all week, try the veal.
You mean "see" all week. And I hate veal. *throws a tomato* GET OFF THE STAGE!!!!
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
What annoys me, in general, is that I work on peoples machines that have their XP key printed right on the machine, but the key is for a specific service pack. So, I can't just use a valid XP disk, I have to have that specific disk. I have a legitimate copy with a legitimate key, but tend to have to go torrent the speficic build of Windows. I mean, surely Microsoft understands that since they give out the Service Packs through Windows Update, this isn't a pirating tactic.
A lot more of those shops will switch to GNU/Linux when they realise that they can install Linux Genuine Advantage instead.
Just when you thought it was safe to click the "later" option, an all new treat awaits our valued and loyal customers who upgrade to the best ever version of Windows. From the lovely people who brought you such well loved classics as the WGA and it's sister OGA. Now with their latest innovation, new improved nagware. This time it's even harder to stop.
Our patented nagware is a guaranteed success because we say so, and believe us, if you don't say so, we'll know and pay you a visit to "educate" you. All of our valued customers who have been flooding our inboxes demanding to be nagged now have the solution at hand. You won't find any better nagware than ours.
Microsoft - We listen to our customers demands because we care.....not like those hippie, commie, pinko Linux terrorists.
false positives.
For example under Windows XP, if the Firewall blocked the WGA verification internet connection, your copy of XP got called "grayware" because it could not verify the genuineness of the XP install.
If you reformatted and reinstalled, sometimes you got activation problems anyway, requiring you to log on to your Passport account and activate the Windows that way, and then WGA still says you might not be legit.
With Microsoft forcing activation, it will only lead to more "false positives" in genuine Windows usage.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
This is a great news. PC sales will drop even more. Since, users will not migrate to Linux. This is one more component that average PC users will stick to their XP forever! Oh, Microsoft. When will you ever learn? Your monopolistic behavior will slowly destroy you. Let's shoot for additional 10,000 layoffs for Microsoft! Baller can yell, "I'm not a CEO. I'm a football coach. We will destroy everything!" Their PC vendor pals will be so glad that their best friend is Microsoft. Happiness.
Rather than just laugh at it, let's point out that the Microsoft tax is not like a real tax. If your friend pirates it, you personally lose no money. Rather, Microsoft loses money. It has been common knowledge that the amount of currency raked in by Microsoft is in no way proportional to the cost of developing the operating system. (If it was, shareholders would be firing someone.) The real problem here is that we, the people, give the corporations these rights. If the people objected, these imaginary rights would disappear immediately. The concept of a corporation was invented rather recently, and for the most part, it didn't even refer to a private enterprise in a competetive market, but an organization authorized by a real autocratic king to hold a legal monopoly. What's the difference - in real terms, not BS legal ones - here to begin with?
So, in order to improve the satisfaction level of non-paying "customers" who pirate the software, they are going to foist even more draconian validation measures on actual paying customers.
On what planet is a person who steals your product called a customer?
Shouldn't they be leaving the pirates with their so-called poor product experience (assuming MS is right about this, wouldn't they then hopefully learn the error of their ways and gratefully fork over a few bucks for the real deal). Then they can remove the annoying validation measures from paying customers, to improve the customer satisfaction of people who are actually customers.
...and that's a violation our patented "XP experience"! (turn head sideways)
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
counterfeit software 'delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction
The real stuff is bad enough without worrying about "counterfeit".
I love my Mac.
OS/X IS Unix.
Linux is free as in speech.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
I'm going to recommend people to pirate a copy of Win7 once a crack comes out.This is going to be so much fun. Why bother going through a hassle of nightmare after paying $120? Who enjoys getting punched in the face after you have given them some money? Go piracy!
It's important to give a guarantee of service if you are a brand name. It is important to let your customers know that your product is in fact the product they intended to buy. It is important to back that product up with protective services and long term support.
It is also important you don't make your customers jump through flaming hoops to prove they purchased your product.
Let us hope Microsoft has the brains to not make this a nightmare for the end-user.
And guess what all major video game consoles use? Non-standard disc formats.
I don't follow you here.
PS3 games are BluRay discs
With nonstandard copy protection.
360 are Dual Layer DVDs
With nonstandard copy protection.
PS2 is Single and dual layer DVDs
With nonstandard copy protection.
Gamecube is mini DVDs
With nonstandard copy protection. This involves shifting the data within the sector, cutting six pinholes in the disc, and encoding the sector numbers that the pinholes overlap in the Burst Cutting Area.
Xbox is DVDs
With nonstandard copy protection.
Thanks Slashdot for a lot of info on Windows 7. However the world moves on, and I think we can chat about Windows 7 when it's finally released to manufacturing. It's not fair to give Microsoft a separate article for each leakened "feature".
Hello Microsoft. This game starts looking more and more like The Apple Rumor Machine. And Slashdot seem to stick along hand in hand.
Just like 1984 where ministries were named for the opposite of what they do, Microsoft have taken the old Mac advert a bit too literally. WGA is only an advantage to Microsoft, not the end user. DRM gives the content holders the right to restrict and punish users. I guess if truth in advertising was mandatory concepts like WSGD or Windows Sometimes Genuine Disadvantage wouldn't go down well.
As is somewhat well-known, Microsoft's license agreement says only the Ultimate, Business and possibly Home Premium editions are permitted to be run under a virtual machine. In Vista, they didn't enforce this technologically.
This might change in Windows 7. I found some assembly code in the Windows 7 beta kernel that was detecting whether it was running under a virtual machine. This code was in functions clearly related to license management. The beta version was Ultimate, so I don't think anyone noticed that VMs don't work...
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
DISCLAIMER: NOT A LAWYER
Though it's not 100% clear Microsoft's license is enforceable in that or any other way.
nope, that's not piracy, that's by design.
They're using their grammar skills there.
They do work.
But it's possible that this require a specific key - like an MSDN or TechNet key.
> Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes
Those millions of crashes wouldn't have happened if the DRM wasn't in the OS to begin with. Still Microsoft's fault for adding defective-by-design code that require exploits to correct.
It may not technically be right but as far as I'm concerned it's legit. I paid for a copy of Windows and I'll use it as I see fit.
No, that's not FUD.
This very thing happened to me, and MS' response after talking to many people over an hour and a half was:'you need to buy another XP Pro license at around $130 USD', IIRC. I even offered to send them the cd and case with the hologram and my receipt(original, not the copy I was going to keep for myself) to no avail.
I was told my only option was to purchase the new license. I replied that 'no, that is not my only option, as I have this Linux install cd in my hand as we are speaking, and am dropping all MS product use.' And so I have ran some GNU/Linux distro since then.
Check my posting history on this subject...at the time I ranted probably a little/lot too much about this. I was not doing anything 'shady/dodgey' at the time to bring this on myself.
MS admitted it 'could' be due to all of the 'keygen' stuff out there, but my copy became non-legit through no action/inaction/fault of my own. I bought those cd's from a 'reputable', nationwide retailer-with intact packaging, etc..- in good faith with cash money, and that was not 'good enough' for MS.
Not FUD. Period.
Now I have access via my job to two copies of XP Pro*, and two copies of both Vista Enterprise and Office 2007, all of which will suffer bit rot before I think about using them.
They have 'lost userbase/marketshare' of three PC's here on my home network, as I wiped Windows off and installed Linux.(all three were legit, 100% compliant with MS Windows terms)
I repeat, that was not FUD!
*to be pedantic, it's actually six copies total of XP. I get two each copies of: XP Pro(no Service packs), XP Pro SP2, and XP Pro SP2 Upgrade Version.
And when Fallout 3 came out, I did set up an XP partition with one license for XP Pro SP2, but it only lasted about three months until I got tired of 'the MS Way', wiped it, and installed Linux Mint in it's place.
Linux has me too spoiled by now to go back to Windows, even just to play games.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Considering the usual spots online already have Win7 beta/release candidate whatever you call it and have it running just fine (for the most part as beta can be) on many machines I don't see any hope for MS to be able to do anything about the pirating of their OS, short of the "no updates to non-genuine users" which to me just says to the public:
We'd rather let many systems be vulnerable to exploit so we can prove the point that pirating software is bad.
Ave Molech Setting
Except that I believe Microsoft OEM licenses are not transferable. Crazy as it sounds, that Windows license isn't even yours to use as you please, even though you paid for it. It's lunacy.
My comments are my own, and do not represent the views of my employer, my spouse, my children, or my cats.
Anything that gives a negative feeling towards Microsoft is good by me. This is only company who got to the top and constantly shoot themselves on the foot, because they got way too much money to burn. This is an only company that constantly spit at their customers' face and get away with it. It is a time for the world to united and fight against to Microsoft.
Lets hope the anti-piracy features are very successful for 2 reasons:
1) it is believed that the biggest competitor to Microsoft is not Linux or Mac OS but pirated copies of Windows. Perhaps these pirates will be locked out and the amount of spam and DOS attacks are reduced by eliminating the unpatched Windows zombie computers.
2) the world will realize free software has no pirates and maybe the internet will be a little more heterogeneous and not 95% Windows.
"They say travel broadens the mind, so I went over the falls in a barrel." -Thomas Dolby
Plus, when you reinstall your OS, there's a good chance the key will be disabled anyway.
Foot.
Gun.
BLAM!
Ow! (Hop-hop-hop).
Just can't stop shooting yourself in the foot, can ya', stupid Microsoft...
~Just as a thing fails if it lacks a kernel, so too it fails if it lacks a skin. ~ Rumi, Discourses
I mean if they sell their products for half price, maybe they will suddenly find that they sell 2.5x more?
There is a benefit to this. This will drive the PC SALES down more and PC will get cheaper, then I will install Linux and xBSD on it. Thanks to Microsoft, we will have tons of sub $200 netbooks running Linux!
"Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before Microsoft was able to resolve it."
Before exploits, Windows never crashed.
Activation is a pain in the ass, always has been. The only result of this "stronger" activation will be more piracy, because the cracked version is liberated from this draconian bullshit.
It's true for games, it's even more true for Windows. If I have the option of installing my genuine, licenced copy and fuss with reactivation every time I upgrade (few months), or going with a cracked/VLK version that doesn't have that nagware, I'll go with the cracked one, because my time is actually worth something to me and I'm not about to waste an hour on the phone with Microsoft's 3rd-world scripted support staff to beg for permission to upgrade my hard disk.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
It's going to be pretty damn rare that someone's going to break a counterfeit Windows install nearly as badly as box makers already break genuine Windows installs with the bloatware they stuff in there. I suspect that more of these "genuine" systems don't even come with a clean install disk, let alone give as good an experience as the original product, than counterfeits do.
I actually like Win7RC1. I will probably buy two copies to put on my windows machines.
That said, the pirates are already offering a better product. You can get Win7RC without the watermark and reporting. Despite what The Man would have us believe, the counterfeits in the world of warez are actually superior.
In the mean time this very long time Windows user will be migrating to Mac. I have already migrated my wife, parents and brothers (all very satisfied). The reason? WGA. Being treated as a criminal and having to have 'Windows Genuine Advantage' installed was the last straw for me. I could tolerate all the other garbage but that finally made me do what was previously unthinkable. Yes, Microsoft you forced me to wake up and look at the alternatives. It's been fun and I will miss some aspects of Windows but I won't be looking back. Bye.
Oh great, more bullshit that people have to deal with. I bought an IBM laptop 4 years ago, removed the hidden IBM partition, formatted & reinstalled XP and it starts throwing that WGA nagware at me. Fast forward a few hours, I change to pirated XP. No problems for the next few years. Until I decide to reinstall XP, but as a legit copy. Guess what? Illegal! Thanks Microsoft, I'll stick to pirated XP copies that don't treat me like a retard.
I've never had a problem with WGA or Activation on a full, RTM version of the OS--I purchased a legitimate copy of XP Pro OEM when it was released. I've been in the Vista beta and got a free copy from that, got Vista from the Server 2008 Launch also. I'll likely end up with Windows 7 (I'm in the beta for that as well).
I had a Vista beta deactivate itself once but that was about it.
I've never failed WGA--ever. So if your computer failed WGA you either have something that screwed with your machine, you're running a screwed up downloaded copy of the OS, or you did something to intentionally block it and now blame your woes on Microsoft.
Bought direct from HP.com, OEM copy of XP Pro, and six months later MS claims it's pirated.
Archived everything, wiped the drive, and am happily on Ubunutu ever since.
I still have to support the various Windows boxes of my customers, but I'll only run it (at home) in a VM if absolutely need-be.
Otherwise, MS can kiss this customer good-bye.
If your business model relays on licensing your SDK and getting a commission on written games for your system, you want to control that.
The problem is that Nintendo and Sony don't make SDKs available to hobbyists or micro-ISVs operating out of a home office at all.
If Microsoft were to do something like that on Windows, you bet they would do some weirder crap like forcing developers to enter a key to activate the SDK, or forcing developers to purchase a install code.
Microsoft did exactly this. Micro-ISVs developing Xbox 360 games need to purchase a PC that runs Windows, along with a developer certificate called "XNA Creators Club" for $99 per year. (Apple copied this model nearly verbatim for the iPhone SDK.) And to target Windows Mobile, developers need to buy the paid version of Visual Studio, not download Visual C++ Express.
the main difference between Console DRM and PC DRM is that console DRM doesn't get in your way when you play the games you legally bought.
Yes it does. I want to back up my save files in Wii games, but if a game uses Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the save file gets marked as no-copy and the Wii Menu won't let me copy it to an SD card.
you won't have some stupid crap like SecuROM's three install and you're out.
Or you lose your saved games and purchased WiiWare/VC games when Nintendo cross-ships you a replacement console. Nintendo originally planned to limit Wii Speak Channel to one Wii console per Wii Speak microphone, and the media interpreted this as a tactic to discourage resale of microphones. The company eventually did back down, issuing replacement activation codes for Wii Speak Channel.
> Microsoft has announced that the forthcoming Windows 7
> operating system will contain a number of piracy 'tweaks'
> it says are designed to protect the interests of customers.
I fail to see how a mechanism designed to prevent people from installing proprietary closed-source software is in any way something to protect the interests of people who use that software.
What I do see is that it is something designed to protect Microsoft's revenue stream.
This announcement from Microsoft is nothing other than more of Microsoft's duplicitous propaganda and should be read and understood in that context.
Most of the distributed pirated copies of windows vista circulated by torrents is genuine. People have no trouble with them whatsoever. All updates, including the ultimate edition extras.
The initial problem is still there though - An inability to get it clean in the first place, due to user intervention.
Maybe I'll just steal their computer, tell them the virus completely nuked their hard drive, and start from scratch. DeepFreeze looks like a good nearly-idiot-proof option.
They'll probably murder me for losing a year's worth of MySpace angle pictures of groups of their idiotic teen friends if I do that though.
Agh, I just don't know. The damn kids run that house, so if I try to take their computer out of action and change anything on it, I'll be run out with pitchforks.
Maybe I'll just let them sit in their own muck. It's not REALLY my responsibility, after all.
Another thing I forgot to mention a few comments ago - The reason I have to stop doing whatever I'm doing when my uncle comes in is because he throws huge fits whenever something isn't fixed immediately, or if he immediately breaks it after (Or, on occasion, if something just plain isn't fixable.) and tends to decide that whoever's responsible is no longer welcome in the house, and my aunt doesn't want that turned on me.
Especially since he has a tendency to get virii on his computer doing pretty much the exact same thing, and blames the kids' computer for giving it to him over the network... but given the once or twice I had to use his computer for something and the recent pages dropped down when I entered a URL... *shudder* He brings it on himself, too.
Blah.
Yeah, sorry for the ranting, but it's been bugging me and needed let out.
"counterfeit software 'delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products'"
"users do not know that their software is non-genuine"
Rebuild one of the computers they give you. Do whatever you want to secure it. Give it back to them for the kids to use. If your build is any good, when they see how it runs, they will ask you to sort out their other PC, and the kids won't interrupt you.
CheShA: Manchester Breakcore / Drill and Bass Yes I'm a s
Whatever grammer nazi, get back in you bunker!
I meant to say "here"... Sorry if I don't edit ma letters so good! It's not like anyone else (including editors) does it around "here"... :)
*retreats to bunker with girlfriend, shoots self to prevent enemies from gaining the pleasure*
Wait. Who Godwin'd here? Does grammar nazi count as Godwinning? Or did I just do it to myself?
AAAAH!!! So confused!
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
Sorry, I made too many posts without infuriating anyone.
That one was just for you and your ilk! :D
That means waiting for this recent one to kick the bucket. All the previous ones have been cannibalized and their non-useful bits (Like crappy OEM motherboards) sent to the dungheap.
But it's a good idea, and I thank you for it. :)
So let me get this straight:
1. The father doesn't want your help
2. The kids don't want your help
3. They're all too stupid to stop going on warez and porn sites
4. The father seems to be a bit of a deviant
5. They're stupid enough that they repeatedly cancel virus scans even though you've told them they're important and will get rid of (some or most of) the virus infections
Now why would you want to keep fixing their crap? Okay, they're relatives, but... who cares? These days, when someone comes along with a question like that for the 50th time (and I know that there isn't a chance in hell they'll understand my explanation), I just feign ignorance and say I have no idea what's going on.
My advice... Tell them something similar to this:
If you're too stupid to use a computer, too ***ing bad, live with being part of a botnet and losing an hour of your life every time you try to boot up your computer... If you're smart enough to educate yourself, congrats and welcome to a world with one less idiot...
first-sale doctrine
I made the decision some time ago now that Windows XP would be my last operating system from Microsoft.
It's taken a long time, and a lot of waffling and bracing myself for the amount of work involved, (since I tend to be someone who, where Linux at least is concerned, tends to psychologically need to make their own system from scratch, rather than installing another pre-existing distro) but I'm finally making the switch.
Although I still have XP installed on this machine, I've already bought my next primary box, and it will not. I'm currently on Ubuntu, and once I've finished writing the installer I'm working on for Linux From Scratch, (A HREF="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/") the new box is going to be getting that system, and Ubuntu is going be coming off here as well; and then it will be pure custom Linux all the way for me.
I think downloading and viewing the T4 previews really brought home the fact that for what I do, I really don't need Windows any more. Those files were all .wmv, and VLC played them just fine. I can play WoW, do anything on the net that I can do in Windows, and usually at higher speed, and with Linux I can tinker around with some shell scripts which I love doing, as well; I'm currently in the process of learning the ropes with Vim at the moment.
If anyone else reading this is currently on the fence, as I was, I would really encourage you to make the switch. Everything I've read about Vista tells me it's horrible, and Windows 7 is only going to be worse. Linux has had to go through a long period before I've been willing to fully migrate; but it's time now, and I'm not sorry.
So long, Microsoft, and no hard feelings. It's truthfully been great; but I've always known that once a UNIX system was sufficiently ready for me, this day would come.
A *lot before* the end of life of windows 7 rc, there will be issued a crack/hack/patch/activator, a pirated version or whatever will be... And MS will allow it because is in their best interests.
Ever experienced anything different? Why would it be different now?