I didn't know I was instigating anything. I was pointing out the lack of details in the original post. NT internals are of interest to me.
If you do a little bit of research as to who it is that cracked this you will see that he is more than capable of doing what he says he did. I know who the author is and I respect him. He is not Dave Cutler, Linus or even Mark Russinovich (neither am I). Adding ZwQuerySystemTime() or ZwOpenFile() wrappers to support a reversed engineered kernel isn't that impressive to me (Note, I haven't looked at ReactOS, I don't know if Alex added those system calls or not).
Per the latest article on PatchGuard over at http://uninformed.org/, Microsoft has disabled some of the hacks for PatchGuard in shipping versions of Vista. I'd like a summary of which hack worked (All I can test with is 2003 Server). No one has posted an article on hacking ci.dll, I'd like a little more information on that.
It seems to me that you have an agenda here, will you kindly fuck off?
No, I won't Fuck Off and your very rude. I have no agenda other than preventing Microsoft from owning my legally purchased Windows based computers. Its still my computer (my home, my car, etc). and I still have a right to dictate what programs get run. Yes I run Linux. Yes I have a few Macs.
It has been compromised, it was only a matter of time. end of story. Agreed. Is the result reproducable? With the information in the orginal post, it is not. Again, I may have missed a link to a more detailed article.
Not using a driver, RTFM. snip Which is why this isn't using a stolen/3rd party driver or unsigned driver, nor actually loading a driver.
Ok, I re-read the post, and read some of the other postings. Did slashdot miss a link? Where exactly do you descibe your method?
There's about a dozen ways to disable PatchGuard, and I was able to patch CI.DLL, disable PatchGuard, as well as turn off code signing.
Again, is there some other link that wasn't posted with this story? No where on the orginal blog entry does it mention that you disabled PatchGuard. If you have patched CI.DLL then I congratulate you.
I reserve my right to be a skeptic until I have the details.
It works fine, the actual PMP-disabling code hasn't been tested because I don't want to touch that. But my code ran in kernel-mode, which means it's possible. Read up a bit on computer architecture and you'll see that as long as you have access to the kernel, you're God on the machine (Apart from hypervisor machines and/or additional hardware -- which PMP doesn't currently employ).
You havent tested this. I could care less if your driver is loaded. Microsoft knows that 3rd party driver certificates are going to be stolen/compromised. Microsoft hasn't even provided a method to reject unsigned drivers yet (per MSDN it will be in Vista SP1). Did you happen to hook one of the kernel functions PatchGuard is monitoring? Try to patch CI.DLL and see what happens. You can disable driver signing. You cannot disable PatchGuard.
I'm not saying that you can't bypass Microsofts DRM restrictions. I just don't think you have and the burden of proof is on you.
This is a Blog entry, not an Article or News story. From the Blog...
1). It doesn't work out of the Box. That being said, it turns out the code I've written does not work out of the box on a Vista RTM system.
2). It uses a method provided by Microsoft. As part of the Protected Media Path, (PMP), Windows Vista sets up a number of requirements for A/V software and drivers in order to ensure it complies with the demandes of the media companies.
3). It hasn't been tested. Although used on its own, this POC doesn't do anything or go anywhere near the PMP (I don't even have Protected Media, HDMI, HD-DVD, nor do I know where PMP lives or how someone can intercept decrypted steams),
4). Author is more afraid of the DMCA than of violating Microsofts EULA terms. a particularly nasty group of lawyers could still somehow associate the DMCA to it, so I'm not going to take any chances.
This isn't a story. Its pre-mature speculation. Enjoy,
First of all, standard disclaimer that I work at MS (specifically the games studios). Anyways... Thanks and OK. Most of us wont hold it against you. This article isn't just about Microsoft proxies.
Believe it or not, there are plenty of "fans of Microsoft" that don't work here, Yes, they are members of "team windows". Ask around the campus about team windows. Hell, I just learned that Microsoft still sends team members to disrupt/interfere with the competitors product conferences. I met a few (Microsofties) at a Lotus conference (no I wasn't a conference member, I happend to be in the hotel, stuck in an elevator with Microsoft employees) in DC back in 1995. I can't beleive Microsoft is still practices this. Back in the day, Microsoft compensated these people with free software.
As for TFA, when I first read the title, I was thinking, "Oh good lord, what the hell did PR do this time?". But after reading the actual article, I can understand a bit of the reason why they did it. (However, my personal stance is that it's still something they shouldn't have done) Your employers past history in this area is legendary. Since you can't use Google, let me provide a few links: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=microsoft +astroturf&btnG=Search My favorite: http://www.prwatch.org/node/647 I'm pretty sure middle and uppper management does not inform you when they sic the PR firms on what they percieve as bad publicity. Your on the inside looking out. Most of us are on the outside reading stupid PR releases.
However, if you take your average Slashdotter's opinion, they'll think that all FUD must originate from big corporations looking out to take down the "little guy". While that's certainly the case for lots of things, it also happens the other way around. MS is arguably the biggest example of this, since it's by no means a "favorite" company for your typical Linux/OSS/etc-friendly Slashdotter As of now, there are over a million slashdot IDs. You equate a vocal few with Anti-Microsoft feelings to mean that slashdot has a majority of anti-Microsoft users. You do know that a lot of us still run BSD/OS2/BE etc. We love computers for what they do for us, not what Microsoft says we are allowed to do with our computers. Most Linux users don't care or preach about anything Microsoft does.
I made a career choice back in the 90's to not be locked into any one technology (Microsoft DDE) . That decision has benefited me compensation wise very well. I can program in any embedded/PC/Mainframe envrionment. If your serious about your specialty (craft), I can look forward to seeing (purchasing) your games on a Wii/Linux/PS3/Mac system soon.
Then Bush got elected and the DOJ folded and settled with MS. So Microsoft basically got away with years of illegal tactics and abuse.
I know its popular to blame everything on Bush, but lets not re-write history. An appeals court threw out the guilty verdict after Penfield Jackson ran his mouth off to the press. Had he not done that, there would be two Microsofts right now. Bush choose not to waste tax payer money on a re-trial (Remember there was a recession during this time).
When is the NSA gonna help with Red Hat, Mandrake or Mac OS? I must say that this is totally off the board. MS should be paying the NSA to help with this. They should be footing the bill!
Interesting, thanks for the link. I might have to fire up my original IBM XT box here and give it a try (Allthough it does have a 15lb 5Meg hard drive in it besides the 5 1/4 floppy).
ELKS still isn't going to run on my 6502 based machines ( Apple II, IIe, IIc and C64 ). Linux would probably run on my IIgs natively, but would it run on my IIgs on its PC Transporter? Yes, I sorta have my own computer museum here in the fortress of ancient computers.
Apple had been burned by Apple II clones. They prevented that from happening with the Mac. If they hadn't been so successful, we might all be using 68xxx chips. You seemed to be confusing ROM/Firmware chips with CPUs.
Microsoft runs on x86 and they haven't seen any reason to diverge. Microsoft has written software for the 6502/PowerPC/68xxx/Alpha and now the POWER5 processors.
Just as IBM had become the de facto standard, Microsoft is now the de facto standard. Microsoft software isn't run on 98 percent of the worlds CPUs. Think embedded systems.
Given that Linux can be made to run on just about anything Yeah, I'm still waiting on my 64k Apple IIe linux distro that will fit on a 128k single sided floppy.
Your confusing CPU instructions with Operating System services.
I didn't say OS/2 was perfect, it has limitations.
I have a copy of OS/2 Warp (some version) here, but I can't get it installed on any of my computers. More than likely your installing on a drive bigger than 20gig. OS/2 (because its not maintained anymore) has a problem recognizing hard drives bigger than 20gig if I recall. Google OS/2 hard disk limits. Partition your drive for the max limit and OS/2 should install fine. The last I checked with the OS/2 guys, they had OS/2 v1.3 running on a P3 with onpenGL.
Star Trek sells an OS to the Geek. Microsoft targets the suburban soccer mom. There are more soccer moms than Geeks. Yes because Zune, Windows DNA, and One Care all appeal to the Soccer Mom. My Wife, a soccer mom, wants her drag and drop to work (camera/scanner). Her XP install doesn't recognize her new Sansa player. Linux and KDE did. XP farts occasionally for no reason while doing a scan. KDE doesn't. Kcdeburn also doesn't fart when burning a CD. My wife usually makes at least one coaster while burning picture CDs under XP.
Freedom doesn't have the same meaning in Window's core markets as it does to the Geek. Ease of use doesn't have the same meaning in Microsoft's core markets as it has to the Geek. Yes because we just had to reinstall windows because it "forgot" its HP all in one printer settings. No matter how many driver removal/installations. We had to wait on Microsofts hotline for permission to install XP that was already purchased/licensed. HP said it was Microsofts fault. Microsoft support blamed HP. It works after the reinstalltion of XP. I had better things to do over the Christmas holiday than reinstall XP.
Average people deal with this crap on a day-to-day basis. Windows is great for a while. Once the cruft/crap builds up in the registry your fucked. Tell the average person why thier HP all in one won't work until they reinstall windows.
My Point made.
There is simply not the same obsession with ownership and control. Yeah right. People liked DivX too.
1) IBM Licensed OS/2 to other vendors (NCR, Compaq, Microsoft, etc). Does Microsoft? 2) When you purchased OS/2, you owned it. Microsoft wants to police your installation. 3) OS/2 has a Object Oriented desktop called Workplace Shell. Windows inherits the brain-dead Progman.exe 4) OS/2 still works on anything from a brand new system down to a P100. Bonus, you don't have to call IBM for permission to install it. 5) OS/2 Warp 4 had suspend to disk and speech recognition 10 years ago. 6) IBM uses cool Star Trek names for product descriptions. Microsoft uses a marketing department full of interior designers for its product names.
There are hundreds of other little things that OS/2 Warp still does better than Windows. Only with Windows 2000 did Microsoft finally release something better than OS/2 Warp. Everything released by Microsoft since then has been step backwards in ease of use and freedom.
It's slow and a resource hog, and none of their different "levels" fits well enough for me. I don't want the low end, but the level of Vista that has what I want and need has a bunch of crap I don't, and costs too much, and the next level down, has hardly of the stuff I want.
I bought a fairly beefy laptop last year, so I can run virtual servers for development when I'm on the road. It's not within the minimum guidelines for Vista. I've tried to run it on my desktop and laptop, no go.
Its because your beefy laptop doesn't support all these new nifty API Functions included in Vista:)
If you're willing, would you be willing to list them?
DOOM III (with linux binary download), Castle Wolfenstein (with linux binary download).
The others I bought from tuxgames http://www.tuxgames.com/. They are more expensive and they take a week to deliver to the USA. I'm hoping they open a USA shop soon. I bought from them this year:
Heretic II, Rune, Soul Ride (my kids say it sucks), Airport tycoon, Myth II, Heavy Gear,
I plan on buying a few more after Christmas. Wine works well for me for two out of three legacy Windows games. I enjoy Starcraft and Warcraft II, but Diablo II doesn't work under my Wine config. All my DOS games work fine under DOSBOX http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1
My laptop can't handle extreme graphic requirements and I can play only so much mahjong:).
When I'm on the road with my laptop (P3, neo-magic chipset), I play Heroes III (loki games, discontinued), Wesnoth http://www.wesnoth.org/, and the stock KDE/Gnome games. Try here for some addition freeware games: http://liflg.org/?catid=6. I enjoy Glest and Warzone 2100.
Of course when I'm on the road I'm supposed to be working, but thats why I refused a company laptop and use my own:)
Ideologically, I support Microsoft rather than Linux because Microsoft allows people like myself to make a living.
Until they want your revenue stream. Your going to be out of a job in Microsofts vision of the future: Software factories: http://www.softwarefactories.com/
I wonder if the people at STAC, Netscape, etc. felt the same way as you do?
Microsoft reinvigorated this household out of the PC games for the Windows market with its WGA spyware crap.
Case in point (this experience is from 01, 2006. Maybe Microsoft has changed since then), Atari ships DX9 with Roller Coaster Tycoon Gold. It won't work under Windows 98SE/2000 with the latest Nvidia card without DX9c. Atari states the can't provide the update, you need it from Microsoft. Microsoft refuses to let you download the DX9c update because its WGA spyware thinks my original Win2000/Win98 systems are stolen. I've tried it several different boxes with different (unregistered) store bought copies of Win2k and Win98SE. All failed the WGA spyware check.
Thats OK though, all our new kid games are for the PS2/Gamecube (and Wii soon). All the new purchased PC (PC means personal computer for the Microsoft folks) games are for Linux, I bought 8 games this year.
So much for Win32/DirectX being compatible accross different Microsoft platforms. And Microsoft wonders why thier entertainment division revenue is flat. Its called treating your customers like shit.
I discover NAC/NAP. Network Admission Control and Network Access Protection. While the idea is noble, its going to be costly (for customers) to implement in mixed networks. They also don't discuss non PC network clients (Printers, Scanners, hand held etc). Even worse (see below), your going to have to pay for a 3rd party network stack for Windows 2000.
From the transcript: Q: NAP seems to fulfill the pre-admission health/integrity check very well. Can customers use the same NAP infrastructure to support post-admission NAC? e.g. with NAP today I can check a desktop PC is healthy when it joins, but what about 24 hours later? A: Post-admission enforcement depends on the enforcement mechanism you're using. For instance, health will be re-evaluated when a client attempts to renew their IP address when using DHCP as the enforcement mechanism. For IPSec, it will happen when health certs expire. For 802.1x, it will happen when re-authentication occurs. For VPN, it will happen when clients reconnect. Any health change on the client will trigger re-evaluation of the health state, too.
Q: What is the likelihood of a NAP agent for Windows 2000 clients in the network? A: We are not planning to implement a Windows 2000 NAP client. However, we are licensing our protocols to 3rd party companies so that they can offer NAP clients on Windows 2000 (and other OS's like Mac, Linux, etc.)
It is also going to be more widely used because despite the best efforts the OSS community Open Office just can't compete with Office 2007 in the work place.
With Open Office downloads at 76,972,853, I'd say Office 2007 is the looser here. People and businesses are tired of the forced obsolescence and the re-occurring $300 usage fee.
Yes, a box with only 256MB of general-purpose RAM is IDEAL for web browsing, Open Office, etc.....
Whats your point?
My wifes box is loaded with 196M RAM. She uses KDE 3, Xmms, OpenOffice 2, and Mozilla (SeaMonkey, with the java plugin loaded), and it still hasn't hit the swap partition after 90 days.
As an owner of a PS3 with Linux installed, the only thing that's missing is wireless support. Wired Ethernet works flawlessly, now lets see some wireless drivers!
How about writing a review and posting here to slashdot for the rest of us who don't? Give us the scoop on Video, Sound, network etc. We expect it by Saturday:)
Slashdot Mirror
Look, stop instigating.
I didn't know I was instigating anything. I was pointing out the lack of details in the original post. NT internals are of interest to me.
If you do a little bit of research as to who it is that cracked this you will see that he is more than capable of doing what he says he did.
I know who the author is and I respect him. He is not Dave Cutler, Linus or even Mark Russinovich (neither am I).
Adding ZwQuerySystemTime() or ZwOpenFile() wrappers to support a reversed engineered kernel isn't that impressive to me (Note, I haven't looked at ReactOS, I don't know if Alex added those system calls or not).
Per the latest article on PatchGuard over at http://uninformed.org/, Microsoft has disabled some of the hacks for PatchGuard in shipping versions of Vista. I'd like a summary of which hack worked (All I can test with is 2003 Server). No one has posted an article on hacking ci.dll, I'd like a little more information on that.
It seems to me that you have an agenda here, will you kindly fuck off?
No, I won't Fuck Off and your very rude. I have no agenda other than preventing Microsoft from owning my legally purchased Windows based computers. Its still my computer (my home, my car, etc). and I still have a right to dictate what programs get run. Yes I run Linux. Yes I have a few Macs.
It has been compromised, it was only a matter of time. end of story.
Agreed. Is the result reproducable? With the information in the orginal post, it is not. Again, I may have missed a link to a more detailed article.
Enjoy,
Not using a driver, RTFM.
snip
Which is why this isn't using a stolen/3rd party driver or unsigned driver, nor actually loading a driver.
Ok, I re-read the post, and read some of the other postings. Did slashdot miss a link? Where exactly do you descibe your method?
There's about a dozen ways to disable PatchGuard, and I was able to patch CI.DLL, disable PatchGuard, as well as turn off code signing.
Again, is there some other link that wasn't posted with this story? No where on the orginal blog entry does it mention that you disabled PatchGuard. If you have patched CI.DLL then I congratulate you.
I reserve my right to be a skeptic until I have the details.
Enjoy,
3). It hasn't been tested.
It works fine, the actual PMP-disabling code hasn't been tested because I don't want to touch that. But my code ran in kernel-mode, which means it's possible. Read up a bit on computer architecture and you'll see that as long as you have access to the kernel, you're God on the machine (Apart from hypervisor machines and/or additional hardware -- which PMP doesn't currently employ).
You havent tested this. I could care less if your driver is loaded. Microsoft knows that 3rd party driver certificates are going to be stolen/compromised. Microsoft hasn't even provided a method to reject unsigned drivers yet (per MSDN it will be in Vista SP1). Did you happen to hook one of the kernel functions PatchGuard is monitoring? Try to patch CI.DLL and see what happens. You can disable driver signing. You cannot disable PatchGuard.
I'm not saying that you can't bypass Microsofts DRM restrictions. I just don't think you have and the burden of proof is on you.
Enjoy,
This is a Blog entry, not an Article or News story. From the Blog...
1). It doesn't work out of the Box.
That being said, it turns out the code I've written does not work out of the box on a Vista RTM system.
2). It uses a method provided by Microsoft.
As part of the Protected Media Path, (PMP), Windows Vista sets up a number of requirements for A/V software and drivers in order to ensure it complies with the demandes of the media companies.
3). It hasn't been tested.
Although used on its own, this POC doesn't do anything or go anywhere near the PMP (I don't even have Protected Media, HDMI, HD-DVD, nor do I know where PMP lives or how someone can intercept decrypted steams),
4). Author is more afraid of the DMCA than of violating Microsofts EULA terms.
a particularly nasty group of lawyers could still somehow associate the DMCA to it, so I'm not going to take any chances.
This isn't a story. Its pre-mature speculation.
Enjoy,
First of all, standard disclaimer that I work at MS (specifically the games studios). Anyways ...
t +astroturf&btnG=Search
Thanks and OK. Most of us wont hold it against you. This article isn't just about Microsoft proxies.
Believe it or not, there are plenty of "fans of Microsoft" that don't work here,
Yes, they are members of "team windows". Ask around the campus about team windows. Hell, I just learned that Microsoft still sends team members to disrupt/interfere with the competitors product conferences. I met a few (Microsofties) at a Lotus conference (no I wasn't a conference member, I happend to be in the hotel, stuck in an elevator with Microsoft employees) in DC back in 1995. I can't beleive Microsoft is still practices this. Back in the day, Microsoft compensated these people with free software.
As for TFA, when I first read the title, I was thinking, "Oh good lord, what the hell did PR do this time?". But after reading the actual article, I can understand a bit of the reason why they did it. (However, my personal stance is that it's still something they shouldn't have done)
Your employers past history in this area is legendary. Since you can't use Google, let me provide a few links:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=microsof
My favorite: http://www.prwatch.org/node/647
I'm pretty sure middle and uppper management does not inform you when they sic the PR firms on what they percieve as bad publicity. Your on the inside looking out. Most of us are on the outside reading stupid PR releases.
However, if you take your average Slashdotter's opinion, they'll think that all FUD must originate from big corporations looking out to take down the "little guy". While that's certainly the case for lots of things, it also happens the other way around. MS is arguably the biggest example of this, since it's by no means a "favorite" company for your typical Linux/OSS/etc-friendly Slashdotter
As of now, there are over a million slashdot IDs. You equate a vocal few with Anti-Microsoft feelings to mean that slashdot has a majority of anti-Microsoft users. You do know that a lot of us still run BSD/OS2/BE etc. We love computers for what they do for us, not what Microsoft says we are allowed to do with our computers. Most Linux users don't care or preach about anything Microsoft does.
I made a career choice back in the 90's to not be locked into any one technology (Microsoft DDE) . That decision has benefited me compensation wise very well. I can program in any embedded/PC/Mainframe envrionment. If your serious about your specialty (craft), I can look forward to seeing (purchasing) your games on a Wii/Linux/PS3/Mac system soon.
Enjoy,
Then Bush got elected and the DOJ folded and settled with MS. So Microsoft basically got away with years of illegal tactics and abuse.
o ft_appeal/
r osoft
I know its popular to blame everything on Bush, but lets not re-write history. An appeals court threw out the guilty verdict after Penfield Jackson ran his mouth off to the press. Had he not done that, there would be two Microsofts right now. Bush choose not to waste tax payer money on a re-trial (Remember there was a recession during this time).
http://money.cnn.com/2001/06/28/technology/micros
And please note, the Clinton DOJ settled first back in 1994. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Mic
Enjoy,
When is the NSA gonna help with Red Hat, Mandrake or Mac OS? I must say that this is totally off the board. MS should be paying the NSA to help with this. They should be footing the bill!
http://www.nsa.gov/selinux/
Its only fair that the NSA helps Microsoft.
Enjoy,
"applications barrier to entry". Dvorak wrote about this last year. He thinks Microsoft should spend thier cash before they loose it.
s p
Read more about it here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2070989,00.a
Enjoy,
Interesting, thanks for the link. I might have to fire up my original IBM XT box here and give it a try (Allthough it does have a 15lb 5Meg hard drive in it besides the 5 1/4 floppy).
ELKS still isn't going to run on my 6502 based machines ( Apple II, IIe, IIc and C64 ). Linux would probably run on my IIgs natively, but would it run on my IIgs on its PC Transporter? Yes, I sorta have my own computer museum here in the fortress of ancient computers.
Enjoy,
Apple had been burned by Apple II clones. They prevented that from happening with the Mac. If they hadn't been so successful, we might all be using 68xxx chips.
You seemed to be confusing ROM/Firmware chips with CPUs.
Microsoft runs on x86 and they haven't seen any reason to diverge.
Microsoft has written software for the 6502/PowerPC/68xxx/Alpha and now the POWER5 processors.
Just as IBM had become the de facto standard, Microsoft is now the de facto standard.
Microsoft software isn't run on 98 percent of the worlds CPUs. Think embedded systems.
Given that Linux can be made to run on just about anything
Yeah, I'm still waiting on my 64k Apple IIe linux distro that will fit on a 128k single sided floppy.
Your confusing CPU instructions with Operating System services.
Enjoy,
I didn't say OS/2 was perfect, it has limitations.
I have a copy of OS/2 Warp (some version) here, but I can't get it installed on any of my computers.
More than likely your installing on a drive bigger than 20gig. OS/2 (because its not maintained anymore) has a problem recognizing hard drives bigger than 20gig if I recall. Google OS/2 hard disk limits. Partition your drive for the max limit and OS/2 should install fine. The last I checked with the OS/2 guys, they had OS/2 v1.3 running on a P3 with onpenGL.
Enjoy.
Star Trek sells an OS to the Geek. Microsoft targets the suburban soccer mom. There are more soccer moms than Geeks.
Yes because Zune, Windows DNA, and One Care all appeal to the Soccer Mom. My Wife, a soccer mom, wants her drag and drop to work (camera/scanner). Her XP install doesn't recognize her new Sansa player. Linux and KDE did. XP farts occasionally for no reason while doing a scan. KDE doesn't. Kcdeburn also doesn't fart when burning a CD. My wife usually makes at least one coaster while burning picture CDs under XP.
Freedom doesn't have the same meaning in Window's core markets as it does to the Geek. Ease of use doesn't have the same meaning in Microsoft's core markets as it has to the Geek.
Yes because we just had to reinstall windows because it "forgot" its HP all in one printer settings. No matter how many driver removal/installations. We had to wait on Microsofts hotline for permission to install XP that was already purchased/licensed. HP said it was Microsofts fault. Microsoft support blamed HP. It works after the reinstalltion of XP. I had better things to do over the Christmas holiday than reinstall XP.
Average people deal with this crap on a day-to-day basis. Windows is great for a while. Once the cruft/crap builds up in the registry your fucked. Tell the average person why thier HP all in one won't work until they reinstall windows.
My Point made.
There is simply not the same obsession with ownership and control.
Yeah right. People liked DivX too.
Enjoy,
Why are we comparing Rotten eggs to Oranges?
1) IBM Licensed OS/2 to other vendors (NCR, Compaq, Microsoft, etc). Does Microsoft?
2) When you purchased OS/2, you owned it. Microsoft wants to police your installation.
3) OS/2 has a Object Oriented desktop called Workplace Shell. Windows inherits the brain-dead Progman.exe
4) OS/2 still works on anything from a brand new system down to a P100. Bonus, you don't have to call IBM for permission to install it.
5) OS/2 Warp 4 had suspend to disk and speech recognition 10 years ago.
6) IBM uses cool Star Trek names for product descriptions. Microsoft uses a marketing department full of interior designers for its product names.
There are hundreds of other little things that OS/2 Warp still does better than Windows. Only with Windows 2000 did Microsoft finally release something better than OS/2 Warp. Everything released by Microsoft since then has been step backwards in ease of use and freedom.
Enjoy,
Under the ice sheet there are, wait for it... Trees
o re.htm
http://www.athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-ice-c
This planet was once warm in the past. It is warming up again despite our human influence.
FYI, the planet is going to get cold again when it adjusts.
Enjoy,
It's slow and a resource hog, and none of their different "levels" fits well enough for me. I don't want the low end, but the level of Vista that has what I want and need has a bunch of crap I don't, and costs too much, and the next level down, has hardly of the stuff I want.
I bought a fairly beefy laptop last year, so I can run virtual servers for development when I'm on the road. It's not within the minimum guidelines for Vista. I've tried to run it on my desktop and laptop, no go.
Its because your beefy laptop doesn't support all these new nifty API Functions included in Vista
IWMDRMDecrypt::Decrypt
IWMDRMDeviceApp
IWMDRMDeviceApp2
IWMDRMEditor:
IWMDRMEncrypt::Encrypt
IWMDRMEncryptScatter::EncryptScatter
IWMDRMEncryptScatter::InitEncryptScatter
IWMDRMEventGenerator::CancelAsyncOperation
IWMDRMIndividualizationStatus::GetStatus
IWMDRMLicense::CanPersist
IWMDRMLicense::CreateDecryptor
IWMDRMLicense::CreateEncryptor
IWMDRMLicense::CreateSecureDecryptor
IWMDRMLicense::GetAnalogVideoRestrictionLevels
IWMDRMLicense::GetInclusionList
IWMDRMLicense::GetLicense
IWMDRMLicense::GetLicenseProperty
IWMDRMLicense::GetNext
IWMDRMLicense::GetOutputProtectionLevels
IWMDRMLicense::PersistLicense
IWMDRMLicense::ResetEnumeration
IWMDRMLicenseBackupRestoreStatus::GetStatus
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::AcquireLicense
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::BackupLicenses
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::CleanLicenseStore
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::CreateLicenseEnumeration
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::CreateLicenseRevocationC
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::DeleteLicense
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::MonitorLicenseAcquisitio
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::ProcessLicenseRevocation
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::RestoreLicenses
IWMDRMLicenseManagement::StoreLicense
IWMDRMLicenseQuery::QueryActionAllowed
IWMDRMLicenseQuery::QueryLicenseState
IWMDRMLicenseQuery::SetActionAllowedQueryParams
IWMDRMMessageParser
IWMDRMNetReceiver::GetLicenseChallenge
IWMDRMNetReceiver::GetRegistrationChallenge
IWMDRMNetReceiver::ProcessLicenseResponse
IWMDRMNetReceiver::ProcessRegistrationResponse
IWMDRMNetTransmitter::GetLeafLicenseResponse
IWMDRMNetTransmitter::GetRootLicenseResponse
IWMDRMNetTransmitter::SetLicenseChallenge
IWMDRMNonSilentLicenseAquisition::GetChallenge
IWMDRMNonSilentLicenseAquisition::GetURL
IWMDRMProvider::CreateObject
IWMDRMReader
IWMDRMReader2
IWMDRMReader3
IWMDRMSecurity::CheckCertForRevocation
IWMDRMSecurity::GetContentEnablersForRevocations
IWMDRMSecurity::GetContentEnablersFromHashes
IWMDRMSecurity::GetMachineCertificate
IWMDRMSecurity::GetRevocationData
IWMDRMSecurity::GetRevocationDataVersion
IWMDRMSecurity::GetRevocationTimeStamp
IWMDRMSecurity::GetSecurityVersion
IWMDRMSecurity::PerformSecurityUpdate
IWMDRMSecurity::QuerySecurityStatus
IWMDRMSecurity::SetRevocationData
IWMDRMTranscryptor
Enjoy,
If you're willing, would you be willing to list them?
1
:).
:)
DOOM III (with linux binary download),
Castle Wolfenstein (with linux binary download).
The others I bought from tuxgames http://www.tuxgames.com/. They are more expensive and they take a week to deliver to the USA. I'm hoping they open a USA shop soon. I bought from them this year:
Heretic II,
Rune,
Soul Ride (my kids say it sucks),
Airport tycoon,
Myth II,
Heavy Gear,
I plan on buying a few more after Christmas. Wine works well for me for two out of three legacy Windows games.
I enjoy Starcraft and Warcraft II, but Diablo II doesn't work under my Wine config. All my DOS games work fine under DOSBOX http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=
My laptop can't handle extreme graphic requirements and I can play only so much mahjong
When I'm on the road with my laptop (P3, neo-magic chipset), I play Heroes III (loki games, discontinued), Wesnoth http://www.wesnoth.org/, and the stock KDE/Gnome games. Try here for some addition freeware games: http://liflg.org/?catid=6. I enjoy Glest and Warzone 2100.
Of course when I'm on the road I'm supposed to be working, but thats why I refused a company laptop and use my own
Enjoy,
Ideologically, I support Microsoft rather than Linux because Microsoft allows people like myself to make a living.
Until they want your revenue stream. Your going to be out of a job in Microsofts vision of the future:
Software factories: http://www.softwarefactories.com/
I wonder if the people at STAC, Netscape, etc. felt the same way as you do?
Enjoy,
Microsoft reinvigorated this household out of the PC games for the Windows market with its WGA spyware crap.
Case in point (this experience is from 01, 2006. Maybe Microsoft has changed since then),
Atari ships DX9 with Roller Coaster Tycoon Gold. It won't work under Windows 98SE/2000 with the latest Nvidia card without DX9c. Atari states the can't provide the update, you need it from Microsoft. Microsoft refuses to let you download the DX9c update because its WGA spyware thinks my original Win2000/Win98 systems are stolen. I've tried it several different boxes with different (unregistered) store bought copies of Win2k and Win98SE. All failed the WGA spyware check.
Thats OK though, all our new kid games are for the PS2/Gamecube (and Wii soon). All the new purchased PC (PC means personal computer for the Microsoft folks) games are for Linux, I bought 8 games this year.
So much for Win32/DirectX being compatible accross different Microsoft platforms.
And Microsoft wonders why thier entertainment division revenue is flat. Its called treating your customers like shit.
Enjoy,
I discover NAC/NAP. Network Admission Control and Network Access Protection. While the idea is noble, its going to be costly (for customers) to implement in mixed networks. They also don't discuss non PC network clients (Printers, Scanners, hand held etc). Even worse (see below), your going to have to pay for a 3rd party network stack for Windows 2000.
f 717-d752-4fa2-a77a-ab29f0b29266/NAC-NAP_Whitepaper .pdf
t rans/network/06_0914_tn_network.mspx
White paper here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/0/8/d08d
Interesting chat transcript here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/
From the transcript:
Q: NAP seems to fulfill the pre-admission health/integrity check very well. Can customers use the same NAP infrastructure to support post-admission NAC? e.g. with NAP today I can check a desktop PC is healthy when it joins, but what about 24 hours later?
A: Post-admission enforcement depends on the enforcement mechanism you're using. For instance, health will be re-evaluated when a client attempts to renew their IP address when using DHCP as the enforcement mechanism. For IPSec, it will happen when health certs expire. For 802.1x, it will happen when re-authentication occurs. For VPN, it will happen when clients reconnect. Any health change on the client will trigger re-evaluation of the health state, too.
Q: What is the likelihood of a NAP agent for Windows 2000 clients in the network?
A: We are not planning to implement a Windows 2000 NAP client. However, we are licensing our protocols to 3rd party companies so that they can offer NAP clients on Windows 2000 (and other OS's like Mac, Linux, etc.)
Enjoy,
It is also going to be more widely used because despite the best efforts the OSS community Open Office just can't compete with Office 2007 in the work place.
With Open Office downloads at 76,972,853, I'd say Office 2007 is the looser here. People and businesses are tired of the forced obsolescence and the re-occurring $300 usage fee.
http://stats.openoffice.org/index.html
Enjoy,
Yes, a box with only 256MB of general-purpose RAM is IDEAL for web browsing, Open Office, etc.....
Whats your point?
My wifes box is loaded with 196M RAM. She uses KDE 3, Xmms, OpenOffice 2, and Mozilla (SeaMonkey, with the java plugin loaded), and it still hasn't hit the swap partition after 90 days.
Enjoy,
As an owner of a PS3 with Linux installed, the only thing that's missing is wireless support. Wired Ethernet works flawlessly, now lets see some wireless drivers!
:)
How about writing a review and posting here to slashdot for the rest of us who don't? Give us the scoop on Video, Sound, network etc.
We expect it by Saturday
Thanks.
Enjoy,
Move over, Dasani, Poland Spring, and Evian... Here comes Lunar Liquid!
Martian Martini?
These are what Microsoft refers to as power users
Enjoy,
How dare they try to improve Samba and OpenOffice.org!?
Its not about improving Samba/OpenOffice. Its about current customers not getting sued.
Novell has offered indemity for Linux since 2004. I guess that was all bullshit. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2004/0403
Enjoy,