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I'll have to say that Microsoft has the right to protect it's creations from illegal spread, but they also have an obligation to serve their existing clients that have purchased and paid for software, support contracts, and maintenance/upkeep. But because of the size of Microsoft and the prevalence of their software in the world, if this new system interferes with end users' ability to protect themselves, Microsoft won't feel nearly the same pressure that a smaller firm would.
Imagine if Check Point wrote bad code (I know, not much of a stretch for the 'ole imagination) and every time you used one of their client applications to secure a system, it broke a lot of other things. Check Point is in a similar position to MS, but not *nearly* as influential...they could shrug off complains and 'feature enhancement requests', but at a price. I bet the other network security vendors would be knocking on the door of every existing Check Point client promising to do better and hawking their wares (not warez! :P) Now let's take this down another step...how many of us have bought a product like Mailwasher Pro, mIRC, a Firaxis game, or something similar. If major problems are found, and the company blew off complaints, do you REALLY think they would continue to be successful? They might survive, but how many of us would be recommending them to others? "Dude! You have *GOT* to buy this software. It's totally cool, and even though it totally f$cks your system in the bunghole, it's really tight and you can't live without it! C'mon, just rebuild your OS every 3-4 months when it craps out!"
Uh, sorry, no. The point is, while many may find this a touch distasteful, it really only directly impacts the users of pirated software. Someone said above that the indirect effect is the proliferation of attacks and network traffic that exploits these pirated and unpatched systems. And those exploits DO impact us in InfoSec the most, I think.
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this has been gone over so many times it's sickening ...
roadclosed ... very, very good point about gamers... almost my words exactly ... (remember zombieman) it's a pity that loki games went out of bussines
i am already beyond caring what M$ says that they will do. they are disgusting ogre of a company. bill ballmer or whatever his name is urged M$ sales in Europe to give away their product in goverment sectors for free if they are in competiton w/ linux. we all know about standards (they make money in a long run). They bribe and take over anyone that keeps them from spreading. What the hell do they need more money for.
if you want to use a pirate copy of any ms product there will always be a way and linux is getting better and better. there will be a point in which Linux excelence will tip the scale over the M$ bullshit. by the time you finish paying of all the licenses and fines to M$ you can heve anough money to by AMD64 (no I don't like Intel either) and run Doom 3 on in BSD or Gentoo w/ wine.
disclamer: I don't have much of a problem w/ M$ products. As you can see my bias is agins philosophy of the company itself.
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Besides the fact that I don't update the enterprise through IE.... You can just turn on Automatic Updates. That still works. All this is assuming the system and their verification tool aren't hacked in about 1 hour after China comes on Line in February.
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well here's a story that i love to tell about those a**holes in redmond. I bought a copy of XP pro when i got my 2nd to last new computer. i had to activate it as is the story when its not a Volume License Key (i.e. i didn't buy 200 copies of XP). well, i've been interested in linux since i was 15 (i'm 21 now) and a few times i just tried to swallow my pride and go all linux. well something would always draw me back as my proficiency in it wasn't as good as it should have been and i'd always break it, i'd get pissed off and go back to XP. well after about 9 or 10 rebuilds, i finally decided to say screw it and stay with windows, as i bought another crappy barebones sys to screw around with linux on. Well one day i get the idea to try and see how CD burning fared on linux, as i had never done it before. I shut down XP, pop that sucker out of there, and then fire it back up so that i could access the data i wanted over the network. Low and Behold, my system had "significantly" changed (that pissed me off right there, its not like it was a new processor. it was a CD burner) so i had to Activate again. I didn't think that much of it, except that it was an annoyance until i get the following error message. "Your copy of Windows XP has been activated too many times" , that made my jaw drop. Why on earth did it have a problem with my Guaranteed legitimate software. well, at that point i said screw it. i just wanted access to my data and I made my primary mistake. this was before i knew about live cds mind you, i throw a copy of mandrake in, and let her rip. well, after i give K3b a shot, i decide, its time to screw around with getting windows running again. Well, I lost the original CD, but I had all the materials that came with it. On top of that, i had registered with Microsoft. So they know who I am, and where i lived, and everything. I made sure to follow up with that just in case of this situation. I phone up Microsoft requesting a replacement copy of the CD, and i had all of the information handy, including my IP so that they could prove that it was me. Since i had purchased an OEM copy, they basically brushed me off and said it was the company who sold it to me's problem. So i call them and got the answer i expected to hear (it was a small operation) "We can't just send you a new copy of XP, that costs us money." All i wanted was a copy of the CD with the data, hell it could have not come with a Serial Key, but just allowed me to use the one that came with my legit copy, therefore, no piracy possible. I call back microsoft, "I'm sorry there is nothing we can do." Even when i told them it was their fault for their software telling me I activated too many times. I'm so sorry i used the software i rightfully purchased too much. Well, all this time, i had been downloading and trying different copies of XP on the net to see if I could score one that would except my license key. I actually found one, but ran into the same problem again with the activation. I tried calling them and it couldn't be resolved, they brushed me off again. So at that point, I managed to find someone with a Volume License, that gave me a copy for free, without any activation necessary. Kind of odd that they allow someone who'd be more likely to abuse the license (i.e. a large company) the ability too. So for the longest time i'd been running off that, until i finally got fed up with it, and spent enough time on linux to get comfortable, and now i'm the proud admin of a Linux box. All in all i learned one thing, microsoft could give 2 sh*ts about you, because there are always millions of other suckers out there to pay them. Hopefully this pisses enough people off, like it did with me, to get these people on the bandwagon with linux. The only problem with linux is applications, and the sometimes bazaar ways you have to configure the system. I mean config files are fun sometimes, but sometimes you just want to "point, click, and ship" (to coin an old UPS slogan). All I have to say is Microsoft, get prepared to get Effed in the A. I hope Linux forgets to buy any KY. (I'm just pissed off because I have to use Win2k at work, i'm longing for the day Linux comes out with Mortgage Origination Software. I guess there's not too much fun in programming Applications for mortgage brokers, i can't blame em, there's not too much fun in being a mortgage broker either...except everybodys a functioning alcoholic...lol)
P.S. sorry to be so vulgar, but it helps to illustrate my feelings on the matter.
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it was here a few years ago that i first heardd about linux, i now dual boot with suse 9.1, soon to be updated (for free) auto updates load 99.9% crap that is unneccesary and without your knowledge, i am just waiting to learn a little more vi beofre i delete xp pro altogeher
so i gotta say, thanks M$, for helping me grow!!! :D
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Killer:
Your problem is really very simple..... You can't make a decision.... Had you dual booted the box from the start you wouldn't have had these problems would you? ;)
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Not calling you a liar killer but the whole cd-rom making it say it had changd to much is wierd. i put my HDD in a completly diffferent box with completely different specs and it never batted an eye.
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http://www.antionline.com/showthread...r=2#post815832
Told you so.
If you have a dodgy install of xp, look on the bright side. You will be exempt from all the DRM updates microsoft want to push our way. If you have the latest patch for WMP installed you have agreed to let them update you any time they want already.
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i tried doing the whole dual boot thing, but i ended up getting errors in the the hand off between grub and windows, and this was before i was comfortable enough to fix it. and honestly i never wanted to take the time to fix it and usually wanted a way out. also, i'm the type to not learn anything unless i really force myself too, so seeing that dual boot screen always led to me going straight to XP out of being lazy and not wanting to reboot into windows, as i was doing an incredible amount of p2p on shareaza, which was not a friend of wine. and in my opinion at that time, the alternatives really sucked. If it wasn't for bittorent i'd probably still be windozing. I learned my lesson now, but not by much, my answer was get removable hard drive trays...lol. i've got 3 60 GB+ drives i've accumulated on the cheap, plus i've gutted about 5, 4GB drives out of trashed computers, so i'm pretty confident i'm not gonna do that again. but thats not the point of the story. point of the story is that they don't care about the customer, and that they end up screwing even the legitimate ones. and were you using a volume license Zombie? because you can do pretty much whatever you want with those. My OEM XP pro crapped its pants the minute i yanked that out of there.
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ehhh, security going down if it will not be avalible updates.
lot of zomnies will come and grow up faster
