Gen-U-Wine Windows

Anyone notice this little gem yet?

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/dow...displaylang=en

Now, you can jump through more hoops than ever for the software formerly known as free. Its especially handy when you run Linux so you're **** out of luck.

If you look here you can see all the downloads with the cute little arrow in the circle require this crap now, along with these .God forbid those pirates(or Anyone not runnning Windows who just needs the file) get their hands on Sysprep or Windows Media Player.

-Maestr0

Yeah I found that one this morning when I tried to download CopyProfile. I mean what is the point of that? I had to try and see what my lic no. was by undocking my notebook...so I went for the 'alternative but equally annoying' method....is that a damn p or a d?

ahhh.. not new..
I think this rot started back in sept or oct.....I know I had to attend to this prob 2 or 3 time on our win2k machines.. its just a pain in the a$$ for the legit users.. and the non-legit just go the warez path.. less bother

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Originally posted here by Maestr0
Anyone notice this little gem yet?

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/dow...displaylang=en

Now, you can jump through more hoops than ever for the software formerly known as free. Its especially handy when you run Linux so you're **** out of luck.

If you look here you can see all the downloads with the cute little arrow in the circle require this crap now, along with these .God forbid those pirates(or Anyone not runnning Windows who just needs the file) get their hands on Sysprep or Windows Media Player.

-Maestr0

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Yet another reason to take a step back from MS. Looks like the filesharing, warez, and torrent networks are going to get a little more work.


But seriously, I don't see the reason for this. Their "free" software is crap that can be easily replaced with Google'd freeware, and they make you buy registration keys for everything else anyways. *sigh* Oh well, M$ will be M$ I guess.

Hey,

Worse still, you HAVE to use internet explorer...........talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it?

ACK! Phttt

:D

This seems to me to just be more of the same ol' stuff when it comes to Microsoft. It seems as though they are overly protective of their income, which is much more than most people could ever imagine anyways. I think this is an m$ ploy to take advantage of people who are unaware of what's really going on, I mean who's going to pirate Windows Media Player anyway. I think the purpose is much the same as the French Maginot line in WW2, it serves as peace of mind to those that don't know any better, and for those of us who have common sense and a little bit of knowledge about this issue, it makes no sense and seems a waste. Just like the Germans going around the French deffenses by going through Belgium, people who can, will avoid the fuss and go elsewhere. With all the goings on around spyware, trojans, "piracy" and "security" m$ is trying to "protect" their most loyal customer base, the computer unsavy, from the perils of software piracy.

Quickly, let's take a vote, what software company had the most "pirated" products floating around, by this I don't mean number of different products, but volume of "pirated" products to "legitimate" products comparison? My vote goes to m$, simply because their massive market share tends to lead to that sort of thing.

My thoughts now lead me to the following conclusion. m$ is doing things like this because they are afraid, afraid of losing their lively hood, so they take advantage of the less knowledgeable by making them jump through hoops, which they will be glad to do because they don't want their identity stolen or God forbid, anything else like that. So they take their happy little Internet Explorer over the Internet, picking up whatever IE deems necessary over the voyage to m$ and they will gladly jump through these hoops and chase their tail and be good little pets for Bill and the Boys, and in the end m$ will lose some people, but these will be the ones that know what they're doing.

BigDick
p.s. Sorry for the rant...

"You may choose not to validate your Windows and still obtain your requested download. However, validating now will enable faster access to the Download Center in the future when validation may be required"

for now just say no, and you can still get your downloads. At least they are warning of what may come...

I read through Bill Gates' biography once, and he's got a problem ever since his first piece of software... wrote some angry e-mails back then to people that were distributing some copy of BASIC or whatever. How else would he be able to get so much money with so little to offer?

It sounds mor elike 1 more thing for people to bitch about and thats it. I went hrough the procsess yesterday just to see what all the fuss was. In theory the only people who should have a problem with it are the people with pirated copys. Why else would you have a problem with having it validated? If you had invested the kind of money microsoft had wouldnt you want to protect your investment? To me its not that big of a deal. You know why? cause i know mine is legit. It takes less than a minute. It takes longer than that to register for a forum but nobody bitches about that. It gets old listening to all of constantly critisize everything M$ does. If you dont like them go use linux and STFU. Me personaly I use both. They both have things that the other either cant do or does better. I have never been as frustrated with M$ as I have been some linux distro's

ok, thats it, I'm moveing to Gentoo for sure now...

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It sounds mor elike 1 more thing for people to bitch about and thats it. I went hrough the procsess yesterday just to see what all the fuss was. In theory the only people who should have a problem with it are the people with pirated copys. Why else would you have a problem with having it validated? If you had invested the kind of money microsoft had wouldnt you want to protect your investment? To me its not that big of a deal. You know why? cause i know mine is legit. It takes less than a minute. It takes longer than that to register for a forum but nobody bitches about that. It gets old listening to all of constantly critisize everything M$ does. If you dont like them go use linux and STFU. Me personaly I use both. They both have things that the other either cant do or does better. I have never been as frustrated with M$ as I have been some linux distro's

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You're right. It is one more thing for people to bitch about. I'd bitch about it because its one more hoop that legit users have to jump through to *prove* that we are using legit software. Didn't I prove that when I activated my OS? Why do I have to prove it yet again? The people who know they are not using legit software isn't going to be affected because they will go other routes.

Legit users have just as much right to be pissed about it and shouldn't just "go use linux and STFU". Legit users are being pushed around because third world countries can't afford to pay the licensing.

I also use both linux and m$. Do I have a preference? Depends on what I'm doing. The only time I've been *that* frustrated with linux is because of my own stupidity. Its something that I didn't understand or something that I wasn't doing right. Not because of policies, licensing, and user agreements.

The bottom line phish (and Im not trying to be an ******* here just playing devils advocate) is that nobody forces people to purchase windows per se'. Now if i go to best buy and grab a dell that comes with windows Im not obligated to keep windows on the drive. Basicaly what im saying is you do NOT HAVE to use windows. My philosophy in life is if you arent going to do anything to attempt to fix something you dont have any right to bitch about it. And sitting here on some forum is not attempting to fix anything.

And yes i admit that when i got frustrated with *nix it was usualy my fault in the long run but at the same time i cant remember when the last time my MBR got fuxored installing windows. And that one wasnt user error.

It all boils down to the old saying "if you havent done anything wrong then you have nothing to hide"

EDIT: BTW you only have to do it once.

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Originally posted here by ZomBieMann77
The bottom line phish (and Im not trying to be an ******* here just playing devils advocate) is that nobody forces people to purchase windows per se'. Now if i go to best buy and grab a dell that comes with windows Im not obligated to keep windows on the drive. Basicaly what im saying is you do NOT HAVE to use windows. My philosophy in life is if you arent going to do anything to attempt to fix something you dont have any right to bitch about it. And sitting here on some forum is not attempting to fix anything.

And yes i admit that when i got frustrated with *nix it was usualy my fault in the long run but at the same time i cant remember when the last time my MBR got fuxored installing windows. And that one wasnt user error.

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I'm not trying to be an a-hole either, btw: Just opinions here. :)
Ah, but you are FORCED to purchase windows when you buy a computer a best buy. You are not forced to keep it there. The PC ships with windows and is included in the price. I know I can build my own... but that is besides the point.

BTW: My "attempt to fix something" is being a legit user. What else should I do? Go walk into random peoples houses or businesses and check to see if all their software is compliant?

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It all boils down to the old saying "if you havent done anything wrong then you have nothing to hide"

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I understand what you are saying. Just like the US politicians. If you haven't done anything wrong then you won't mind us following you around with video and sound recording you. What?! You don't want us to do that?! You MUST have something to hide!

That example is a little bit extreme... but falls along the same lines?

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EDIT: BTW you only have to do it once.

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Once per PC? Once per what?

Again, not being an a-hole, just opinions. :)

Schools force you to use and Buy XP.

To legally use the wireless network at school... I was supposed to have Windows, all patched, with an AV.

I run Linux. I do have an AV. They would not let me on.

I had to spoof a ****ing MAC addy because of their simplemindedness.


Oh, and the software they give you for online classes... require IE, and Windows.


Had a hell of a time getting it to run with Wine.

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The bottom line phish (and Im not trying to be an ******* here just playing devils advocate) is that nobody forces people to purchase windows per se'. Now if i go to best buy and grab a dell that comes with windows Im not obligated to keep windows on the drive. Basicaly what im saying is you do NOT HAVE to use windows.

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Yes, but you purchased a licence for windows, as it is added to the price.

If you think going through the genuine process is a one off you are deluded. With the introduction of xp, Microsoft introduced product activation as a means to thwart piracy. This was easily by-passed very soon after by using a crack or other methods. How long before a work around is found for this new method of authentication is found? meaning microsoft will have to find yet another method to check the authenticity of your os.

So now we have two hoops to jump through, activation and genuine. Activation has been by-passed, genuine will be at some point (if not already).........So what comes next? and when will it end?

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Originally posted here by jinxy
So now we have two hoops to jump through, activation and genuine. Activation has been by-passed, genuine will be at some point (if not already).........So what comes next? and when will it end?

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You are not required. I didn't do it and I was still able to download the file(s).
It is just to "make things easier" to download.

IMO, it was easy enough to download before they introduced genuine.

Your not required at the, "moment". You are quite correct, at the moment the scheme is voluntary, but I have the feeling it will move to being mandatory for all downloads and may be updates in the near future.......................................But that is just my view.
*shrug*

<edit>
I just remembered something.

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Worse still, you HAVE to use internet explorer...........talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it?

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I used firefox yesterday to check the way the system worked, and I was able to verify my laptop easy enough.............Just had to go through some more steps and download two exe files. But it did verify my Genuine Xp install :D
</edit>

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Once per PC? Once per what?

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Once per computer. Now that I have gone through the genuine process I wont have to do it again unless I for some reason have to reformat.

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BTW: My "attempt to fix something" is being a legit user. What else should I do? Go walk into random peoples houses or businesses and check to see if all their software is compliant?

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Actualy i was refering to contacting microsoft. I know you and I are merely individuals but if enough people bitched to them instead of some security forum where nobody has any controll over how M$ does buisiness would be a little more productive.

Oh yea and just for refernce, I happen to know that the validation is not as helpfull to M$'s cause as they would like it to be. I know several people with cracked copies of XP that have validated thier product.

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Originally posted here by ZomBieMann77
Oh yea and just for refernce, I happen to know that the validation is not as helpfull to M$'s cause as they would like it to be. I know several people with cracked copies of XP that have validated thier product.

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MSDN copies perchance? (MSDN copies of Win2k all have the same product key and so there is no way to track it)

Nope they arent from MSDN or anyhting like that. I also know the original source.

I have a copy of MSDNAA and I'm pretty sure it's unique because I've installed XP on VMWare and then wanted to get it on a box of its own, and it wouldn't let me activate it again with that key.

Maybe MSDN is a bit different than MSDNAA though...

i know i risk negs BUT.... M$ has a way of dominating market so why NOT just ****'em and run a pirate copy ... who cares about being moral ... who cares about tose "poor" programmers in M$

i say... run dual boot of pirate windows and linux ... becuase you "need" windows at some point ...




bow before apt-get

unhappy wtf does the cost of the OS have to do with the current conversation? Its about stoping jackasses that want to do exactly what you suggested. As a comunity this website does not promote software piracy.As a matter of fact we are pretty much agaisnt it. Looking at your information under your name I see that you have been around long enough to know that. Its because of ****ers like you that legit users like me have to go through the extra hoops.

YOU have to go through extra hoops because of M$ no because of me or "us" (whatever that means). Most of the ppl in America (not Europe because 50% of wintel machines in Europe are pirated) can afford Windows BUT most of the ppl in the world cannot afford a piece of steak. The big picture ... the really big big big picture ...if you can see it... is that we have a free software out there that can and will replace M$ and their monopoly. The only reason for any tech savy person... only reason to use windows... is to play games ... Everything else linux does better and FREE.

if they'd release half life 2 and doom3 for linux i'd personally wound NOT run windows at all

edit

the web site in question is cheese it's like a thighmaster adverisment. can they stop trying to make money and contribute something to open source community. why can they ambrace GNU patialy (as opposed going aginst it) insted of conning ppl into believeing that M$ code is comehow better than the rest

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the post above was made from a pirated copy of windows 2000

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the web site in question is cheese it's like a thighmaster adverisment. can they stop trying to make money and contribute something to open source community. why can they ambrace GNU patialy (as opposed going aginst it) insted of conning ppl into believeing that M$ code is comehow better than the rest

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and the BMW to run you over......hijacked. pfff :D. Why don't you just email M$ and tell them about this? No reason to blab it out loud that you have a 'pirated' copy of 'something'! No one cares except for the Feds and the likes.

Actualy unhappy I believe it is you that do not see the big picture. im going to assume that you work for a living. How would you feel if your place of work decided to just give away thier products and services? Because ya' know what would happen then? They would not be able to pay you. Even the Linux compnays like suse redhat mandrake etc etc etc have top have a way to pay their overhead. NOTHING in life is free. yea you may be able to get fedora core etc etc at linuxiso.org for free but somebody somewhere is paying for it. It doenst cost that much less for me to go to best buy and purchase SuSE than it would be to pick up a copy of XP home. And I am a very big supporter of open source ask anybody who knows me on theese forums and they will tell you I am. Actualy I just checked out redhat for example and for redhat enterprise wich is what alot of linux using companys run. For a copy of redhat enterprise it costs 179 dollars. Hmm 20 dollars difference between that and XP pro. So cost is not realy a factor.
Oh and as far as the comment about the rest of the world not being able to afford it. If you cant afford it dont use it. Poverty is not an excuse for stealing. Maybe instead of getting online the rest of the world should go to the grocery store. Its a matter of priorities.

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if getting online is a matter of necessity the rest of the word is too stupid to install linux but they will steal windows ... this will happen no matter what we "geeks" think or do

what i am trying to say is that if I (for example) want to play half life 2 i will have to pay for the game and windows as well. personally i will not. i will use my copy of w2k and play the game and that is it. i don't deny that M$ should make money but they are using their size to buly others. (i hope you won't deny that) and that is just plain wrong. they are telling me that it is wrong for me to copy windows and I should have genuine M$ code like it's ****ing insulin. i just want to be honest w/ myself and i do know how ppl are (stealing software etc)

So if someone broke into your house and took your computers because they were poor you would forgive them?

edit

Okay i dont know what unhappys post said befor eh edited it but at this point Im going to bow out gracefully. If Anybody else wants to continue this conversation we cant but as far as Im concerned the topic of morality and advocateing piracy is over. I wont be responding to any more posts of that nature and I apologize for the hijacking of this thread.

Microsoft is not the only software company doing things like this. Adobe Acrobat reader checks to see if you have Internet Explorer installed even though it runs just fine with firefox. But they still check if its there, even if it can run without it.

I have been saying this for years and its becomming more and more true. Some day and probalby soon users will have to use a hardware key plugged into their computers to register and use windows. And its true noone has to use windows, But many "newbies" want to be able to plug in their camera or insert their games and have them just work. I fixed a computer for an old lady once and she said She was glad people like me where around. She was glad she could pay me to do the technical "crap" and she could just have fun.

For that ease of use and "fun" for users, there is a price, and unfortunatelly that price will get more and more untill Microsoft can find a way to end piracy. Just be glad they are not using your ssn for activation.