well, xp was well cracked before its release, so I give it 24 hours after release to krack the kernel, but thats just a large overstatement.

#53 - thats pretty much how the volume licensing from MS works. You buy licenses for one price, and optionally buy media, or download/copy the media yourself. Where I work we get 1 official Select CD for each MS product, and just make as many copies of that disk as we need. The other nice thing about MS volume licensing is that you really only need a purchase order, not the license. eg. The moment we actually place the order for more licenses I'm already allowed to install and use the software (we already have the media), I don't need to wait for licenses to arrive.

It would be nice for them to offer a similar program to home users, it's not uncommon anymore to have 2 or more computers in a house (I've got 7, and enough parts for a few more probably), so something like a 5-pack and/or 10-pack license for home users that includes just 1 copy of the media and 10 keys at a discounted rate would be great. Especially if they discount it anywhere near the price I get with educational discounts (I pay $12 CAN for XP Pro)

I think this is excellent, and if they are really successfull with the measure, Windows supremacy will finally die, and Linux will take up market share in big ways.

I wish all the success to MSFT with those measures :-)

The original XP activation was taken with the very same attitude. People said Linux would get more market share etc. Where are we today? It turned out that the XP activation wasn't actually that bad and did not cause Linux's market share to go up.

This is just FUD, pure FUD.

Buy a legit copy. If you buy a legit copy and this verification comes into play and harrases you, then get angry. Nobody knows yet.

Try and find on linux computer at Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, etc. That is why Linux won't gain share, nobody in the real world knows about it. Hell, half the people I talk to with tech problems, think their operating system is Dell.

Find me a software product, anywhere, that hasn't been cracked.

I dare you.

Waste of time and money that will infuriate people like me who have to deal with the reprocussions of invalid WGA installs.

As long as it doesn't affect legit users in any significant way, a 5 minute call to MS randomly once a year or less isn't significant, it's fine by me.

To the 'poor students' - here's a radical thought, get a part time job?!?! I worked 30-35 hours per week during 3 years of college.

Another easy challenge for hacker and cracker.. U try to stop them they come up with some thing surprising.

I own a legit version of windows Xp, but after having to play with it so much. I just gave up and got a cracked copy, it works perfectly often when programs have been cracked they are siognificantly better than the original. As for protecting against pricacy Microsoft, good luck, there will be a cracked version of Vista available which does not need verfications within days of the launch of vista although it may not be possible to update over the internet, personally I use patch update programs to update anyway. Personally I think there wasting there time and just annoying honest people.

I've seen stories like this one posted around a few sites now, and they're all totally wrong. If Microsoft is now allowing pirates to use their system for 30 days, and still after that if in a limited way, then really they've given the pirates far more functionality than they ever had in the past. Back before activation and all that, windows just didn't run at all unless you could convince it that it was a legal copy.

Yes - MS has made windows a lot smarter about what it takes to convince it that it is a legal copy - it'll still be cracked within days of release, if not before release. But to say that MS is being harder on the pirates is just wrong, MS is making it harder for the crackers; and the pirates just got a free 30 days they never had before.

Umm, you people are thinking way off tangent. The biggest licensees of OSes are businesses and governments. This is the cash cow. How many IT people are going to want to go through that activation BS for the thousand or so desktops that they just imaged for their users? How many people want to bet that there will be a corp. key or tool to bypass that mandatory activation? Ok, back to your regular programming.

I would like to see a breakdown of Corp&OEM vs Retail sales. I'm thinking retail sales are a lot smaller. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but most folks don't build their own machine and when they buy it, it comes w/ MS latest. This piracy crap is way overblown.
I found Activation a chore, i got XP when it came out, and after hard drive failures and upgrades, had to activate the same copy at least 7 times. twice to poorly english speaking nationals, 2-3 times to the voice recog(had call dropped a few times - Using wireline phone), and the internet method the rest. I understand the motivation behind losing $$$, but it aggrivates me to no end to be treated like a criminal.

:o) Thank goodness for AMD vs Intel and ATi vs nVidia! If Apple weren't so scared of taking on Ms they could do some damage, and of course the governments should do more such as force Ms to subsidise PC's with alternative OS (eg Linux) in order to increase competition. The average person simply doesn't know about alternatives (esp free/open ones) such as Linux, Open Office, Firefox/Opera Web Browsers, AVG Free Antivirus, Sygate/Kerio Firewalls, Adium/Bitwise Instant Messaging etc.

;o) Linux may not have a vast market share but it's a vast market and even 2-5% is not insignificant when you consider the number of PCs out there. When you come away from the desktop/consumer market and look at servers and supercomputers things don't look nearly as rosey for Ms. I don't hate Ms but I do hate some of the things they do to legit users, the methods they employ for illegitimate users and they way they abuse their virtual monopoly.

Qoute: WaltC having to buy a Mac as a dongle to run OSX

Thanks walt, I just spit up my hot chocolate all over my keyboard.... that made me giggle becasue your spot on.

Mac CANNOT compete if the platform was opened up.

I think the comments talking about XP's market share being the result of piracy are fairly amusing...;) I really don't think Microsoft cares one iota about getting "market share" from piracy; indeed, I rather doubt Microsoft even counts pirated copies as "market share." Generally, "markets" are comprised of paying customers regardless of the product.

Comments about "switching to the Mac" are pretty funny, too...;) I mean, whereas Windows insists that you have a valid license to run on almost any x86 box imaginable, OSX insists that you have a MacIntosh to run OSX. I'd say that between the two OSes, having to buy a Mac as a dongle to run OSX is clearly the more expensive and cumbersome anti-piracy mechanism.

Looking at the Vista stipulations, I'd say it's pretty clear that they will upset only the people planning to run Vista without buying it. My copy of XP is five years old, and I can't remember the last time I had a problem with activating it, or with WGA, etc, despite moving it to half-a-dozen platforms or so through the years. But of course that might be because I bought my copy back in 2001. Actually, I think the 30-day grace period for activation is plenty of time, so it seems like a non-issue to me.

"Vista to make life hard for pirates"

Nah I think it'll make life hard for all it's users :-)

Then il just w8 for a cracked version. Not a big chance that i will buy it as a student. If i dont get it for like 80% cheaper or something ;).

That must mean that Vista is 'calling home' without the owner of the computer knowining it. It is probubly not in the EULA either.
Big Brother Bill is snooping in your PC.

Oldtech

I don't know. All this customer concentration camp crap is making a Linux migration so much more attractive. Like going from iTunes to emusic. Keep control over the stuff you buy.

Once again, Microsoft will fail to stop the pirates as this will be cracked within hours of Vista's release.

P.S. Also to all the linux zealots, no this will not make Linux more attractive or help to gain more market share.

Haha I just paid $30 for my combo of "windows xp + xp 64" legit copies through work. I did my part and paid for it, and frankly $30 is a fair deal.

Now I can easily say screw Windows DRM edition, since I know I wont need to upgrade my OS for maybe five years I'm guessing, if not much longer.

And if they try anything with my copies then a crack will take care of it.

Piss on MS I'm waiting for the free Google OS

I wouldn't say that piracy helped get XP off the ground, but rather the millions of PC's built by Dell, HP, and others.

A more accurate headline might have been "Vista makes life dificult for everyone, in the name of fighting pirates/terrorists".

I eagerly await the ironic development when someone finds out that Vista is more secure and less buggy when they strip out the core functionality :p

>o( Windows 98, 2000, XP & MsOffice would not have penetrated the market so fully if there weren't pirated copies out there, especially for those with old machines which are barely worth the price of an OS (not that this excuses piracy). Making life less pleasant for pirated copies is fine but distributing malware (like WGA), stuffing up legit users PCs (mis-diagnosing WGA, destabalising the OS etc) and risking many people turning off Auto Updates now it has been used to distribute Ms Malware is something which affects the whole Internet. I really hope it encourages widespread adoption of Linux, there's no doubt it will help Linux gain a greater market share, and it's about time.

Land ho!

Yarr har fiddle dee dee
Being a pirate is alright to be
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free
You are a pirate!
Arr yarr ahoy and avast
Dig in deep and you're digging too fast

Yarr har! Wind at your back lads wherever you go!
Hang the black flag at the end of the mast!
Blue sky above and blue ocean below
You are a pirate!

Oh..wait...it was against pirates!
Even tho we can all agree the world is turning more crappy with all the controls. I also have to say that I can understand some of them. And MS is with their OS very large and doing it in a very relaxed way. Imagine it was RIAA/IFPI/Sony type of way.

Here's me guessing that the harder they make it, the more people will move over to Linux. :-)

Now that's just stinking great. What are people like me suppose to do? Go out a PAY for an operating system? This in not a good day for me.
Hey, I forgot --- the Hackers ---. Ahhhh, a cheap bastered friend.
Come on my anti microsoft friends, do what you do sooo well.

Paying for an OS they must be mad.

[ps.. it's a joke]

I'm concerned with : how do they know who's pirating it and what happens if a legitimate user gets caught in the crossfire?

Like, let's say there are so many combinations of Keys that can be used to activate a copy of Vista, and someone finds a good chunck of them, and they distribute them online or something. Then a person buys a copy that happens to have one of those Keys

Will the second person's (s/he who bought it) OS be flaged as pirated and farked over?