What is Digg?85 Comments
- Ascendant, on 10/12/2007, -5/+108This whole cycle reminds me of the Roadrunner cartoons.
Each time, Wile E. Coyote gets a more and more elaborate ACME contraption in the hopes of finally ensnaring his arch-enemy, the Roadrunner.
Of course the efforts are comedically futile, and eventually Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+53This wont stop it being pirated; we will just find another workaround. This is just a small obstacle.
- triclops, on 10/12/2007, -2/+41Can someone explain how product activation: "help[s] protect our legitimate customers from being victimized"?
- MiDri, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36Don't ask questions!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+35Indeed. I will actually be working on it.
- SnakeO, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31Offtopic: ACME is the name of the company the artists used to get their art supplies. They were notoriously bad quality, ***** would break all the time, but they were the largest supplier so the cartoon drawers used ACME as the supplier to Wile E.Coyote
- goostoff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21There already is a workaround. MelindaGates is a VM image of a Key Validation server that can be used to 'validiate' pirated copies of Vista.
VM FTW! - Doomhammer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20I'm not so sure about the whole software piracy issue...
I mean I can understand companies wanting to protect themselves from losing potential revenue to people who would just use it illegally and for free, but then again it seems kind of futile (like Ascendant said).
Seems to me that every time the software companies come up with a new "fool-proof" way to stop software piracy for good, the people that pirate software just find yet another workaround. In the meantime, while the software pirates are sitting content with their less-than-honestly obtained copies of whatever software, the people who actually paid for it are being annoyed by the constant "did you actually buy this !?" checks.
Seems to me that if someone really doesn't want to pay for some software, then they'll figure out a way to get it for free.
Take Steam for instance: they went through huge measures (namely encrypting the game data you buy in the boxed set) to stop software piracy. In the end, people still use pirated copies, but for those of us that actually bought the game(s) available on Steam, we have to wait 6 hours for them to install. :P Steam's a great example of a failed attempt at stopping piracy which ends up just screwing the legitimate customers.
And @exsst: I'm hoping that you were being sarcastic, because otherwise that was a really childish comment... Of course they're going to try to prevent it from being pirated, they want fat stacks of cash. And if it's a piece of crap OS, then why are you pirating it? You obviously want it for something, or else you'd just move to Linux or Mac or something. And because you want it, you should buy it legitimately. If the price is too high, don't buy it.
And just for the record, no, I'm not a Microsoft fan boy... In fact, I'm running Gentoo Linux on this box right now. I'm not defending Microsoft's OS (I think it's rather unstable, myself), I'm just saying that I can understand their reasons for trying to stop piracy. - an0nym0us, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20Dude, stop talking, you dribbling ***** out of your mouth.
- mscman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Some of us have jobs and/or classes that require Windows-specific software. Unfortunately, this software is proprietary and Mac-compatible counterparts aren't available.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15no vista for me. I was done with windows at windows xp. My machine (amd 4000) has been running slower and slower since the day I built it. Tired of this *****. Each app I load, adds to the registry and its a mess. Ubuntu on my AMD machine, and Mac OS on my new Mac Pro. Life is good. Suck is Microsoft.
- DarkJC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Honestly I don't think Steam is purely just to stop piracy. I think Valve realized that online distribution is the future, and they're getting an early slice of the pie.
- Sakumi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17To be honest it's going to be hard to get users to buy the OS in the first place.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12And this is why the goats will rule the earth.
- JimDinger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12C:Windowssystem32>cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms.vbs.net.c
n
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Key Management Service machine name set to kms.vbs.net.cn successfully.
C:Windowssystem32>cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Activating Windows(TM) Vista, Business edition (4f3d1606-3fea-4c01-be3c-8d671c40
1e3b) ...
Product activated successfully.
C:Windowssystem32>cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -dlv
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Software licensing service version: 6.0.6000.16386
Name: Windows(TM) Vista, Business edition
Description: Windows Operating System - Vista, VOLUME_KMSCLIENT channel
Activation ID: 4f3d1606-3fea-4c01-be3c-8d671c401e3b
Application ID: 55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f
Extended PID: 89576-00142-236-020000-03-1033-6000.0000-3472006
Installation ID: 017564092535405644950695062850934213910533180886903560
Partial Product Key: 2V3X8
License Status: Licensed
Volume activation expiration: 259198 minute(s) (179 day(s)) - yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -6/+15wow, i would think after listening to your dribble the Mac camp is embarrassed to have you with them
- Kuipo, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13When you are forced to use it to play games, yet disagree with everything the company stands for and everything they do with the OS, you should still pay 400$ for the OS? I find that hard to justify.
- johnnyzero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Well, what they mean is that people who can subvert their activation mechanisms can and often will burn their own discs of Windows and sell them in any given market, thus victimizing the consumers who buy the copy of Windows that is not valid.
This may seem far fetched, but I worked at a shop that got boxes of Windows 95 that I noticed had photocopied ... holograms... of genuine Windows 95/NT and we resold these copies of Windows to customers, who I am sure thought they were getting a valid copy of Windows.
Microsoft isn't out to stop Joe Nobody from installing an illegal copy of MS Windows, but the mechanisms they put in place to prevent big companies from pressing their own countless numbers of Windows discs also gets in the way of the simple pirate, accept it but realize that it isn't just to punish the simple pirate. - zarathos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Get ready to lose it...I also have a Frakenbuild with a legit Beta-2 key, and I got nailed this afternoon. So yeah, Beta keys are now out of the question...
- joel8x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Do you really need the Ultimate version? It seems to me the Business version is the best value, and purchasing an OEM copy from Newegg shouldn't be much more than the XP Pro OEM, which is under $150. It seems like a bargain compared to the hours of frustration every time MS patches a workaround.
That said, OS X has no activation BS, and XP will still play all the games for a long time to come. Why not take this time to explore other options if you're a Windows user? MS will continue to treat you like a thief, so why not bark up another tree? - crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -11/+17FORCED to use it to play games? If you want games, buy a PS3 or a Wii, since you seem to hate Microsoft so much. You shouldn't never resort to stealing, especially when there are alternatives.
Digg me down if you want, I just hate the idea of people pirating Microsoft products instead of supporting open source software. - tendonut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6In response to your response to exsst, the only reason ANY of us use Windows is because if you are a PC gamer, you're stuck with them. I can't think of a single one of my LAN buddies who doesn't LOVE OS X over Windows, but we all use it because we can't play the games we want any other way. I myself use Fedora and SuSE on every machine in my house, except the gaming rig. That one dual boots, Windows being the primary OS. They've got us by the balls.
Also, for estvir's comment, He is probably referring to when Steam was launched with HL2. I had to wait 12 hours to get it to validate and activate. - PueSi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5In the end, people who actually were going to buy Vista, won't care and will buy it.
The only ones that really suffer are the ones that wanted (myself included) to use it for free.
I love Windows XP, it's easy and simple. I'll admit that Windows it's not perfect right out of the box but there's a lot of free software that complements Windows.
For the "average Joe" Windows is all they need and probably it came bundled with his PC, the only reason to use Linux is to learn something new or because it's free, for the average user it's not better.
I don't like Macs because i like to build my own computers, it's fun and you get to learn a little bit, i think Macs are too expensive for most people so it's not really an alternative. I've never used OSX but i really don't care because i already found what i need.
Lots of people complain about Windows not being stable, most of the time that's because of hardware problems (bad ram, bad hdd, bad cables) or because the user installed *****. I never had any problem that was caused by Windows, the only time i reinstalled was because of a bad SATA cable that corrupted the partition.
I don't hate Linux at all, i believe it's a good thing to have alternatives (especially free ones :) ) but Linux is not for everybody as Windows is not for everybody. So stop trying to make Windows user feel guilty/stupid/ignorant for using what suits them.
I apologize for the hyperlong post >: ) - Tordenflesk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ah, my frankenbuild's still safe because I'm not using the key that came with the workaround(that's dumb anyways). I used my legal Beta 2-key, and i don't think MS are willing to block all those beta-keys. This is about as effective as (to us an MS analogy) putting things in the recycle bin to free up Drive-space.
- Tordenflesk, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11Why pay for something that's easy to get for free?
- cbiz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5 estvir - Steam sucks and I hate having it on my pc - HL was a BIG selling game -HL2 did well but was not the MONSTER HIT it should have been because of Steam - Gabe made a bad move period.
- Hubris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I don't think it's as simple as disabling automatic updates....at least not in Vista. That works fine in XP, but Vista 'phones home' periodically whether you want it to or not.
Microsoft knows they can't build something that is uncrackable...but they can make it increasingly difficult to discourage people from doing it conveniently. - Ruckgesicht, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Now when an inevitable crack for MS's patch comes along everyone who wants it has one and only one term to keep an eye out for - frankenbuild - instead of using various vague search strings. They are actually making it easier to pirate their software than ever before, honestly.
- an0nym0us, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5my macbook is getting slower too, ***** taking forever to load. :(
Maybe I'll just wipe out OS X and get me some ubuntu. But *****, I paid almost 2k for it. - cbiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3crazybrit said, "I hate people pirating Microsoft products instead of supporting open source software". I think one helps the other....
- crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Your conscience? If you want a free OS, try Linux.
- cbiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have built 3 machines for myself over the past 2 years and I moved XP to the new box - from what I have read I am out of luck with VIsta. So, the $300 you mention is $600 by the time I get to the 3rd built PC. MS is really charging more for less...They write garbage code (WindowsMobile) is the latest example and charge to much. I was an MS fan but if you follow them closely it's hard to be one anymore....
- sams2100, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Mandrake?!?! You must be a mac user who doesn't keep up with the linux world... Mandrake stopped being the easy/pretty linux distro a long time ago, and isn't even called that anymore since they were bought and renamed. Just so you know, the one you want to try is called Ubuntu, and since you are a Mac guy, try the Kubuntu spin off.
Or if you love your OSX as much as I assume you do, you could always hack it so it can run on your Dell. - Kuipo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@estvir
In fact people ARE bombarded with more and more check's to "make sure you as the customer are safe from using a pirated copy." The fact that you don't notice them anymore doesn't change the fact that windows has to do checks constantly to see if it's "legitimate" when going to windows update, when updating office, when installing. How does this help the people that bought it at the store? It barely helps microsoft when you think about how much money they spend to snip piracy in the bud when it really just ends up biting them in the ass as someone cracks that in a matter of days.
As for HL2 being "hit and miss" when it was released. I beg to differ on that one. Just because someone can't get it running when they don't know how to mount an image or know what a .rar file is, doesn't mean the copies were bad. And as DarkJC stated. Steam wasn't even there to stop piracy. It was there to allow them to have a distribution system that they could sell to other developers like they have now with popcap games and such.
and @tendonut
Here Here!! I completely agree. - joel8x, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4You might have a problem if your machine is slowing down. There are tons of places to go to for help troubleshooting you MacBook. An easy way to tell if the problem is software related is to either partition the drive and install OS X on another partition, or perform an Archive Install of OS X over your existing installation. If its still slow, you might have a disk issue. You can also install OS X on an external drive and if that is slow, then you might have bad RAM installed, or some other HW related issue. I could keep going on, but you get the picture - problems occur on any OS.
- t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Well, if we stop the user from pirating it, we make them pay more for it, and so they are less likely to switch to Linux because they paid so much for Windows. In like with Steve Ballmer's comments, this makes them less likely to get sued for intellectual property violations, which is better for them.
I guess it works... - tmcdigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The WGA horror show was originally for XP, not vista.. it took several fits and starts to tweak the WGA security to be less annoying (tried, but failed). This might backfire on Microsoft as this MAY be the year in which a Microsoft O/S will have competition in BUILT to order systems. More machines could ship with LINUX instead of a microsoft O/S in MAINSTREAM home and business computers. Yes, backwards shell compatibility to run old apps is essential, but really, consumers don't need a microsoft O/S.. or to put it another way:
Microsoft needs YOUR MONEY more than you need them.. and their annoying WGA.
It's quite possible that LINUX will run Vista apps in emulation mode better than the O/S, now wouldn't that be a death nail in the overpriced security laden O/S?
I think Vista should be hacked with linux... use the best weapon the industry has against the giant computer company and bill gates will be looking for customers in the Oregon snow banks in the coming years.. - Kuipo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2why only a 6month activation? Doesn't it go any higher?
- cbiz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3 DarkJC - Seems to me Gabe is worried I might lend the game to someone or god forbid sell my used copy - His lack of sales shows he can keep his version of online distribution!
- estvir, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Microsoft never claims it's anti-piracy measures are 'fool proof' and legitimate users AREN'T bombarded with 'constant' checks.
----
Steam is a failed attempt ? Maybe for offline play but for online play it's been quite a success.
I don't know what the heck you're talking about with your 'wait 6 hours to install' line, in fact, with Steam you can either:
- Preload all the content before the game is released and play it as soon as it's released or
- Buy a copy of the game in-store
- Download through steam (Without preloading) than play it
In none of those instances is there '6 hours of waiting' unless you have a slow connection and if you do, the other 2 options are [partly] there for you. Oh, and the only users Steam screws are those without connections. For the record, I've become sick of Valve lately and I don't care for their games or Steam but you're being silly.
Also, with pirated copies of HL2 and other games which use Steam there are a lot of problems (Pirated copies of HL2 when it was released and for awhile where 'hit or miss' and had tons of problems, like no AI). - Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"I used my legal Beta 2-key, and i don't think MS are willing to block all those beta-keys."
They will once Vista goes RTM for consumers. MS has already announced that the beta keys will expire later on. There's no reason for MS to keep the beta active long after the product is final either. - an0nym0us, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Nobody forcing game developer to use DirectX, heck, they can use OpenGL all they want and that had made it easier to be running on any known platform that has the support.
If not, just buy it, Microsoft made a kick ass development platform anyway. - solefald, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i dont undestand why wouldn't miscrosoft release free light version of Vista.
all that most users need is basic email/web functionality and that has to be available for free and lets say as an added benefit it would let you install limited amount of software or something like that.
this step alone would cut vista piracy by 50%
as for me? I switched to OSX long time ago, and haven't had a need for a windows box in at least a year... - greekgoat91, on 10/12/2007, -9/+11I'm 14 and I already cracked it. if you disable automatic updates after you crack it, you won't have any problems.
- noddyxoi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@sams2100
Mandrake merged with connectiva, they were not bought.
And it's still the only linux distro that is usable by my high standards. - Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"why only a 6month activation? Doesn't it go any higher?"
Nope. Tthat's how it works with KMS activations. After 180 days you have to reactivate again. - darkdaedra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is ridiculous. The time I have spent using Vista RTM has made me the strongest advocate for the OS I know. It's faster and frankly a lot more usable an OS than XP was. I'm recommending it to all my friends and plan on paying for a legal key the day it becomes available.
Why should Microsoft give a ***** if I just want to use it for a couple of months? If they are going to crack down on unauthorized users, surely that should be done after the OS is officially released. - crazybrit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, but it's still immoral and it's against the whole idea of open source.
- Gustav, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Meanwhile all those Word vulnerabilities go unpatched. Priorities ;).
- mattatron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1bought - not baught. Learn how to spell!!
...or use Firefox. -
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