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[Diffense]

Another anti-piracy scheme from microsoft.

Under a new verification program, users will have to prove their copy was obtained legitimately to receive "greater reliability [lol], faster access to updates, and richer user experiences" from Windows XP, the latest version of the operating system running on over 90 percent of the world's personal computers

Authentication will become mandatory in mid-2005 for all users seeking to access software updates, downloads and security fixes for Windows, Microsoft said.

I understand the need to protect their bottom-line but the hassles that legitimate customers have to go through are getting annoying. I don't need one more dialogbox between me and the task I need to perform. I hope they make it so I don't have to care.

 

[Tarazet]

I have to run WinXP on my laptop because SuSE was incompatible with the touchpad, but my future Intel-64 dream machine will run the lizard...

 

[aoi tsuki]

I understand the need to protect their bottom-line but the hassles that legitimate customers have to go through are getting annoying. I don't need one more dialogbox between me and the task I need to perform. I hope they make it so I don't have to care.

Yeah, it's funny how since i've got legit with my commercial software, it's actually more of a hassle to update it than when i was pirating it. As long as we don't go back to the old days of "Input the last word on page 36 of your instruction manual to continue".

 

[Ecrofirt]

god, I used to hate games where you'd have to have the manual with you if you wanted to play.

"Look on page 12 to find the code that matches to this: AIRPLANE"
then you'd have to type that shit in.

Lose the instruction manual, and yo'd be fucked. Ended up having to uninstall a few games because of shit like that.

Then there's Star Trek 25th Anniversary, where you needed the instruction manual to tell you which star was the planet you had to go to, or you'd be fucked yet again.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

It doesn't seem like a big deal to me... If you have a legitimate copy of windows, you only have to validate the "genuine" status once and it's an automated process.

My main concern is having to call Microsoft (and having them ask questions like you're a thief...) if the machine crashes or you upgrade vital parts. But that's related to windows validation in general rather than this new program.

I remember that stuff Ecrofirt. That sucked .. Code wheels, manual references.. all annoying.

 

[Lhadatt]

This is the sort of thing that makes me thankful for MacOS X. No codes to input on the client version of the OS, no validation for the updates. Apple just doesn't seem to care about that sort of thing for the end-consumers.

I fully expect MS to back down from this. Sure, piracy didn't matter when they were the only game around, but now that Linux is making its way to the desktop and Apple is [slowly] finding out once again how to differentiate itself (see: Mac mini), MS suddenly feels motivated to try to put a stop to it. Right, whatever - it won't be stopped, the number of unlicensed Windows clients out there will only grow, and the only real results from this we'll see is just more zombie machines spreading worms and DDoSing teh internets and a lot of pissed off legit consumers.

MS's decision making lately really smacks of desperation.

 

[ToxicAdam]

My favorite copy protection of all time was Zak McCracken (C-64) ... it had the usual "Look up word 24 on sentence 21". But you had to PLACE A RED PIECE OF FILM over the paper to actually read the words. If you didnt, the page looked like a garbled mess. Needless to say .. if you misplaced that piece of red film, you were screwed.