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Vista to Allow "One Significant" Hardware Upgrade
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Oct 30, 2006 03:24 PM
from the how-very-generous-of-you dept.
from the how-very-generous-of-you dept.
fiorenza writes "Ars Technica spoke with Microsoft concerning the controversial changes in Windows Vista's licensing, and they have learned that Vista will permit one 'significant' hardware change before requiring users to either appeal to Microsoft support or purchase another license. Automatic re-activation online will fail after one use. Microsoft is using a new algorithm to monitor hardware changes and enforce licensing compliance, and the company says that it is more forgiving now than it was with Windows XP."
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So basically (Score:3, Insightful)
aside from the various "grey" hacks and cracks that *WILL* come out of this - this is a very poor choice for MS imo.
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Re:So basically (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:So basically (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry to disappoint, but the hobbyists are now decades removed from the empire builders. The hobbyists' desires no longer add value to the PC. The true empire builders are now the businesses who order 10,000 Dell PCs and the 10,000 Windows licenses to go with them. If you want to have an impact on the future direction of Windows, go work for one of the Fortune 500 companies and bend the ear of one of the resident Microsoft reps. Like any business, they only listen when it's money talking.
By the way, Microsoft loves the big orders. They make boatloads of money with no expense. The nice thing about business customers is those 10,000 people already have their own support structure, and only a handful of headquarters people are authorized to call MS and bitch about problems. Microsoft can afford to spend a bit of money helping them, (making them look like they have gold-plated service,) and yet doesn't have to answer to the 9,995 idiots who would otherwise be punching the f'ing monkey and installing spyware.
Parent
Re:So basically (Score:5, Funny)
Clippy:
"It looks like you're fucking up the english language!!11oneoneone
Did you mean:
a) Intents and purposes
b) intensive porpoises
c) insensitive poopy-faces?
Parent
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For a business, given that most large businesses with a rolling upgrade/replacement plan, they will buy a PC, ru
Actually (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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If it looks like a sale, it is a sale, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
i'll give you a hint (Score:5, Funny)
the phrase "0-day" doesn't exist for nothing.
Parent
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Re:If it looks like a sale, it is a sale, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
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They 'beleive' in trying to find any way they can to extend their monopoly, as that is the only realm within which they have made a profit in a very long time.
Microsoft have never been in favour of the knowledgeable end user, ever. They like nice complient end users who don't know anything bar what microsoft want them to know.
I went to a microsoft presentation where they said they had no interest in employing 'hackers' (in
Shoot themselves in the foot. (Score:5, Interesting)
Not exactly news (Score:3, Informative)
See this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/29/microsoft
and this: http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2006/10/24/04
and this: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=158 [zdnet.com]
MS is doing their best to kill Vista when/where they can. I wonder if they have OS/2'itis.
My Windows activation experience (Score:5, Informative)
I did upgrade my computer at one point, and the activation failed, so I called Windows support. I was quickly connected to some outsourced support technician who asked me the CD key of my XP CD, as well as the serial number and release (I think?) number. After giving him this info, he gave me a new CD key, which I assumed to be one shot only, like the previous one I had.
I have since learned that this is apparently a get-out-of-jail-free CD key, because I am able to install the same CD onto any machine with any hardware configuration and always pass Windows activation. And if Vista will be more lenient than XP was, then heck, I'm more than happy!
I need to be "forgiven" to upgrade? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's uncomfortable to be in the situation that when I want to upgrade my computer, I need to be "forgiven".
--
The best of the Bush comedy videos [futurepower.org]
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This really might not be THAT much of a problem... (Score:3, Insightful)
The biggest benefit of a PC over buying something like a Mac was specifically upgrades. The ability to purchase a new video card for a relatively low price when games start requiring more than you can handle, etc. So effectively, this makes the PC lose its greatest benefit. That's absolutely ridiculous.
Fuck you, Microsoft. Some of the other stuff that was new in their license kinda bothered me a bit, but it didn't really affect me much. But I'm a casual gamer, and this makes it impossible.
Re:This really might not be THAT much of a problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
I am altering the deal... (Score:5, Funny)
...pray I don't alter it any further.
Proving once again... (Score:3, Funny)
It's not off topic, just think about it for a moment.
That second upgrade (Score:5, Funny)
second upgrade. [apple.com]
Not to mention (Score:4, Informative)
windows activation (Score:5, Insightful)
Long Live Windows 2000, I guess (Score:3, Insightful)
It looks like forced activation and DRM is the wave of the future. MS gained their monopoly by creating an operating system (DOS and Windows up and including 2000) that can be ran on any old PC. MS used to not care about charging you for another license of Windows when you upgraded your PC multiple times; they figured that it was great that you were using Windows instead of OS/2, NEXTSTEP, DR-DOS, or the other alternatives at the time. Since they gained 95% market share, they repay you by implementing restrictive activation schemes that get worse with each release of Windows.
I say, no thanks. Me and thousands of other people will still hold on to our Windows 2000 disks. Even though I don't use Windows anymore (too bad Boot Camp for Mac doesn't support Windows 2000), I know plenty of people who haven't gone to XP because of this. Activation negatively inconviences (and sometimes even locks out) those who legally buy their software (no activation scheme is perfect); those who illegally obtain their software can just download a cracked version or a corporate version of it. I don't want treated as a pirate as a customer. But that is how MS wants to treat us. Oh well. I'm not buying any new versions of Windows or Office for this Mac; I'm sticking to Windows 2000 and Office 2000.
Viva Windows 2000!
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Just install on top of your borked XP system without reformatting.
I have all the live CD alternatives, but if you only have a Win2K disk you can still save your stuff.
How many upgrades does it take.. (Score:3, Insightful)
New algorithm (Score:4, Funny)
if ($windows_version = 'vista')
{
$pirated = true;
} else
{
$pirated = true;
}
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No Biggie (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like the big Billy G has tapped into the line with a lie detector ready to call in a SWAT team or anything. Well, if he was, it was very convincing - anything's possible I suppose.
Re:New Hardware Found..... (Score:4, Insightful)
As a small-business owner who spends all day just configuring/fixing/testing/developing/working, I can tell you right now.....This would pound the last nail into the coffin for using MS products for me. MS obviously doesn't care about people that have to make things WORK and have little time to do so. After I have spend a few hundred hours tweaking a mail server that will have to deliver 100,000 messages per day, or a web farm that has to work FLAWLESSLY and serve hundreds of millions of hits per month, this one thing that I would not want to have to deal with, especially when I have to add/change a network interface to accomodate a SAN development or some other change where we don't have time to worry about such nonsensical shit as "Will the OS allow us to do this"
Screw that. My shop will stay Linux anyway, but that is just BS!
- Eric
Parent
Re:New Hardware Found..... (Score:4, Insightful)
There are a lot of huge business who buy thousands of bulk licenses, and they are MS' favorite customers.
But worldwide, there are probably millions of small businesses who are subject to the same decision; that will impact MS VERY significantly.
This reminds me of a decade ago when people used AOL instead of local dial-up because "AOL has 8 million customers... your local ISP has about 2000... clearly, they're America's favorite choice" but neglect that adding up the many local dial-up ISPs everywhere constitutes tens of millions of customers.
MS won't change their mind because this one guy is switching his little business to Linux. But when thousands of his competitors, parteners and peers do, they'll start thinking about it.
I don't see why you can't tell Windows "Hey, I'm going to switch hardware now, please deactivate my old license on this (point to HD and folder) installation and switch it to this new hard drive/computer/set of hardware". If Windows phoned home periodically to check its authenticity, like it does when you update it, MS might have to upgrade their WGA servers & whatnot, but it would prevent all this aggrevation. If the deactivated license tries to update (or just phone home on schedule), it locks them out and directs them to MS support.
I feel fucked because people pirate Windows all the time, get to play all their games & whatnot (the only reason I have Windows, plus a few full feature drivers that aren't there under Linux) and know how not to get screwed by malware, but I actually paid for it against my will because it was the right thing to do, and yet I'm worried sick about what happens if my HD dies, or I want to move my install to another disk or something. You can call them once or twice, but if you do it all the time, they get suspicious don't they? I don't want to be flagged as a (potential) pirate. I'm used to reinstalling Windows a couple of times a year (albeit less often with XP), and I'm fine with that.
They sure aren't working very hard to come up with an adequate solution to their problem... I may not be their favorite customer, but I still paid like $150 for an OEM XP Pro, and I feel like what they're doing isn't ethical. That should be reason enough to find a better solution. Yeah I know, nothing's perfect and they don't have to.
I salute MS with my long finger.
Parent
Re:New Hardware Found..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Last week, our phone guy decided to reinstall the OS on our main voice mail server. Since it was running a "lowly" copy of Windows 2000 Pro, he decided that it needed a "server-grade" OS, and bought Microsoft Windows 2003 Server for Small Businesses. He installed in near the end of the week, and then took time off to put a new roof on his house.
Well, this morning, the machine in question shut itself off. I turned it on, it shut itself off again in a couple of hours. I looked in event log, and found that the machine was turning itself off because we violated the EULA by not setting it up as a domain controller.
Yep. Just because we didn't need to authenticate users, the machine keeps shutting itself off. Isn't that user-friendly?
Parent
no problem (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:New Hardware Found..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Reg key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi
In regedit, right click, give Administrators permission to the key and all child nodes. Then change the Start DWORD that will appear undernearth that to 4.
Parent
Re:New Hardware Found..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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"User swaps the motherboard and CPU chip for an upgraded one, swaps the video adapter, adds a second hard drive for additional storage, doubles the amount of RAM, and swaps the CD ROM drive for a faster one.
Result: Reactivation is NOT required."
And here is another example of how it worked (or rather, didn't work) in XP:
Upgraded from a direct connected single hard drive to a RAID card and 2 drive mirrored array.
Result: had to waste time on the phone with Microsoft get
Re:Cars (Score:4, Insightful)
> What?!? Doesn't make sense? That's because when you buy something you should be able to do what you want with it.
Sorry dude, the infection has already spread. Go buy a house, cash money. Think you own it? Only if you bought a chunk of land in a very red state far away from any town.... of course most places like that are subject to being declared a wetland, wildlife preserve or national park with no prior warning.
That house you think you bought was probably built by a developer in a major development project. They retained first dibs on it, selling you limited 'rights'. And if you will notice you agreed to annual fees to a 'homeowners association' that can and will tell you exactly what sort of renovations you can and can't do, what vehicles you can park, etc. Many even regulate against you erecting a TV antenna.
And if that isn't enough, if your home is inside a city you may only use it for non-commercial purposes. And regardless of whether you live in a city/town, don't forget you get the 'right' to pay and pay property taxes to find any and all crazy schemes the government can invent.
So yes, shrink wrap EULAs are horrible, but only because you can't see em until you pay, but we already bent over and surrendered the idea of property rights a century ago.
Parent
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I could understand if say one licenses popped up on 10 different subnets with 10 different configurations one evening that there would likely be a pirating issue.
But If I upgrade my memory card last spring, and my primary hard drive this fall, I'm screwed.
The original anology is not perfect, but it is not completely inacurate. My car for instance has gone through three engines, two interiors, dozens of tires, a full suspention rebuild, a new sterio, etc... over the years that
Re:Cars (Score:4, Funny)
...
I got better.
-br
Parent
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Re:Virtualization (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, Microsoft is pushing hard. Soon, they will push too hard, and mass migration away from them wills start to occur (I know, I know, this has been said since 1992...).
Parent
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If you do the virtualization correctly, it should be impossible for the host OS to know that it is running inside a VM. As far as Windows is concerned, it is running directly on top of hardware. The fact that the hardware in question does not actually exist in meatspace is merely a conceptual distinction, not a functional one.
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