Microsoft wants a look...

[Dubh Aingeal]

"Do you want to let Microsoft check if your copy of Windows is legit? How about if they promise it's anonymous? How about if they give you some free stuff? Recently Microsoft launched their Genuine Advantage Program to let you (and Microsoft) check if your OS is legal. They hoped for 20,000 responses but received 800,000 without offering anything but piece of mind. Now they are throwing in a bunch of free and discounted stuff including Photo Story 3 and the Holiday Fun Pack to try to get more volunteers. Read more at news.com and Microsoft Watch."

Are you going to let them in to take a peek? I for one will not. Mine are all legal since its printed right on the laptop, but I don't trust the big monop to only look at them... Of course I am only a few steps away from being none M$ running any how. So it would be no lose if they decided to make it manditory to be allowd to look which I believe is not that far off... "Let us look or no system for you!"

[Head Wreck]

the plans they have for .net thing scares me.

i get thouroughly pissed off when i have to wipe clean a computer or replace a broken HDD these days because most machines are not supplied with an XP disk.

recently some malware on my mothers machine caused it to go tits up when SP2 was downloaded and installed, rollback didnt work (like when does it?) and uninstalling the pack did things like take away the startmenu and taskbar completely.

it had a legit copy of XP but was beyond saving. i am fortunate to have my own legit disk but now it only accepted my product key. few days after my machine requested to re-register due to some changes (instalation of a legit copy of Nero 6) and gues what. no auth code on re-register wizzard screen.

most annoyed.

correct me if i'm wrong here

now if thiey go ahead with thier . net thing (something that was brought up in conversation with one of my old uni lecturers) everyone would have to download a kernel every time they fire up the machine.

monopoly yes indeed

rant over

[Soulrev]

I'm not saying anything about my copy but I will say any little tricks they want to throw in, go for it.. I guarantee I'll get around it.. Done it hundreds of times before, will continue to do it as long as I need to..

Maybe if they didn't charge an arm and a leg for their software, people wouldn't need to steal it. I'd like to see reports on how much it costs to make the software and how much markup there is.

[Ginevra]

Not to sound like the bad guy because I have my own beefs towards Micro$oft, but it's not just the software itself that the cost is payihg for. You're also paying for the code developers, implementers and whatever "people contact" that a item has during it's prodcution.

It's like going to McDonald's. A hamburger only *really* costs about .25 to make. But then you have the cost for the bun, the meat, the cheese, the mustard and the catsup. Then you have to have someone put it together for you and then there's the cost of the wrapper, too. So it drives up the price to, oh, let's say $1. The .75 profit is where the employee paychecks come from and whatnot, too, not just the cost for manufacturing the item.

[The_Dark]

Microsofts budget this year is 6.8 billion for R&D.

[Dubh Aingeal]

the plans they have for .net thing scares me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

.net secures personal info and makes it easier to connect to other .nets..... Yeah what ever... Security in microsoft is only as good as the next hotfix to fix the security holes and flaws from the last release of the os, service pack or hotfix. Connection to other .nets will make it easier for them and hackers to snoop in your systems...

recently some malware on my mothers machine caused it to go tits up when SP2 was downloaded and installed, rollback didnt work (like when does it?) and uninstalling the pack did things like take away the startmenu and taskbar completely.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually don't be so sure it was malware that cause sp2 to go tits up... I have heard and read more than enough issues with sp2 to not fully believe it might have been malware that caused your system to go out. Possable yes but I wouldn't be 100 percent certain... Hell they again have a windows 95 issue in sp2. Namely the fact that without a 3rd party firewall to stop it, it broadcasts out your share information.

Maybe if they didn't charge an arm and a leg for their software, people wouldn't need to steal it. I'd like to see reports on how much it costs to make the software and how much markup there is.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wouldn't mind the price for their stuff if they actually put something out that wasn't hacked, virused, or even f'k'd up by their own attempts to fix their security flaws... Now granted I know the linux is not the main target of these things yet, but at least with linux when a flaw is found we have a fix in a relatively short time. Not years as some of the flaws in M$ get fixed...

Microsofts budget this year is 6.8 billion for R&D.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Of course it is... Someone had to pay for all the pizza and games....

[Soulrev]

Not to sound like the bad guy because I have my own beefs towards Micro$oft, but it's not just the software itself that the cost is payihg for.  You're also paying for the code developers, implementers and whatever "people contact" that a item has during it's prodcution.

It's like going to McDonald's.  A hamburger only *really* costs about .25 to make.  But then you have the cost for the bun, the meat, the cheese, the mustard and the catsup.  Then you have to have someone put it together for you and then there's the cost of the wrapper, too.  So it drives up the price to, oh, let's say  $1.  The .75 profit is where the employee paychecks come from and whatnot, too, not just the cost for manufacturing the item.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know what you're saying, I nonverbally included all that when I said "cost to make the software"

But I'm sure their markup is huge. I'm willing to bet they could drop 30 bucks off the cost of XP Pro and still make a good profit.