Microsoft has taken another step to clamp down on pirated software, announcing yesterday that it will require participation in its Windows Genuine Advantage program to get updates and downloads from its Web site. The software giant did not go so far as to cut off users from its automatic updates, which means that even people using pirated versions can get security patches.
Microsoft, HP, Dell, Norton, Intuit ... have tried many ways to lock-me-in&up as a customer (I do have all legal software!) for so long, that I now use GNU-Linux+OSS applications at home. I now consider "Open-Concepts" like the GPL as a model (possibly only one) that can save capitalism and democracy from the growth of radical global corporate totalitarianism. May God save US, because many politicians appear to support global corporate totalitarianism, and are no longer respectable "Public Servants". > Stop making citizens criminals!
Rob Ederle claims that open source is not verifiable. This is not true, since you can cryptographically sign distributions and patches. Trusting Microsoft is no different from trusting any other secure web site - in fact Microsoft has had bogus code signing keys issued in the past. (See http://www.internetweek.com/columns01/lewis041801.htm for details) [incorrect statement below] " ...In this case, a proprietary product has an advantage because it can be authenticated."
Rob Enderle said "Eventually, anyone who sells software and wants to make money will have to have something like this,". And yet I see that Microsoft posted a potentially devastating "on the brink of bankruptcy" Q2 profit of a meager $3.46 BILLION. Microsoft is knocking down a 30% profit on revenue, and they think they're losing money to pirates? Maybe so, but does it really matter? Is it worth the hassle to current customers who buy $10 billion per quarter just to keep a few pirates from nibbling a few million out of the sales figures? I don't think so. Perhaps Microsoft should devote some of that profit to actually writing an OS that doesn't NEED 300 MB "Service Packs" or a new security update every two days? Now that would be a novel approach, wouldn't it? Then updates would be irrelevant.
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Microsoft Steps Up Anti-Piracy Effort
Posted by: Susan B. Shor January 27, 2005 10:04 AMMicrosoft has taken another step to clamp down on pirated software, announcing yesterday that it will require participation in its Windows Genuine Advantage program to get updates and downloads from its Web site. The software giant did not go so far as to cut off users from its automatic updates, which means that even people using pirated versions can get security patches.
>
Stop making citizens criminals!
can cryptographically sign distributions and patches. Trusting Microsoft is no different from trusting any other secure web site - in fact Microsoft has had bogus code signing keys issued in the past. (See http://www.internetweek.com/columns01/lewis041801.htm
for details)
[incorrect statement below]
" ...In this case, a proprietary product has an advantage because it can be authenticated."
Perhaps Microsoft should devote some of that profit to actually writing an OS that doesn't NEED 300 MB "Service Packs" or a new security update every two days? Now that would be a novel approach, wouldn't it? Then updates would be irrelevant.