Bill Gates The Robin Hood Of This Century?

[mouse]

Let me start of by saying that Windows XP SP2 update is the best thing to come out of Microsoft in a long time.

Microsoft Senior Vice President, Windows Client Group, Will Poole, who was in Bangkok to attend the ICT expo recently, an event that coincided with "the final stages of lift-off" for SP2 was interviewed at which time he stated that the SP2 would be available to all Windows users even those with pirated copies.

Now something seems to be wrong here. It dismays me that I legally purchased six full copies of Windows XP Professional recently, for an Internet Cafe that my wife opened a year ago and now the upgrade will be available for all users, whether or not they have purchased their software or pirated it.

Have I been struck by Robin Hood? In my case, I went so far as to remove all illegally installed software that was placed on the computers hard drive by the outlet where I purchased the units.

Now I truly believe that I and many others have been duped. I did the right thing and purchased six full legal copies of the Windows Operating software. You can hardly comprehend what trouble I went though to get the original software, due to me living in Asia, where it is actually difficult to find the original software for sale in the first place. And on top of that I now find myself to be an object of ridicule by the very pirates that everyone pretended to be battling.

I feel that people without proper software should have been blocked from the net totally until they can demonstrate that they do have a legal copy of an operating system on their computers. I understand about Microsoft's fear that they will embrace other operating systems, but, I would be more concerned about the people with money that have actually bought Microsoft's products in good faith an are now being told they are the fools. For if they migrate to other operating systems then Microsoft will be in financial trouble within a very short period of time

What are the implications of this action by Microsoft; If their update is as resilient as stated, then they should not be concerned as to who upgrades and who does not, for the users of the system i.e the paying customers will be secure. Those that choose another route will not be. But to tell me that my purchase was in vain is insult added to past injury of having to spend time and money in remaining updated.

Was this done in the name of security or due to greed? How I am to teach my children to be honest and not pirate software when Microsoft seems to now encourage such acts?

[penzman]

You may want to reinstall a pirated copy on a machine and give SP2 a try , see what happens next, I doubt the OS will work properly afterwards. I`ve tried running SP1, it lets me run it right until thens says something like ``unknown cd key`` or something like that. My OS hasn`t been the same since, suspecting the attempt with SP1 is the culprit... I`ll have to reinstall once I`m done with a project I`m working on.

There`s a chance this time around it may actually make your system inoperable.

Poole did say ``the SP2 would be available to all Windows users even those with pirated copies.``but there may just well be a catch for the pirated copies, it`s been done with other pirated software I owned.

People without proper software will never get blocked from the net totally since their other option would probly mean switching to open source OS like Linux and others. I think Bill still prefers they keep using an illegal copy.

Personally, I`ve never paid a single penny for any legal software except for some games I wanted to play online. Started with copies of Win 3.1 right up to now with WIN XP PRO. Millions of people have done the same, what would Gate`s fortune be if no one had ever pirated??? OUCH!!!

I just checked Win XP Pro on amazon... $179.99... Long live Panthip ($3.00) and the others!

If I ran a business, it would all be legit.

BTW, Mouse, you`ve never, ever owned or still own a downloaded mp3, movie?Same same you know?

[falong]

Let me start of by saying that Windows XP SP2 update is the best thing to come out of Microsoft in a long time.

Why do you think SP2 is so great?

[Wolfie]

Microsoft stated in the past (a long long time ago) they are not overly concerned with _home_ users using priated copies of their software. The corporation is concerned with the distribution of pirated software and other organisations/companies using pirated software.

If you run a company that uses PC's, get a legit copy. If your just sat at home and use your computer for whatever, you will _probably_ be ok with a hooky copy (even though technically its still illegal)

[Phil Conners]

Both SP1 and SP2 install and run on XP software whether licenced or not as long as it is the corporate version. Suggesting otherwise is just adding to the usual Microslush FUD.

The consumer versions with personal codes - where you have to call Microslush to get a new code should you decided to move your legally owned copy from one PC to another - are the only versions that may have problems, but I'd think it unlikely anybody use those for copies.

[kabal1234]

SP1 was never suposed to work with pirated copies, SP2 IS. Still, even given this people will find a reason to bash MS.

[Phil Conners]

Plenty of reasons around. Just look at my previous second paragraph for one.

The most important reason to hate Microslush is their predatory marketing strategies. There are today no real alternative anymore. By buying up or strangeling competition, spreading rumors (FUD again), "preannouncing" software never to be released etc. they now have no real competition on the desktop anymore - I don't think the 1% of Apple and 1% of Linux justify for that title - and as a result we are now having to live with substandard and slushy software.

Thanksfully they are not as succesfull when it comes to convinci8ng IT professionals who decided on the server market so *nix is still dominant in that segment.

[waldwolf]

From the "horses" mouth.............(as posted August 6th. on a Microsoft newsgroup):

Subject: Clarifying SP2 piracy policy

From: "Gary Schare [MS]" <[email protected]>

Sent: 8/6/2004 2:24:52 PM

There have been a number of discussions on this newsgroup regarding whether SP2 will install on non-genuine (aka "pirated") versions of Windows. Here is the official Microsoft position on this topic:

We expect that nearly all Windows XP users, running genuine or pirated Windows, will have access to the security technologies in SP2. The same users that were blocked from installing SP1 - those that have used a small set of legacy pirated product keys - will be blocked from installing SP2. We believe that there are very few systems in use today that use these keys -- in other words, the pirates have moved on to other keys which we are not blocking.

So how do we charaterize our policy?

We want to make sure that the broadest number of people can install SP2. The nature of malicious attacks on computer users is constantly changing and we will continue to evaluate how we deal with security updates for pirated versions of Windows to best protect our genuine Windows customers.

Thanks,

Gary Schare

Microsoft

[caughtintheact]

If MS knew that all owners of pirated software used a firewall, updated anti-virus and anti-spywware programs, they might have decided not to distribute so freely. MS is trying to show that it is concerned with security (about time) and so the users of pirate software get a break. Much of MS's business comes from corporations, who have to be extremely concerned with security, and MS doesn't want them to switch. But they know it is the average user who doesn't take any protective measures that causes much of the spread of viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware.

It's also possible that MS really doesn't know who has which version as the pirated versions are done very well. If any of you have pirate versions, try this (I've tried this on machines with both pirated and non pirated versions):

Start | Run | then type "oobe/msoobe /a" without the quotes and with a space before /a.

You should get a product already activated notice.

This will not work from a command prompt.

[kabal1234]

This is the perogative of your market leader...in any industry. If it was SUN people would be bitching about them. I can live with it personally because I think they release wonderfull products. Oh and I am an IT professional and still choose MS in the server market. But each to his/her own I say, I'm not against any sw/company.

[kwiz117]

Last week I went to Pantip to buy the NAT CD.

Hmm, that was great!!!

Anyway, I saw this Windows XP SP2 selling hot hot.. All in top cover page of those CD bundles that they use to display the stuff..

Anyway, for a software guru like Microsoft, stopping piracy is nothing. If SAP can do it, then why not Microsoft. Remember, 1 set of SAP cost around 5-10 million Bht.

In my opinion, Microsoft is encouraging people to copy and use the software. I guess that is cheaper than the advertising cost that they will have to invest here for marketing this product. In this way, you get free marketing. All they have to make sure is that they improve on the standard "Original to Pirated" ratio. That's the strategy of Microsoft and all other Software guru's who distribute software capable of cloning.

[francois]

hi

why get so hot on a microsh$t patch ...

Xp runs fine with Sp1 correctly configured

their firewall is just a leaking one! (just check it on here ) ->

shields UP

you'll get a nice suprise

better to install ZoneAlarm pro ...absolutly leakless !

and so much headhaches with software compatibilies ...

typical from microsh$t

pirated or not ... ms just can't block user to run pirated versions, and to level the number of users in the world, they just accept the fact

time to look on the open-source system

for a 50% of the price of a ms system you'll get the OS and a load of software ...

then, it's completly useless to pirate any other software

I run a small network for my job, 3 machines, the server is running Linux (kernel 2.6.3),

perfectly stealth, and behind this one running xp for customer's compatibility and my mobile machine(laptop) is running both ...

useless to say that I mainly work with Linux and a lot happier with it

anyway ... good luck with sp2 ...

I'll wait a bit more to give it a try

cheers

francois

[bkk_mike]

Mouse

I agree that people shouldn't use pirated software, but you admit yourself that it's a LOT harder to find a legitimate copy for sale in Thailand than to find the fakes. And when you do find one - it turns out to be more expensive than in Europe.

However, given that SP2 is supposedly fixing a lot of security holes, allowing people with pirated copies to download it is actually for the good of everyone.

Nasty things like denial of service attacks and spam generally get passed through machines that have been hacked into to hide the real originating IP address. If known security issues are allowed to just sit there on systems with pirate copies of the operating system, - you'll never get rid of the problems as existing hacks will continue to work.

Maybe pirate copies should be blocked from downloading other updates, but letting them get security patches is for the benefit of everyone...

[penzman]

Does SP1 need to be installed before SP2?

[ka12345]

Somewhat incorrect. PCs with certain Pantip Plaza versions of XP won't boot after installing SP2. Actually, they will boot and immediately re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot.....

[waldwolf]

One can order SP2 on CD direct from Microsoft at following link:

Order Windows XP SP-2 Here (Suprisingly, MS also pays the postage & handling)

More info on SP-2 in this link:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) Support Center

[Darknight]

Somewhat incorrect. PCs with certain Pantip Plaza versions of XP won't boot after installing SP2. Actually, they will boot and immediately re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot and re-boot.....

Did you copy and paste that or wrote it?