Microsoft Annoys ME!

[Mike in Seattle]

But your complaint about this isn't against Microsoft - it's about the retailer who sold you the software. They're the ones who sold you the software at a deep discount (otherwise, you'd have bought the Microsoft product at your local software retailer) that now turns out to be sold with faulty or multiply-issued registration keys. If they do nothing, contact Visa or MasterCard and report the purchase as fraud, which it is, and you get your money back. It's like if you buy a $20 Rolex in Time Square - is it Rolex's fault when it stops working?

 

[scotrace]

But your complaint about this isn't against Microsoft - it's about the retailer who sold you the software....if you buy a $20 Rolex in Time Square - is it Rolex's fault when it stops working?

Apples and Oranges. And it is most surely MS's fault, as they are the invasive leeches who incorporate villainous features like auto-phone-home-then-pester-owner-to-death, while leaving security holes the size of a Dixie Chick's mouth.

 

[magneto]

I am surely tempted,.....aren't there several other Linux operating systems available? Some free, some for a nominal cost.

There are several Linux flavors that you can run off of a CD/DVD, like knoppix--(knoppix.com)...that way you can play with it without having to install anything on your hard disk...google search for "linux live CD"...If you have access to a broadband connection you can download the CD image, burn it in Windows, and away you go...Ubuntu Linux is supposed to be very easy to get running as well. If you look for a magazine called "Linux Format"--out of the UK--every issue comes with a free DVD with a couple new distros on it.
...My computer has 2 hard drives, one w/WinXP and one with 2 linux distros, but I find I hardly ever boot into Windows anymore...

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

WINE

Compatability,...now that's a good concept. I must reseach this further.

 

[Twitch]

I worked in the CD/DVD replication industry for several years and can tell you that counterfit discs are being made every day. The RIAA is the supposed watchdog of the music industry and sent bulletins to replicators regularly to make them aware of titles that have shown up unauthorized.

These crooks would go to different replicators with their masters and hope they'd slip by. We had full time people listening to incoming masters to see if anything was copyrighted material. If so we'd decline the job. There are many cases of legitimate rights to replicate titles and releases from the owners of the material have stipulations of one time or for a calendar time period that they'd allow a sub-contractor to replicate the title they owned.

All this leads to the fact that Microsoft DID authorize some software to be replicated at times. This was rare though.

The problem lies with the fact that crooks can obtain disc replicating equipment due to price reductions, used machinery and technology improvements. It doesn't take super sophisticated equipment to make the discs look genuine. I worked in the printing industry before that in the field of CD packaging and the same goes there. Holograms and ritzy, genuine printing jobs are pretty easy.

The crooks have outlets to mainstream their bogus wares. Once in the legitimate distribution system the fakes are undetectable. But an experienced masterer can redily detect a phoney Microsoft DAT- Digital Audio Tape, or other media by the file structure layout. Our guy would say there were subtle ways they laid files out to be mastered that were rather unique.

The place where the glass master is produced which is used to make the metal stamper which goes on the replication machine to manufacture copies is the true culprit.

That's probably too much information and it strays from the original topic but it's a sore subject with me.