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SoCoder -> Blogs Home -> Blogs


 
HoboBen
Created : 01 May 2007
Edited : 01 May 2007

Genuine Windows Vista, er... advantages



This looks a bit extreme ->
When windows "detects a non-genuine version of Windows Vista installed on a PC, the Software Protection Platform will disable key features of Windows Vista, including the desktop, Start menu, and task bar"
Link

I mean, my WinXP laptop is genuine, but the fact that I have to prove it every time I download a security update just annoys me. This would be even worse!

Users would also receive "Risks from spyware, malware, and viruses" and "Reduced PC functionality". Essentially, their 4GB machine has nothing left but Internet Explorer 7, made doubly insecure, limited to only 1 hour periods of use.
Scary Video

Just in time then that Dell plan to start selling Ubuntu machines, and the "Linux Geeks" that are "wetting themselves" will include me.

In the meanwhile, Hard Drives change a bit and the company Power Mousey works for releases a 1TB hard drive.

In other news...

Traffic Hacking - Hackers get parking priority and traffic-jam immunity!

And a supercomputer is now equivalent to half a mouse's brain only running 10 times as slow. Pretty good going, methinks. With more powerful computers, it'd only be a little while before we can simulate a human's. Then, we have to shrink it down into the size of a mobile phone, and presto! Quite feasible, considering at one point computers took up whole buildings once upon a time.

|edit| Jeez - 4,096 times 256MB processors in that supercomputer! |edit|


...

And before anyone says "get a mac", I do actually have two. And Linux.

 

Comments


Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 11:45
Phoenix
Wowie! That supercomputer would be handy, especially for Hobo - you'd be able to have thousands of Firefox tabs open with it
Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 13:06
JL235
One of the reasons Microsoft runs the 'genuine windows advantage' is to stop the emulation of Windows, which I think is perfectly fair, especially when Vista cost 10 billion dollars to produce. Apart from slowing down my updates by 30 seconds, it's never caused any problems for me. Unlike the Windows security updates.

I'd also put money on Dell's decision to sell Ubuntu on a few of it's machines being down to the growing popularity of Linux, rather then any Windows demise. Windows is still, easily, the biggest selling OS.

Besides, everybody knows Amiga OS 4 is the best.
Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 15:35
steve_ancell
Ah well... MicroSoft can stick Vista where the sun don't shine. Once XP is no longer supported, I will probabbly join the Linux users.
Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 15:40
steve_ancell
Ere !... That bit about the mouse brain simulation. If it takes that much power to simulate half a mouse, I guess we are all safe from the Terminators for a while.
Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 20:10
Stealth
Hmm.. Maybe thats why my taskbar stopped working on my XP..?

Nah, that can't be the reason. Mine just crashes. And I don't think I have a illegal copy of XP. I just got the computer how it was from someone else.
Wednesday, 02 May 2007, 08:52
power mousey
Steve....thats just in the media.

What the media has been told, gained accessed, or given
permission to reveal.

No telling what Black Budget ops
like Darpa and others have on the horizon waiting in
the wings as well as what they have completed.

A juicy tidbits....
to arouse and pull your head out of the sand
sorta speak....

www.raidersnewsnetwork.com/full.php?news=5103

and I like this..very interesting.

www.raidersnewsnetwork.com/full.php?news=5104
Thursday, 03 May 2007, 15:56
Scherererer

Thursday, 03 May 2007, 16:15
JL235
I completely agree.
Thursday, 03 May 2007, 17:38
HoboBen
@ The Uber-pro haxors bit...

Not that I really disagree, but I was thinking not of the hackers, but of the people for example in China where a computer can cost a years wages, with the OS to pay on top. Windows XP gets pirated a lot there, because the full version is unaffordable. Microsoft have addressed this by releasing their $3 Windows XP Basic, but it sounds like they made it a bit crap.

Also, I know many people even in Wales who literally can't afford genuine Windows XP (I can't either, unless the prices are subsidised by buying a laptop edition crammed with spyware and adverts). I try to convert these people to (X)Ubuntu, but I think Microsoft are quite rich enough not to need to care about these people buying one copy between 5 families, for example.

Bah, just a thought that I don't feel too strongly about and don't expect everyone to agree with. I know Windows costs a lot to produce, but they have huge profits anyway that can hardly be dented by pirates, and considering the cost of distributing the software (the CD, bandwidth, etc) is almost zero, well, someone who can't afford XP and so won't buy it anyway I think can morally justify, erm, "nicking" it, or going thirds or fifths on a copy.
Thursday, 03 May 2007, 17:54
Jayenkai
There are alternatives, though. Most people could easily continue running a Win98/ME/2000 system without the need for an upgrade to a pirated XP.
Or Linux, as you say.

But I think the honest question is this. It might cost a lot to make Windows, but given the insane number of copies it sells, does it really justify such a high price?
I mean, why not stick to normal video-game price-points?

OS Vs "Random modern game"
Coding time required, OS = 2->3 times longer.
3D Texture art and models, not so much...

(And don't get me started on the price of Flash!)
Thursday, 03 May 2007, 18:23
mike_g
I'd get Vista if it comes free with a computer or something. But I'd never pay 160 quid or so for it! My computer wouldent really be able to handle it anyway.

Microsoft may moan about lost revenues to piracy, but even with a billion (or whatever) coding hours put into they rape 80% or so profit. Not many industries make that kind of money let alone when its pretty much a monopoly. I don't get why they have to go apeshit overcharging home users. the commercial sectors where the moneys at, and its where they can best enforce anti piracy stuff without having to be a pain in the arse for all the rest of their customers in the process.
Thursday, 03 May 2007, 19:47
Yayyak
Microsoft can charge whatever they like for their software. As a capitalist economy, they have every right to. But they had best remember that if they set the price too high, people will just stop buying it.

There are many alternatives to Windows. Linux is one. BSD is another. MacOS is another. Then there's SkyOS, BeOS, and any number of others.

And yes, I know BeOS is dead. But you can still download it FREE, and I'm trying to prove a point.
Friday, 04 May 2007, 01:31
hyruleknight
honestly, i like vista. microsoft can charge whatever they want for their software. it took them billions to make and they gotta get it back and then some.

plus apple rapes you up the ass in price more. my laptop has nearly the same specs as a macbook pro and is almost half the price.

also the security things never bothered me and probably never will
Friday, 04 May 2007, 04:28
power mousey
yes hyruleknight,

Microsoft can charge whatever they like and especially
for Vista.
And, yes Apple is more pricey and elitist too.

But, I as a consumer and buyer can buy one or
the other, both, or even neither. What I like
and want.

Those laptops and desktops from Dell offering XP
again...are so more attractive to me. Hopefully,
HP, Emachines, and others will follow back track and suit.