Island Dog

Join Date 06/2003

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Microsofts CEO: Less Piracy With Vista

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Microsofts Chief Executive Steve Ballmer says that piracy will "ease" with the introduction of its Windows Vista operating system, and Office 2007 office suite. Ballmer also went on to say that 20 percent of its software around the world is pirated and they expect that number to drop with its new authentication system in Vista and Office 2007.

"We're trying to make it easier for people who somehow have received improperly licensed versions to get legal, and we also put more roadblocks in," said Ballmer, declining to specify how much it can reduce the piracy rate. "It will help," he said.

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I bet one hundred dolors that Vista Ultimate will be cracked before the 30 day trial is up.

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Maybe if they didn't charge $200-$500 for a program there would be less piracy. A lot of people can't afford to dish out that kind of money for a disc and there is no reason why companies like Microsoft have to charge that kind of money either. Why don't they charge $70 or $100 for Vista? Why must is be almost unaffordable?

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Thanks for the heads-up on M'soft's latest moves, I.D.
You're always there, with the latest.
Right now, I'd just like my XP SP2, Office 2003, and IE7 to play nice and keep getting updates.
The whole Vista biz needs to settle down B4 I'm interested in moving "up".
Piracy? As it is, I need to be "validated" just to check into "Microsoft Update".
Nothing new there.
Interesting times we live in, for sure.

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And have you guys seen the price MS wants in Europe???!!! Vista Ultimate is in the neighborhood of $800 USD (news item on www.guru3d.com). INSANE!!! If MS thinks that going to do anything but INCREASE piracy worldwide, I want what they're smokin'!

It really looks to me that marketing is still pricing and segmenting Vista as if it actually delivered on the promises MS made 6 years ago. The pale shadow that the soon to be released Vista has become (re: XP+GUI as far as end users are concerned) is nowhere near worth a HIGHER introductory price point than XP had.

In some parts of Europe you can damn near get a CAR for $800, hehe.

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I bet one hundred dolors that Vista Ultimate will be cracked before the 30 day trial is up.

well here is what I found out, without having too look very hard....I think it is FUNNY!!!!

[While this information is widely available, Wincustomize is not the place to post it regardless of the intention. Removed by ID]

DISCLAIMER: I do not promote nor condone anyone pirating ANY software. This was just to show how pathetic the hackers and Microsoft really are. If you want software buy it don't steal it!!!

Speedy

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Its never smart to say something like that to piraters they take it as a challenge so i expect there to be more pirating

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With less piracy Microsoft won't have as many people "using" their 5 years in the making full feature(less) OS. Shooting themselves in the foot sort of!

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Micosoft office 2007 Enterprise edition is already out there on bittorrent and no activation is needed as it is already activated. I know this for a fact as i know people who have it. So much for less piracy with Office 2007. Maybe Steve Ballmer should open his eyes and get his hand off his dick as he seems to be dreaming about less piracy. Unfortunately with the price of some software people will never buy it when they can get it for nothing. Good thing about stardock software is it is cheap and affordable plus you get updates.

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While this information is widely available, Wincustomize is not the place to post it regardless of the intention. Removed by ID

I apologize for that ID, lack of good judgement.

Speedy

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We gave them this monopoly. If MS had real OS competition in the PC space (re: Apple did TONS of work on legacy drivers, etc.) then MS would be charging LESS for a more FULLY FEATURED OS, instead of a MORE for a GUI+ improvement to XP. It's our own damn fault, folks.

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Its not a gui+ improvement. When they say its the most secure OS they've ever released ITS TRUE.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

well here is what I found out, without having too look very hard.

Speedy, I've known about that stunt for a while now....an old acquaintance told me how to do the same with XP, so I'd never have to register, activate/phone reactivate my legit copy. However, apart from it being the wrong thing to do with regards to the EULA, I had already activated and registered my copy and saw no need to be dishonest when everything was working perfectly as was.

Okay, it may have saved me 15 or so minutes when I needed to reactivate over the phone a couple of times, but to me it still seems like a whole load of unnecessary & illegal effort to save such a piddling amount of time - in context to a whole lifetime.

As for Vista, when I eventually purchase it legally, I will activate and register it in the proper manner....cos I wanna do the right thing and not have the OS Police turning up on my doorstep, which would result in considerable discomfort to my lower intestinal tract and a change of underwear.

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Its not a gui+ improvement. When they say its the most secure OS they've ever released ITS TRUE.

To end users, who will still need antivirus and antispyware software, Vista LOOKS like little more than a GUI upgrade to Windows XP...and one that their smarter, more savvy friends already showed them 90% LAST YEAR when WindowBlinds 5 came out.

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Microsoft and their stupid activation. A friend of mine in the computer business recently built me a new computer with a genuine Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 and after about 2 months my dvd burner died so he gave me a new one to put in to replace the dead one. After installing the new dvd burner and booting up windows pops up and tells me hardware configuration has changed since activation and i must reactivate windows in 3 days if i want to keep using it. So i had to ring microsoft to reactivate it as when i went to do it over the net it said this serial has reached it maximum number of activations and to contact microsoft. This is enough to encourage piracy. So if i add another harddrive in future i will have to reactivate again or change any hardware configuration i have to activate windows again. This is not a problem but all the bullshit that pops up in the system tray insinuating that my copy of windows is pirated and i should contact microsoft to buy a legal copy. This is one of the reasons people pirate their software. I should be able to change hardware if i like without having Bill Gates looking over my shoulder everytime my computer boots up.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

After installing the new dvd burner and booting up windows pops up and tells me hardware configuration has changed since activation and i must reactivate windows in 3 days if i want to keep using it.

I got the same message after replacing a mobo and CPU recently, and yeah, I needed to speak with customer service because my copy of XP was showing as being activated and had reached its activation limit. However, once I had explained the hardware upgrades and how they had prompted the 'reactivate popup' on my activated OS, reactivation was not a problem for MS and was completed inside 10 minutes.

However, I'm a little confused by this one....the need to reactivate Windows over a DVD ROM replacement

A while back I upgraded two ROM drives, two HD's and added two 1gb sticks of RAM without receiving a 'reactivation popup'....and this was only one of several hardware upgrades (over time) that did not require activation.

Windows allows for several minor hardware changes without the need for reactivation, and then you get more than just the one, so is it possible that your PC has undergone several hardware upgrades/reinstalls since initial activation, or that perhaps your copy of Windows was initially activated on another machine, then transferred?

***BTW, no accusations/insinuations here, just possible explanations that may help***

This is not a problem but all the bullshit that pops up in the system tray insinuating that my copy of windows is pirated and i should contact microsoft to buy a legal copy.

I registered and activated my legit copy of XP Pro and have never ever encountered a systray popup insinuating I have a pirated copy, so I don't know what that's about. Since installing the 'Windows Genuine Advantage' tool, I've had absolutely no phone home/insinuation issues with MS and can access Windows updates/downloads unhindered ....so maybe you've a fault/error in the authentication process, being no OS/software is infallible/flawless

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Why don't they charge $70 or $100 for Vista?

Maybe someone will buy you a clue for Christmas.

Vista LOOKS like little more than a GUI upgrade to Windows XP...and one that their smarter, more savvy friends already showed them 90% LAST YEAR when WindowBlinds 5 came out.

At least try to educate yourself before showing your ignorance.

Maybe Steve Ballmer should open his eyes and get his hand off his dick as he seems to be dreaming about less piracy.

If MS had real OS competition in the PC space (re: Apple did TONS of work on legacy drivers, etc.) then MS would be charging LESS for a more FULLY FEATURED OS, instead of a MORE for a GUI+ improvement to XP. It's our own damn fault, folks.

Microsoft and their stupid activation.

OMG what a bunch @#!$^&% Hypocrites.

You bash/criticize MS like crazy for trying to protect their work and how they're trying to do it, but when someone borrows one pixel out of someone else's skin...

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They said the same crap about XP when it came out, and look at it now. Its just a bunch of marketing BS.

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I bet one hundred dolors that Vista Ultimate will be cracked before the 30 day trial is up.

I hear that!

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However, I'm a little confused by this one....the need to reactivate Windows over a DVD ROM replacement A while back I upgraded two ROM drives, two HD's and added two 1gb sticks of RAM without receiving a 'reactivation popup'....and this was only one of several hardware upgrades (over time) that did not require activation.

Yes i think it has to do with mine being Windows XP Media Centre Edition i have been told they are very fussy about it.

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Microsoft and their stupid activation.

OMG what a bunch @#!$^&% Hypocrites.

Well it is stupid activation if you cant change a DVD burner without having to reactivate windows.

At least try to educate yourself before showing your ignorance.

Maybe Steve Ballmer should open his eyes and get his hand off his dick as he seems to be dreaming about less piracy.

And yes if Steve Ballmer thinks he will have less piracy he needs to face reality, some people will always pirate software. If you read the whole story he talks about Office 2007 less piracy and if you read my comment you would have read that i said "Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition which doesn't require activation is already doing the rounds on bittorrent sites". So much for less piracy. How many thousands of people do you think have downloaded Office 2007 Enterprise Edition. And this was less than a week after they released it.

Maybe it is you who is the hypercrit as you select one line from someones comment and call them a hypercrit without taking into context the whole comment they were making.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

Sorry Captain Goodvibes....but hypercrit? Is that one of those furry cyber critters that pops up on yer screen at hyper speed n' scares the crap ouy of ya?

No thanks, Stardock's Desktop Pet is more than enough excitement for me.

BTW, the correct spelling is 'politician' er, sorry...hypocrite.

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Spelling lesson taken funny i typed it that way originally and thought it didn't look right.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

Spelling lesson taken funny i typed it that way originally and thought it didn't look right.

Generally I wouldn't correct anyones' spelling....but my vividly wild imagination just conjured up this Jack-in-the Box type hypercritter just bursting on to the screen, and I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity for a bit of tongue in cheek.

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Orion is a typical, ignorant American... just ignore their post.

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Orion is a typical, ignorant American... just ignore their post.

Gee, does that make you feel better to insult someone just because of where they are from? I am American and I take quite offense to that, thank you. I thought as adults we'd be past all that childish nonsense, but guess not.

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