“Microsoft Corp.’s forthcoming Windows Vista will take much harsher steps to curtail piracy than previous versions of its operating system, including crippling the usefulness of computers found to be running unlicensed copies of the new software,” The Associated Press reports.
AP reports, “The world’s largest software maker said Wednesday that people running a version of Windows Vista that it believes is pirated will initially be denied access to some of the most anticipated Vista features. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Most anticipated?” By whom? They must mean “anticipated” by those who haven’t been using Apple’s vastly superior Mac OS X for over half a decade already.
AP continues, “If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager. Under that scenario, a person could use the browser to surf the Web, access documents on the hard drive or log onto Web-based e-mail. But the user would not be able to directly open documents from the computer desktop or run other programs such as Outlook e-mail software, Lindeman said.”
“The company also said it has added more sophisticated technology for monitoring whether a system is pirated. For example, the system will be able to perform some piracy checks internally, without contacting Microsoft, Lindeman said,” AP reports. “Microsoft has already instituted tougher piracy checks for Windows XP users who want to get free add-ons such as anti-spyware programs. But until now, the warnings and punitive measures were mainly seen as annoying, rather than debilitating”
“Analyst Roger Kay with Endpoint Technologies Associates noted that Microsoft has the right to curtail illegal distribution of its software. The new piracy measures, he said, ‘seem harsh only in comparison to how lenient it has been.’ Nevertheless, Kay said he expects that the anti-piracy tactics will keep some people from upgrading to Vista from the current operating system, Windows XP. ‘There will be an XP backlash, which is to say people (will) cling to XP in order to avoid this,’ he said,” AP reports.
Full article here.
Apple trusts their customers. Mac OS X Tiger, with all features enabled no less, costs just US$129 (and only $199 for the 5-user “Family Pack”). All Macs come with Mac OS X Tiger pre-installed. Get a Mac.
Related articles:
Infoworld: Microsoft’s WIndows Vista not so revolutionary after all – September 11, 2006
Pirillo: Windows Vista RC1 disappointing, schizophrenic, disordered, inconsistent, and sad – September 07, 2006
Key Microsoft exec exits as clock ticks down on oft-delayed, much pared-down Windows Vista release – September 06, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
Microsoft’s greatest trick: convincing the public that the Wintel PC platform is open – March 06, 2006
Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness – December 20, 2003
While I absolutely agree that MDN can get carried away at times, I’ll also admit that the name of this site is MACdaily news. If you want totally unbiased news with no commentary, go somewhere else, PLEASE!
Vista will debilitate you and then phone home to get you help-NOT.
Apple does have a much better pricing structure for OSX however if Apple had 10’s of millions of pirated OS’s floating around out there you can bet they’d come up with some pretty tough anti-pirating schemes.
Microsoft does have a real problem and they have a right to try and stop it and the real challenge is to find a way to accurately determine which OS is a pirated one vs. legitimate.
You have to wonder how much smaller America’s trade deficit would be if everyone worldwide had to pay for every copy of software, movie or song that should have been legitimately purchased. The lost revenue of 100 million copies of Win2k/XP run to almost $30 billion!
See, this is why Microsoft is superior, ’cause it has better ….. LOL I can’t continue, ha ha ha, sorry!
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“Hands up all the readers of this forum who use a ‘borrowed’ version of a MacOS update on their machine?
Sorry, RC. My hand remains firmly at my side.
One of the interesting differences between Apple and Microsoft in this instance is the “Family Pack.” For an extra $70, I get a five user license. In most of the Vista pricing I’ve seen, a five-user version will run me something like $400.
DLMeyer, I got one thing to say regarding Microsoft’s rights: EULA.
Click “Agree” to agree to the terms of this post.
Jay said, “While I absolutely agree that MDN can get carried away at times, I’ll also admit that the name of this site is MACdaily news. If you want totally unbiased news with no commentary, go somewhere else, PLEASE!”
Ok, so here’s the deal. If no one can complain about MDN being biased, then MDN cannot link an article from a Windows site, and then complain about them being biased.
It’s actually pretty lenient. It at least gives you 30 days and limited functionality. Apple’s DRM doesn’t let you do ANYTHING with a illegitimate copy of a song.
Hmmmm,
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> So, I think its pretty even, actually. LOL
To Alex and Gregg:
If you think this site is bad, try going to a windows fan site. Boy do they hate Macs, and for every and no reason in partictular.
As far as Microsoft goes: I think that they have every right to protect their software. Its just that they do it so badly.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> When Windows XP first came out, one of the tech writers was on a plane with his LEGAL version of windows when it decided he was using an illegal copy and shut him down. He called MS and they agreed that he had a legal copy.
After days of trying, nothing anyone could do would make his XP software work again. MS finally had to ship him a new disk with a new number. The days of total downtime just because of their crappy software is criminal.
Microsoft just does not use their head when designing their software. Its MS first, last and always. The customer does not even count. And why should they, they were stupid enough to buy the software in the first place (JMHO
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> ). LOL
N.
If you really prefer MS, then I feel happy, er sad for you. Eitherway, have a nice day.
I love my Mac (cant call me a wintard).
I love reading Mac news (MDN is good for that, gets updated regularly etc etc).
But I hate the ‘MacDailyNews Take’. Its tiresome.
Thats my ‘take’ on the subject
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PLEASE. SHUT THIS SITE DOWN. PLEASE. JUST REPORT THE NEWS, SKIP THE TROLL FACTS. PLEASE – I BEG OF YOU.
You don’t actually come here from news, do you? Go to http://www.macnn.com or http://www.macminute.com for that. I just come here to laugh at some of the dumb remarks that bunch of 12 year olds make (that would include first and foremost, the one running this site).
MDN MW – “your” as in this isn’t your source of mac related news.
Spot on, hypocrite.
I like the “local bar” reference that Ndelc made, but some of the respondents here treat MDN more like a local mosque with their jihaad-style commentary. There is a shocking number of people above who blindly assume that critique on an MDN take “must” mean that they are windows-users, and bash them blindly accordingly.
There is no need for that. Actually, before MDN a difference of opinion was appreciated within the Mac community.
But not so anymore by some it seems…
hypocrite:
You obviously didn’t understand, or read, what I said. My comments were directed at DOZE IDIOTS who make comments on an obviously Apple oriented site. This site, and the commentary therein, is NOT always objective, and we make no claims to being so.
As I said, if you want (maybe I should have said EXPECT) unbiased news with no commentary, go somewhere else.
To all of the MS defenders on this thread:
MSoft’s “solutions” to their piracy problems are a pain in the ass to legitimate end users. Anyone who says, “MS has a right to…” hasn’t had MS’s “rights” screw up days of work.
Computers (especially Windows machines) need upkeep, upgrading, wipes, and clean installs. Making a phone call to MS “support,” staying hold for 25 minutes, and explaining to an Indian that I’m really not a criminal every time I want to make a system change is a tremendous ordeal.
And on top of this there are all the “false positives” of MS’s sophisticated anti-piracy tools that hamper legitimate systems. After spending 300 bucks for an OS, I just want it to work.
Points…
1) MDN does not set rules for the whole “Apple community”. There is an MDN community, and that’s that. So please no more tighty-whitey complaints about the “level of discource” being cheapened, or your feelings being hurt, or whatever general prissiness you spout off. THIS IS MDN. Put on your big-girl panties and deal with it.
2) I don’t think MDN’s problem with articles is bias, it’s that the articles are factually incorrect, and written in such a way to generate an impression that is also fallacious. It may be a hopeless cause, because most tech writing is worse writing than porn, but at least they try to set the record straight.
Once again, M$ shows what their real idea of security:
making sure that you cannot cheat them out of a software usage payment
NOT
protecting your data
“Put on your big-girl panties and deal with it.”
I’m way ahead of you. Mmmm, snug.
BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots,
The point of discourse imho is not so much MDN per se, but a part of its “followers” who display such a hostile attitude towards even others Mac-users – who only happen to have another opinion – that the resulting atmosphere is as dark and cumbersome as it must be in Redmond HQ.
I do not know when these kind of “mac users” with their superior race mentality have crawled out of the woodwork, but it is not exactly an enrichment with regards to how it used to be.
I do not know why you typecast those who differ with your opinion as “girly”, “pantsy” or whatever other Redneck level of IQ you can find, but if it makes you feel better about yourself, have another go and some more fun with it.
what about the 20% of users that Microsoft themselves says are wrongly identified by their current WGA Windows Genuine Advantage software.
Can you imagine all the people with Vista that may truely own legit copies and they get locked out if MS’s system wrongly says it is an illegal copy !!
There would be one heck of a lot of really annoyed people about and i wonder if they could sue the pants off MS for wrongfully identifying them as pirates
could be interesting
Glad I dont have that hassle to worry about with OS X
As always pirates will find a way around these measures and distribute the solution widely and happily compute away while legitimate users have to phone in and deal with the infamous ‘false positive’ situation.
If I owned a legitimate copy of Windows Vista (ack), I would place it beautifully on a shelf and install a cracked pirate copy instead. Because the pirates offer a superior experience.
I thought the software industry learned this lesson in ’80s? I thought this was now solely the folly of the record companies?
The very last thing you want to do is offer your legitimate customers an inferior user experience to the pirate users. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
I would be willing to pay a software pirate the retail cost of Windows Vista to provide me with a version of the software that never phones home and will never deactivate.
If this trend continues, the pirates are really going to start to go pro en masse.
Time to switch to Linux. Er, I mean Mac. 😀
If Microsoft spent half as much time on actually finishing Vista as it does on these elaborate anti-piracy schemes, they’d have released Vista by now. After all, piracy is meaningless for a product that is never going to see the light of day.
MDN: Mac OS X costs just $69 brand new for a single user copy that can be installed on up to 3 computers (according to the license agreement) if you are a student, teacher, or work in an educational institution (such as an administrator).
I can see it now — some kid hacks vista, play around with the codes and bingo 100 million copies of vista’s suddenly decides that there not true copies and disables themselves!
OK
And IT managers near and far are going to race out today and order/buy their 10,000 copies just so they can have that little feature close at hand – right? I don’t think so!