Article on windows piracy and linux

[zubrug]

Interesting article on windows anti-piracy
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4587/106/

[G Morgan]

It's not that XP checks for Piracy its the potential for spying and sending back totally unrelated information. No people shouldn't be suprised, MS could buy a lot of favours from some very powerful people with such information and it was always going to be the case that they would employ such methods. The WGA system should be scrutinised for the entire time its in existence and every lie and missed detail (the EULA mentions a one time phone home not a daily one) should be highlighted for what it is.

[zubrug]

I agree

[djsroknrol]

Just like the article says...

If you don't like WGA or their price structuring, than you should be making plans to migrate to Linux...that should shake a few trees around the MS campus.....

[phillywize]

It's not that XP checks for Piracy its the potential for spying and sending back totally unrelated information. No people shouldn't be suprised, MS could buy a lot of favours from some very powerful people with such information and it was always going to be the case that they would employ such methods.
What?! Pushing the boundaries of licensing detection/enforcement is one thing. Extortion, which is what I think you're getting at, is something else altogether. MS could get in lots of trouble for doing that...and if the criminal sanctions aren't serious enough (which they probably aren't, I'm guessing), they can get their pants sued off-- yielding huge legal bills, large judgments, and an endless stream of injunctions. More importantly -- since MS can afford all the foregoing -- it would be a PR catastophe. Talk about giftwrapping a win for Google, Sun, Novell, IBM, and whatever else is left of the competition.

Is there some indication that MS is going to collect unrelated information with WGA? I don't see it... And as far as I'm concerned, if MS wants to step up the cat-and-mouse game of piracy and anti-piracy, hey, it's a free world and a free market. Let them. Enforcement of intellectual property rights, whether it be under the GPL or MS's EULA, is a good thing.


The WGA system should be scrutinised for the entire time its in existence and every lie and missed detail (the EULA mentions a one time phone home not a daily one) should be highlighted for what it is.
Agreed, though I think you are more mistrustful than I (and I am wary of MS, believe me).

[blastus]

Everytime I read stuff like this it makes me glad I migrated to Ubuntu. :) When I think about what the alternative is (going back to Windows and dealing product activation, WGA, spyware ad nauseum...), it makes me realize that the HUGE amount of time I've spent getting Linux to work on my computer has been worth it.

[BoyOfDestiny]

Everytime I read stuff like this it makes me glad I migrated to Ubuntu. :) When I think about what the alternative is (going back to Windows and dealing product activation, WGA, spyware ad nauseum...), it makes me realize that the HUGE amount of time I've spent getting Linux to work on my computer has been worth it.

Ditto.

I came across the WGA thing here
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6544431885.html

There is also a groklaw post covering it...
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060608002958907

So what comes down to bothering me is:

This is how MS treats its customers?

Can't install updates without windows (can someone verify this?), so where does that leave WINE users when they want an office update... Anti-competitive...

Now they offer their own anti-virus... They make the OS that is "vulnerable" to them... Conflict of interest :P

[CronoDekar]

What always gets me about WGA is that how it's plugged as if it's meant to help the user:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/whyValidate.aspx

Now, I suppose this can be useful if you got your comp second-hand and care about being ethical or are concerned that it might be some voodoo version of WinXP, but I mean... I got my computer straight from Dell, WinXP pre-installed. And free updates? How's that any different from before WGE?

I've never had much animosity over WinXP... but WGE has always just gets in my craw.

[warp99]

My "theory" on why there is a daily check-in: ;-)

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1127611&postcount=16

[Dr. C]

I am not convinced of the VMware theory.

If the clones of XP are running as VMware guests on Linux host(s), it would be simple to firewall the Linux host(s) to block the "phone home to Microsoft" of the guests effectively placing the guest's DRM in a Linux jail.

One guest alone could be allowed to "phone home" to get security patches, updates etc.

The same principle would work with a Linux server acting as a firewall for XP worktations etc.

[warp99]

I am not convinced of the VMware theory.

If the clones of XP are running as VMware guests on Linux host(s), it would be simple to firewall the Linux host(s) to block the "phone home to Microsoft" of the guests effectively placing the guest's DRM in a Linux jail.

Granted you have a workaround that would allow you to be undetected, but having a solution does not answer the question of why M$ is calling the mother ship every single day. As Sun Tzu would say a superior defense does not mean a determined enemy will not attack. :cool:

If the M$ answer was to verify the OS as genuine then one contact during install would be sufficent, correct? Multiple installs would easily be detected because of the serial number information sent back. Now under VMware all the serial number information (HD/BIOS) would remain constant, so you could shift the image onto multiple boxes and M$ would think it was the same box. So how do you detect the same license on multiple machines with the exact same serial numbers?

The simplest answer would be have M$ check-in and every additional virtual machine that checks-in would have to be a copy. :cool: