Who talked about having to switching anything? people could start out with linux, and it would cost them nothing.





I'm just trying to kill off myths about user-friendliness.





Edited, because I am an idiot

Edited by - mr BiCEPS on April 21, 2001 5:14:39 AM

I''d be more than a little curious to see Linux run .NET apps...and I''m sure most of you would be too. Code something in a completely MS environment and have it compile on linux...too bizzare to even think about right now.

Also, about this XP non-sense...MS could switch to a subscription-based licensing model without WindowsXP. XP won''t even be .NET-ized until later, since Visual Studio.NET won''t be released until the end of the year, and XP is just a few months away. MS is going to have the subscription choice for anyone who will take it...and keep the standard licensing for a long while.

The real goal of the XP copy protection is to prevent casual piracy. Most concervative estimates say about 80% of Windows copies are pirated. A lot of people don''t even think about it when they do that. You buy a new copy of Windows 2000 and install it on all 3 of your computers...which is illegal. This new protection scheme will basically red-flag that and wake people up to the idea that "hey, this is illegal."

Also make sure to provide some unique info in the "registration" process...to make sure that you can easily be identified when you want to change your license to a new computer Might prevent some hassle later.

My 2 cents.

Epolevne

I found the file cracks for WinXP a couple days ago (i.e. you put the CD on your HD, overwrite those five or six files, burn it as bootable, and you have a copy of WinXP without Product Activation!), now that I''ve seen how easy it is to break, I don''t know how MS expects this to work...

"Finger to spiritual emptiness underlying everything." -- How a C manual referred to a "pointer to void." --Things People Said

http://druidgames.cjb.net/

You''re missing the point....it''s to prevent casual piracy. Downloading a crack, copying the Cd to your HDD, and burning a boot CD is not casual piracy.

If the average computer User can''t install windows on all his computers b/c of the protection scheme then it''s done is job. There will always be ways to break copy protection...but they''re still in place because they prevent this "casual piracy."

Epolevne

quote:

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Original post by Epolevne

You''re missing the point....it''s to prevent casual piracy. Downloading a crack, copying the Cd to your HDD, and burning a boot CD is not casual piracy.

If the average computer User can''t install windows on all his computers b/c of the protection scheme then it''s done is job. There will always be ways to break copy protection...but they''re still in place because they prevent this "casual piracy."

Epolevne

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Actually if you read the EULA of any software that you buy today, there is always a line that pretty much says that yes, you can install the software on any machine you want, but it can only be installed on ONE machine only at any given time.

Windows 2000 SP2 is available from
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/18923.html

As the story says "it''s not officially released yet", but there''s a link to the 101MB file at the bottom of the page.