Discussion on:

Sort through FUD on Microsoft product activation

The main reason that users pirate software is price. We all know that R&D costs, that those costs must be recovered from sales and profit is not a dirty word. However Microsoft not only make huge profits they are masters of the upgrade game, bringing out new releases of software at high prices all too often.
If their software was more reasonably priced fewer people would be tempted to pirate and increased sales would mitigate Microsoft's loss of revenue due to the price cut.

I agree. If there's a software product I want and it's $50 or less, I don't even think about it - I buy it. I slips under the radar screen. (I just bought PartitionMagic's new version on a whim for home - I used it once, and probably won't use it again for a long time - but it was cheap...)

For major components I'm going to get a lot of use out of, (like Win2k or Office) I wouldn't blink at $100, and anything over $150 goes into that 'careful consideration' - these are purchases I don't makeoften.

High prices may not have caused piracy, and I understand that they are trying to defend their profits against pirates, but what pirate would stay in business if OfficeXP cost $100? It cuts their potential market because more people are willing to buy the product, and it cuts their profits on the ones they do sell... At some point it ceases to be sufficiently profitable to be worth the risk of jail...

While I understand MS's motives here, this will only further drive people towardsopen source software.

I've bought OS that crashes at least once a day,I rebuild my sys three maybe four times a year,what they are going to do will be a real hassel.Even when you register your software on the net it tells you to try again later,I don't have time.All I see in this move is greed,I'm building a sys now for linux,microstupid will not get another dollar from me.

I believe that MS is not so much microstupid but more like MicroShit and MicroSucks.

I am in favour of price cut in Microsoft's many products. It just puzzles me when they can release IE for free but they make other products so expensive.

Microsoft has a marketing engine that is unrivalled in the market and they have put it to good use.

They could have gained more market share and kill pirates at the same time by reducing prices. The major stop gap in market share is pricing for general consumers.

Corporate customers can afford to pay but not average home users. They are consist of a large portion of the market share.

Piracy is big business in asia because general public cannot afford the software that Microsoft price it. If you compare Microsoft Project at over US$ 450 to the local price of 5 malaysian riggitper CD. I am more than incline to buy a pirate copy.

The price difference is just too great. Pirates makes a respectable profit from low cost high volume sales of CD. CD stamping cost at most US$ 2 to manufacture. Most of it produce in China which also supply many of our pirates in this region.

Profit is not dirty but making more than a reasonable profit is not right either. Don't blame piracy for your profit lost. Microsoft created the condition for piracy market.

I am not a pirate supporter but conditions has not change for the better. With copy right laws and piracy raids, pirates just reduce their prices lower and lower. And their prints on CDs now are equal to original if not better.

Software companies have to realise thatlaws will only help to a certain extent. It is demand that drives the market.

If Microsoft and software companies reduce their product prices, the demand to buy from pirate will be reduced and we can save the money in lengthy law suits and efforts for anti piracy organisation and raids to be channelled for better usage.

- Dylan Teo

Pirates don't have development costs and for sure don't have marketing, payroll, benefits and all of the other associated costs of doing business. All software companies must make some profit. Should they charge $450 US? NO. But can they get away with charging as little as the $20, $40, or $60 a piece for Office as has been suggested by some. I don't think so.

I do have a question. You say,"their prints on CDs now are equal to original if not better". Does that mean the pirates product isbetter than the original in quality? I don't understand how that could be.

Consumers will continue to complain until all products in the world are free--then they'll just want more free stuff.

If software development is so easy, then why don't the thousands upon thousands of software companies out there come out with better and cheaper products. If MS is making a huge amount more than normal profits, then it becomes even easier for other companies to compete.

Large profits drive innovation. It is the major incentive in a capitalist economy. Because the software market is wide open, we can't yell at MS for high prices. I say to anyone, start your own company and charge less, so we can all be happy.

I find it interesting that the prices can remain so high. When you actually read the EULA (End User Licence Agreement).... has any one else ever done this????, anyway.. basically, Microsoft states that you are leasing the software, and leasing it toonly one computer system.

I don't know about you, but paying $300 for XP, knowing in advance it'll crash, and you'll be forced to upgrade your PC specs to run it sufficiently, just seems crazy.

I agree with the pricing decreasae suggestion. Ifwe don't own something, why pay all that money out?

As I have stated before, I am among the clan who have tried every version of Windows to come out, but still end up back with Windows 98se. I have e-mail Microsoft, I have e-mailed the DOJ, I have e-mailed the Mirosoft Anti-Trust Group etc etc, but with nothing achieved.

I own all my major applications, they are the only things I will run other than Notepad, Calculator, etc. Why should I pay for all that bloat, when all I am going to do is strip it down and remove it all anyway?

I have been asking now for 2 years, YES TWO YEARS!, All I want is something that takes advantage of the 32-bit OS, runs with the stability of 2k, has better sound/multimedia support, a better driver databae and NOTHING ELSE. None of this Digital Camera Software, Audio Players etc. People will use the apps that come with the product, or get free software off the net. Eg: Kodak DC's come with software, Winamp is free. We don't need, nor do we want MS bloat. We just need a simple, secure, efficient, base OS.

I am tired of watching my clients look at me like I'm a total idiot when I finish telling them how "great" Microsoft Office 2000 would be for their small business.
"Ok, how much?"
"Only $769.00 canadian, per user!!"
---
Bye bye, Mr. Microsoft reseller!

I think Microsoft is getting greedy. What is the big deal of losing a small portion of money when you gain in the end result. I believe Microsoft should worry more about its .Net stragety then FUD. Java isn't going anywhere soon and how can you think that compnies would be willing to rewrite their "system" just for you(Microsoft and its related products). This could be the downfall of Microsoft...so show me the money!

I just sold a server setup to a customer that chose linux after looking at MS's prices. $2000+ for Server with 25 User Licenses. Many of his users were Unix lovers from old, so after a discussion, they chose a linux setup over anything from Microsoft.

Of course they need to recover costs... but it is very obvious that Gateway and Compaq are paying 180 for Win ME, nor 150 nor anything remotely comparable to what they're charging us. A volume discount might be reasonable, but the extent of this price differential means they are making up for those 'lost' profits on our backs. Somebody is being robbed.

jay

I have been experimenting with Linux. Very interesting, but it will be a while before they develop something so user friendly as Windows. But Remember Windows 3.1? It wasn't that long ago.
As for Office, there are a few suites like Star Office, Software602 that serve the main purpose. My last MS suite was Office 97. If you are a regular user, you don't need anything better. Even if there is. Now if you want to use office as you would use Lotus notes a few years ago, there are other possibilitites too. Some are even free.

Microsoft has stated many times that 25% of all Windows/Office installations worldwide(!) are pirated. Being from a third-world country myself, this doesn't surprise me.
Piracy which I have seen in the industry falls into only a few categories; people who can't afford it (3rd world countries et al and low-income families in the US), people who can afford it but resent the level of quality and people who lie cheat and steal anyway (large-scale pirates and people of lesser conscience).The first is by far the largest portion and by it's very nature cannot be allayed.
The second is, I believe, quite small due to the general lack of awareness of industry issues among the general population. It is also rendered irrelevant in some cases by industry associations ("Not For Resale" copies are always fair game).
The third, of course, is where the real issue lies and should be pursued whole-heartedly. Unfortunately this category cannot be addressed by Microsoft's current measures.
As such, I believe that Microsoft's change in stance will tend to be detrimental to their cause as they will be eliminating a portion of their user base which they would not have under any other circumstances anyway, thus creating an opening for other, truly free, software which performs the same function.
Microsoft's prices are, in fact, quite reasonable for the US market, (or would be if they actually delivered on their hype.)
Fortunately, with the release of Office 2000 andWindows 2000, there is some evidence that they are becoming aware that quality counts for something as well.
And what do I use at home? Linux of course. But let it be known that cost is not an issue for me, I just like not having to rebootfor literally months! Nor am I Linux evangelist, though I will be when it's ready for the mainstream (soon...).

- Michael

I am quite disapionted to see that so many people who reply here have a childish attitude towards microsoft. "Microsuck?" Name calling is not neccissary. Anyway, people are missing the point of this registration it is to prevent "casual copying" aka me taking my cd and lending it to the neighbor. Or me borrowing it from a friend. Or me putting the cd image on the internet for someone to download. Not to prevent people who professionally sell it pirate.
I have one question though.... This alogorithim that calculates the customer ID, could it actually contain a hardware profile, encoded into a neet little number so that Microsoft could track what kind of hardware we use. eg. the first four numbers denote what processor i have the next for denote how much ram and so on.... Not that I have a problem with it, I just wanted to stir up some paranioa in the privacy junkies..... they're watching

This appears to be the first step towards a time limited licensing scheme that MS (and perhaps others) has been exploring.

Under this scheme each licensed product will have an expiring license and for a fee, you will be allowed to update your license over a remote license MS server. Otherwise, the software will expire at a predetermined time and stop functioning.

In a smaller scale is equivalent to the live update for Norton Antivirus virus def files.

First, MS needs for the community to accept the concept of obtaining a H/W dependent unlock key. The next step is then to impose a time expiration on such enabled licenses.

This might not be a bad practice and it may be the way of the future S/W purchases. Sunbelt Software is already using the H/W dependednt unlock key for the software they resell and license. The only problem with their implementation, is that it is not automated.

MS may not admit just now that, their long term plan is an expiring license scheme. Butbelieve it, that is the long term plan that the real reasoning behind this propossed method.

Yes, MS is pushing it's .NET stuff, and this is a segue into that.

I'm surprised at the number of people who think this is about piracy. It's been established for about 15 years that moderate piracy *increases* sales. Whatever their faults, I seriously doubt that Microsoft is so stupid in the marketing department as not to know this. We've been through all this before; it is only the short memory of people that keeps them foolable.

I think that over time price/value is just going to continue dropping. Look at how much competition there is and the thousands of new places for software application emerging.

Some of the better developers may be able to leverage a time limit system effectively. However, I don't see this a great problem in face of competition and general advances taking place.

I use windows at home and at work. And I paid for the win95 and win98 OSes for home. Win2000 is nice, because it is on my laptop at work, but could not afford it for home. I run a linux server at home on an old p75 with no monitor, keyboard or mouse. It handles DHCP, SAMBA, and WINS. The only time I have to take the cover off is to replace the fans. Try that with any windows product. NT is close, as long as you do not put anything on it other than what comes on the Install disk. The jury is still out for me on 2000. I think MS has great bells and whistles, and has done a lot for conputing, but has also convinced people that it's your fault if you lose your data when something crashes because you have not saved your data in the last 5 minutes!

I think you've missed the point. Look at the timing of this program and you'll see that is coincides nicely with the move to home networks. A lot of homes now have multiple computers (including laptops). I'd be willing to bet they share the same OSdisk. MS wants to force those people, myself included, to pay for each copy of the program used on each of those machines. In our house, we have 8 computers, including two laptops. Do the math...at $89 a shot, it would cost me $712 to upgrade to XP if I bought a separate licence for each machine. Am I going to do this??? Not on your life!!!
I could cut that in half by using upgrade versions, but they stink so I wouldn't. I didn't buy ME and under this system, I will NEVER buy XP. I'll continue to use Win 98 for games, and Linux for serious computing. As far as I'm concerned, this is the last straw for me with MS...first, they want to take my MCSE status away unless I "upgrade" to 2000, now they want to "control" what I do with my OS disk. I've had it!!!
No XP for me...and I will STILL call myself an MCSE after Dec 31. MS can stick it where the sun don't shine as far as I'm concerned.
This whole corporate control thing is beginning to look too much like a Robert Heinlein Future World scenario for my comfort.
Linux developers PLEASE start coming out with some serious challenges to MS so we can escape this megalomaniac's trap.
Leave the buggy MS OS's to the Best Buy and Circuit City buyers. I, for one, am tired of playing Gates' game.

This is something they used to do in Russia. They used to tell people what videos they were allowed to view at home. If their police legally raided your home and if they found an X-rated video, you would go to jail. Maybe MS's next step is to get a license to physically raid people's homes and confiscate their bellongings. This madness will set a precedent that may allow sofabed builders to charge an activation fee each time you sit on the damn thing. Or does MS think they do anything so much more important than things other people had made before. What about the hardware companies, what are they gong to do? Upgrading hardware will be virtually impossible if MS has it their way. What about the crashes on HDD? Hardware improves each day, CPU's, motherboards, etc. I don't want a TV or a radio set. I want a computer because it can be upgraded, changed, modified. MS insists that all we can have is a stupid machine. I will not go for something like that. I am taking courses on other Operating systems and have given up office already. I use free suites or Corel Office for better printing material. My company has used Corel Office since 1998. I did the same. I hope some judge has common sense.

"Upgrading hardware will be virtually impossible if MS has it their way."

I'd like to see a logical argument on this one.

MS is entitled to their copyright laws. It is not really right to say MS sucks because you won't be able to run multiple copies for free. I do think that they should have a multiple license option though. Especially people with a laptop should be able to get a cheap second copy. I think it should be nearly free for a laptop, but how would MS work that out?

Uh, why do you have 8 PCs? Whatever you do is what you do--fine. It seems like someone with 8 PCs is development or something you know? Therefore they get charged like a business. I mean the average person doesn't have 8 PCs, so it is a bit hard to justify that MS should add that into the plan. I'm not saying because you situation is uncommon that you should suffer. Like I said, thereshould be an option available for situations like yours. I mean, I run multiple copies of 2000--of course. I don't want to start paying for two or three copies of XP if it is going to cost too much. Paying $180 for one copy of 2K is worth it, I think. Even if I would have had to pay the full $300 or whatever, I would think it is worth it. You have a good point to argue though. I haven't seen the pricing structure on XP yet, so...

Just like TVs 50 years ago, and just like VCRs 20 years ago, today the average household starts off with one PC and eventually there are multiple PCs in the home; hence the market for home networks. But what does that mean for you and I the home user, when it comes to upgrading software? I for one don't like the idea of having to pay for a software license for each machine in my home, whether the price be $50 or $400 per license. I feel one license fee per household is sufficient. This is not piracy nor is it thievery. Microsoft condones this approach with businesses by issuing site licenses, so why not individuals or households?

This activation scheme of Microsoft is targeting us, the retail consumers of their products, and is using its standing as a legal monopoly to enforce whatever heavy-handed scheme possible to insure that we are forced to pay and pay and pay again for new releases of the same old over blown and buggy software.

If Microsoft is really intent on preventing piracy it needs to look at those who profit from distributing illegal copies of their software whether they operate here in the US or overseas where piracy is rampant, and openly practiced in defiance of our laws. Perhaps Microsoft should apply the product activation scheme on certain foreign language versions to curtail piracy.

Microsoft became the largest software company in the world by strong-arming their competition into submission and subsequently oblivion. Those same tactics won't work with consumers whether they are business or individuals, since what was touted as the be all and end all of PC software 4 years ago works well, if not better, on today's hardware. Older versions of the MS Office software doesn't wear out, rust or decay; it would seem to improve with age especially if newer versions are to make criminals of us all.

This has been the software company's whine for years. Piracy makes prices rise. So if we are effectively eliminating piracy then the price should go down, no ?.

I have no problem with any company's right to earn profits, and force registration, we also have the right to use a different software package, or different OS. Its still a free (pardon the pun) country.

However, if the claims over the years about piracy reaching these amazing levels, then as it comes down I would expect to see the price come down as well.

I don't believe there is a compelling reason to buy any MS OS or Office upgrade at this time. Using WIN98 v3, WIN NT 4(2000), and Office 97 meet the needs for a majority of home and corporate needs. This is evident by recent poor MS sales.

I willconsider my next upgrade when Intel 64 bit processors have been fully tested and reach market equilibrium. When MS introduces a 64 bit OS and it has released its 3rd patch I may look. Until then, relax and spend your money elsewhere. You?ll live to tell about it. If MS is given the message that the public has lost its appetite for hype by not upgrading with every new nothing OS, and then price will fall in line.

I agree with you. At this point, I have no reason to upgrade at home, or at work. That is what is hurting MS. We have learned to live with the weirdness of NT and Off97, and NOBODY is anxious to go through that again. BTW, when VB.Net comes out,I can see no reason to rewrite all of my current VB programs, which are not even web apps anyway. Are you listening, Bill?????

Well, apparently you pretty much can't.
If anyone knows how to legally do this... (no, not used oems.....!) I'd like to know.... looking for win98se too.....

I found two new licensed copies at a PC recycler (Mon and Pop) store. $65.00 apiece

This is how I understand the licensing legal-mumbo-jumbo: you can use Office 97 if you own a legit retail license for Office 2k, not an OEM (to my understanding). MS allows you to use an older version of the same product line. The thought processbehind this is (for them): why would you want to? Now I can think of many reasons why I would, but MS does not see it that way. Thus, they do allow you to use Off97 if you own a retail Off2k. The same applies to the Win9x series. If you buy a retail copy of Win98SE or ME, you can run Win95 legally, if ya want! We were informed of this little know fact at a MS licensing semninar I attended little over a year ago. FYI also, the I have heard from fairly reliable sources that the "Product Activation" utility primarily uses your motherbaord serial number as its basis for ID'ing your PC. My 2 bits....

I have one ? about it I can't seem to get an answer from Microsoft on..... when I am loading 98 or 95, what do I put in the "registration key" field that WON'T say "this is an invalid key" and is legal when I am using their "downgrade" policy? Did they tell you?
By the way, Idaho rocks!

Thanx! Love it here too! Everything you could want in one state (except ocean) Anyway, to your question, they did not say. And in our situation, we simply used one CD key on all the systems. That way, we could tell if our IT people installed it, or the users did. According to the Rep. we talked to, the CD key # (pre- this Product Activation BTW...) does not prove your legality at all. However, this will change now with this PA they are utilizing now for all but volume licensed customers. (Which we are actually) Volume licensed customers will be exempt from the PA, and not required to "register" each system with MS. Thus, we will most likely continue to use the the same CD key as before since we image our systems using Drive Image Pro.

I know that does not answer your question, but if you CERTAIN you are legal, then you could find a key, if you look.

Ok, not everyone looks at privacy and anonymity the way I do but...

I have a number of legal programs which I have never registered on principle, especially after the fiasco of MS' GUID a while back which was placing identifier information in every document created by a machine.

By forcing registration, and we can't tell for sure how much information is revealed to them in the CRC-like key which they will use to ID the machine.. but it is *very* technically feasible to incorporate unique identifier information in there sufficient to link every document, compile, spreadsheet you ever create to you as a person as well as your machine.

Not a pleasant thought (especially if you are a whistle blower).

jay

Not many can really speculate on that. MS is entitled to their large profits. After all, they make some of the greatest products. There are thousands of other great companies from which people can buy, so what does that reflect about people's choiceto buy MS?

A lot of the piracy that goes on is by people whom would not otherwise buy the software anyway. There is always going to be some level of stealing (not just software) as long as a products price is greater than zero.

Windows 2000 cost over a billion to develop. I didn't mind paying $180 at all even though I already had a fully functional pirated copy since January 2000 (before official release.)

If I calculated the worth (to me) of my PC and all of the software, it would be worth many tens of thousands of dollars compared to not having any PC at all. As a similar excercise, take MS products out of the world--everybody will cry to pay the $$$ once again.

I reiterate, Bill is just milking you. No need to upgrade on any 32-bit OS or software at this time. It is worth the short time to wait for upcoming 64-bit PC hardware and software. Save your money, these 32-bit upgrades have diminishing returns andwill soon be obsolete.

In general, home users are not going to need the extra calculating possiblilities that come with 64-bit OS, hardware, and software. Most people have too much power with a 32-bit 1GHz. Surely application usefulness can be increased, but that generally doesn't mean a move to 64-bit. 32-bit is here for a few more years at least.

I do see kinda where you are going with this, but if there is ever to be a transition from any one thing to the another, there has to be a transistion point. In the PC market, should we stop with Millenium/2000/PIII/P4, get XP/Northwood, or should we wait for the home versions of Itanium and 64-bit Windows?

If consumers did some basic research, they would be able to determine for theirselves what particluar hardware and software mix is right for them. I won't upgrade until it is worth it.

On the otherhand, it might be worth the wait for select enterprise applications. However, you then must look at how quickly companies are seeing a return on Windows 2000 already.

I plan on buying two 1 GHz PIII within the next month because the value/performance ratio is great ($210.00). I?ll pass on P4 because there is not a long-term chip set path. Etc. etc. I don?t see the same value/performance ratio coming out of Redwood, so I?ll pass on upgrades on the OS/Office suite. If Redwood wants premium dollar then they have to earn it, not hype it.

In order to drive the market to reasonable levels, we as consumers have to demonstrate command by demanding value. This means, not being so gullible toward hype. To put it in prospective, Win9x/NT/Office 97Pro to Win2000/Office 2000Pro to WinXP/Office XP Pro = $500 + $1000 + $1200 = $2700. $2700/Preformance (Productivity gains) to me shows a diminishing return trend.
Microsoft knows it and corporate America is now realizing it. This is why I believe the transition point is here. No to hype, no to product activation, no to XP. Once I buy with the intent to use legally, I believe I should have the freedom to loadand reload as many times as I want and where-ever I want without having to ask permission for whatever reason under any circumstances. If Microsoft refuses to have trust in me (consumer) then they risk the chance of me no longer believing in them. Since they are currently a monopoly, then all I can do as a consumer is show restraint and just say no to hype.

No one has to pirate based on price. There are free or lower cost applications and OSs in abundance. Pirating is done because someone wants specific programs, mostly Microsoft's, and don't want to pay for them.
Do you think Microsoft is too pricy, too unstable? Buy an AS/400 and some apps. Microsoft will seem very liberal and inexpensive in comparision.
I am not a big Microsoft fan, but software is the best and least expensive it has ever been. I'm guessing that most of these readers don't remember when apps like Lotus 1-2-3, Dbase III, Wordperfect, and others were $500 EACH in 80's dollars. Oh, and they had some really funky copy protection schemes.
Personally, I hope Microsoft goes to an annual subscription basis for corporate users, ending the upgrade game Philbert describes.

You paid $500 for Lotus 1-2-3 in the 80's? What store did you shop at?

I think I finally figured it out!
Bill must have aquired the rights to Linux secretly and now plans to force not only the folks running the servers, but THE AVERAGE USER to now be forced into Linux training as most management will finally bite the bullet and train their staff to use it! What a brilliant move! Force himself out of the small business market first and then let whatever businesses can finally afford THE PRODUCT to FAIL due to ridiculous software overhead! He's great at aquiring.... I just can't imagine any other reason but this!

;>

Notice that Windows server share is going up. Even Compaq and I think Dell (think it was those two) dropped the free Linux recently and decided to pay for Windows Server versions for lines of their servers because it is better--at least in that particular application.

I like Linux too, but it just doesn't have nowhere near the functionality of Windows. I'm not talking about the specialized servers apps, but ease of deployment, large scale administration, hardware support, software support, etc. There are just quite simply a lot of things that Windows can do that Linux can't. Linux has its pluses, and I'm curious to see what is going to happen.

I switched our (small) office to Caldera eServer and actually found, after a couple of minor hardware changes, that it is easier to deploy and takes less administration time, but I must admit, we only really need file sharing with win workstations, an e-mail server and a web-server so for us, we haven't really needed many of the extra things Win can do....
I'm not really going to go to my director team and suggest we switch because windows server share is going up. Although I was joking in theprevious post, my point is that small businesses with less needs are being squeezed out, perhaps unintentionally, of the MS system. I think they tried with Small Business Server, but I haven't talked to any other admins that had that work well so far, and, frankly, although Linux is opensource, not free, it works with a lot less money and hassle than NT4.0 or 2000 in this situation. I also consult for a non-profit, where they get MS software for free, and they are running a Linux webserver because they can't afford an admin and it was easier for their "power user" to administrate the webserver through Webmin than to use 2000. No lie. We tried 2000 first, and he had a lot of trouble. He was learning both from scratch, and I think this may have been the difference.
Again, I really don't believe Linux is superior. Just in some situations, as is Windows it is. I do, however, think that if more smaller businesses and third world countries learn to use it because it's the best alternative,that it will spread and improve even more. I remember a time when no one thought Big Blue could lose the Lion's Share of the market either... I'm curious too
Basically, run what works for the business, but if MS doesn't figure out a way to provide products for smaller businesses, Linux, Be and BSD etc. will continue to gain momentum.

Won't the placement of a new primary hard drive force me to re-load and reactive my software... What right do they have on how many time 's I reload my software and what right do they have to my hardware configuration... The United States Goverment doesn't even have a right to this information providing I am acting with in the limitations of the law. In the past two months I have reloaded windows ME/2000 and Advanced server over 50 different times... With over 100 different configurations atwhat point does my research and development become microsoft need to know information. If the consumers refuse to stand against this tyranical and natzi style of marketing and research cuz trust me folks thats what it is... Then the consumer deserves to be raped and pilaged because knowledge is power... Power is what microsfot has... and every time you report a bug to them do you get credit a t-shirt if your lucky i have a few...but I reap no benefit to report my findings to microsoft not to mention the fact that they flat out post your finding with thier name on it with or with out thier my name and that folks is stealing an idea... It's the same concept as cheap sweatshop labor being performed on a global scale who has more right to the knowledge and phase II is subscribing for your updates people...if you dont see it coming...get ready...it's gonna be ugly..and there wont be anything you can do to stop a nightmare like this...If anything Microsoft is global shareware and I am sure as I babble on and on about this I just going to find design or publish a disk crack, quick fix or reg-patch to correct this problem...
ZZZ..sleep on it....

What Microsoft sells as upgrades , should really be service packs.

Windows 98 2nd edition was a compilation of all of the fixes that Windows 98 needed. Yet they sold it as if it was a brand new product.

They do that with all of their products. Office 2000 isn't even all that different from Office 97.

Should a 2001 Ford Mustang be free upgrade to the 2000 model?

wah wah wah.

I guess you don't use Office. The Windows OS progression is far more than fixes. If you don't know that, then maybe you shouldn't even be using the damn computer.

I hope those geniuses at Microsoft have some common sense. Do they know if they create so much inconveniences to the customers, the consumers will dump their products? It is the LAW of doing business in the real world!!

I am an ex hacker myself I now use my hacking skills to provide security to companys for a small fee of course and i have already come up with a rough idea on how to get past this insensate problem I give a week after it`s release until it,s cracked. When are companys going to learn not to call a program unhackable or uncutable then it become a personal mission to every hacker, cracker,phreaker and lamer to try to be the first to crack it or hack it ...... we all remember when ID software came out with Quake 1 and called uncrackable what did it take some hacker a big 48 hours to make Qcrack so microsoft can say what the want they kinda remind me of the big bad wolf huffing and puffing trying to blow down the little pigs brick house
please anything you would like to add your all free to email me @ Syber_Punk@hotmail.com

I have to agree with chanf_2000. If Microsoft go through with this, i for one and i'm sure many others will opt for a more stable less hastle operating system.