legit users screwed by xp activation hell :mad:

[Thermopylae_480]

You can get the OEM version from Newegg. It saves a few bucks.

 

[trog100]

not so long back the UK definition of theft was to "permanently deprive the owner thereof"..

there had to be an owner and he had to lose something.. i might be way of the beam here but to me there is a big distinction tween nipping down the local shop and bunging a copy of windows in your pocket than useing your dads copy on your own machine..

then of course we have the theory that adding to the coffers of a pigopoly like ms aint doing the world any favours and your money is better spent somewhere else where its needed a little more..

either way most of us do spent all our money.. any money going in the direction of ms is money not going to somewhere else.. being as i cant think of many places less in need of money than microsoft i feel it hard to grieve overmuch about any that gets diverted elsewhere..

i do feel that the thread starter was little naive in thinking the pigopolist might feel sorry for him thow.. he he he.. and the poor family with three computers but only one legit copy of windows between em carries about as much credibility as the pigopolist having any compassion..

a couple or so years back someone had the clever idea of giving all ancient (valueless) computers to the third world for the poor and possibly deserving to be educated.. Microsoft sank the idea by demanding its ($100) piece of flesh for the ancient operating system..

your hardware might become worthless in ten years but ms still think the acient piece of software to run it is still worth the same as the day it was state of the art.. try buying a copy of doss.. he he he

only a pigopoly could get away with such things and ms is one.. i find it hard to have any sympathy for em..

trog

 

[Steevo]

My apologies. I wasn't writing a history essay and did not choose my words as carefully as I should of. I was specifically refering to the extreme opium addiction of China in the 1800s in order to clarify that the great Chineese philosophers were in all likely hood not addicted to opium. I realize opium as a medicinal form can be traced back to ancient China. Prior to the British introducing and marketing opium as a form of recreation, I feel opium has had a only a negligible impact on China history. When the Mongolian empire was at its height there may have been some use of opium as a recreational drug, since it was a major source of trade. I am fully aware of opiums origins and don't appreciate your "laugh" at my statment over a matter of semantics. I feel it would have been more proper for you to simply disagree and state why.

Sorry Sir.

I was merly refering to the fact that the general populace of the time could.

1) Not afford leisure time to sit, smoke and think about the meaning of life and the balance of things.
2) Not afford the price of the drug.
3) Not write and or their writings are ignored, like many blogs today, but the ramblings of a president that has a lower IQ are published for many to read for centuries.

For a fact few writings of the general populace have survived, but those of the elite or noble class have. Those with money and time to spend on such things were likely not the working-common class. Is a farmer today a wise man? In 500 years who will have heard of me or you, but perhaps Brittney Speers, Paris Hilton, etc.... And so we and our time is judged. :shadedshun

 

[Thermopylae_480]

For a fact few writings of the general populace have survived, but those of the elite or noble class have. Those with money and time to spend on such things were likely not the working-common class. Is a farmer today a wise man? In 500 years who will have heard of me or you, but perhaps Brittney Speers, Paris Hilton, etc.... And so we and our time is judged. :shadedshun

I like that .

 

[noneed4me2]

everything i read or saw a documentary of said Apple stole the whole window GUI from xerox and then Bill gaites snagged it from them when he got close enough to study it. Its great that he was innovative enough to run with it and turn it into the consumer friendly product but it seemed for awhile in that era everyone was trying to rip off everyone else and it seems to me a little poetic justice in that now he's fighting to keep something which he stole himself. I know apple is still hanging in there and with them switching to intel chips only opens up the possibilty of OSX being a better alternative. If i had the money i would go mac just cause they seem to have better issues with security and graphics. The only downside to macs is still their lack of software support. Linux wouldn't fly in my house cause all my kids use the pc and there still a bit to young to use command line, but my version of xp is not the one that came with my oem pc as i will not use a pc loaded down with trial software and AOL. But i have never had a pc that had other than the software that came with it OS wise, 95, 98, ME, 2000 i have used them all but i had no qualms using a copied version of the software with the key from my pc because restore discs are crap and the fact that computers still ship with them just shows how greedy corporations can be. Capitalism isn't perfect and reality is that if they can take your money they will. Hey i love America in that i can even dicuss this regardless of stuff like the Patriot act but when you see how corrupt governments, corporations, and even individuals can be sometimes you gotta look out for yourself and your own and vice/versa sometimes government regulation isn't all bad. For those in California remember that whole energy crisis we had a few years back, and remember how Enron got into trouble for creating false energy shortages? I never got my money back for those outrageous energy price hikes. I am sorry if this is rambling and i will admit that I'm not the most virtuous person but i am still kind enough to stop and help somebody stuck or lend a helping hand when needed, but i still take issue with the concept of paying a high price for something that was stolen in the first place.

 

[Steevo]

Linux has better and more desktops than Windows and Mac.

Go and get a Knoppix Live CD to try it out.

Yes there was a lot of questionable trading of some software technology back in the day. But now realise, Apple not only sells the software at a higher price, but also sells the hardware at a higher price, and not just mice and keyboards. 40% profit margin. And they have a desktop. But people aren't lining up to have multiple copies of their software. Only as Apple didn't make it easy to copy.

More secure and better graphics? No, not really. The same as, any software will have security issues as it is written by people who are falliable.

 

[KennyT772]

wow i would have to say my uncle hooked me up and there are many ways past activation. ive never registured and corp edition doesnt need activation. yes installing sp1 and sp2 are hell but there are ways. is this bad? yes but is it worth to add another $100 to the comp no. to anyone that needs help on this i know a thing or to for when u change hardware.

 

[wazzledoozle]

Yeah Xerox did the GUI first, then apple copied them then M$ copied apple. It was kind of the next step in computers though, no one really needed to "copy" its a simple concept.

 

[trog100]

"Capitalism isn't perfect and reality is that if they can take your money they will"

that about sums it up..

they also aint overly ethical about how they take it.. which of course on a tit for tat basis is gonna lead to a whole bunch of folks not being overly ethical about how they stop em taking it..

trog

 

[noneed4me2]

As far as better security it seems windows has to post more updates than mac users and isn't OSX based on the linux code so that was the reason i stated its more secure and hac proof, obviously not 100%, but better than windows. All those neat CG effects in movies are often made with macs, when i watch dvd bonus features I see people using macs for graphics design, again not all, but alot. I understand human falibity but when a corporation forces out competition thats not good for anyone and unbalances the market. As far as macs profit margin they price themselves out of alot of markets in my opinion and if they made machines cheaper i think more people would give them a try. I cannot afford to test out a mac and I love windows ease of use but apple must be doing something right to have stayed in business all these years. I don't know it all, but having experienced first hand at getting ripped of for a few thousand by a "corporation" who then goes and hides behind bankruptcy laws really sucks, especially when their intent was to defraud me of my hard earned money, and when things are paycheck to paycheck it just makes it harder. I don't mind circumventing some copyright protection when i have technically already paid for it when I purchase a computer. Almost all the games my kids play on the home PC are set to run with nocd crack or a backup, just because my 3 and 5 year old boys have destroyed to many retail cd's and we lack the funds to constantly replace these games or software. Hell if you pay for stuff you can be supporting someone else's unscrupulous act against others. If think people should just be more decent to others and respected other peoples right to have a differing opinion.

 

[Steevo]

The issue wasn't and isn't backup. I have a copy of XP Pro and Home on my PC that are backups, and I keep them up to date for builds. The issue is a person who had a choice, and made the wrong one. Simple.

If you don't like Winders, don't buy it. It is as simple as that. I have Linux on two boxes and use them for everything but gaming and photo editing. I heart Debian. More than MS products. It is free, has office built in, KDE, better themes, better browser-Konqurer, I can run three desktops and still have system resources left with a whopping 512RAM and a Cirrus PCI video card. I can use my music in WMA form off my PC, print to my photo printer, use anything I want but my games. Did I mention that it was free? And secure, and stable last reboot was power outage.

Or I know you can get Solaris for free. I haven't tried it though, I got scared by a bum wearing a solaris 8 T-shirt.

So I fail to see the problem. If you don't agree to the terms, or don't like Windows, Bill Gates, MS, or the like. Don't use it. Simple. KISS Keep It Simple Stupid <-- Not intended to insult anyone.

 

[trog100]

"The issue wasn't and isn't backup"

the issue is about back ups.. and about every other piece of anti-consumer copy protection crap that the pigopolists will foist upon us..

this aint just a "windows" thing.. its spreads right thru the entire digital rights management system..

any system that ends up turning everyday joe soap type citizens into a bunch of criminals has to be wrong.. period..

i rather like Oscar Wildes quote.. "The law is for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wisemen".. mind u he did end up in jail.. he he he

trog

 

[Steevo]

You can backup a system. With MS's software or with any number of other programs out there. Who here hasn't used Alcohol 120 to keep things and games safe and make them better and faster?

This is getting off topic, and the fact still remains that its wrong. Having one copy of XP on more than one machine at one time.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

You can backup a system. With MS's software or with any number of other programs out there. Who here hasn't used Alcohol 120 to keep things and games safe and make them better and faster?

This is getting off topic, and the fact still remains that its wrong. Having one copy of XP on more than one machine at one time.

Backing up the windows xp cd isnt hard at all lol

Infact, of all things, its laughably easy... games however are a pain...

 

[trog100]

its also wrong to breach the end user agreement however u do it.. i have a sneaky suspicion that making backup copies of a windows cd is in breach of the license agrreement..

i know that if someone steals your oem pc that came with a windows installed on it u no longer have the right to retain ownership of any software that came with it.. he he he..

it also seems the oem people are not allowed to include a full windows install with their machine.. only a "backup" copy that will restore the machine exactly how it came..spyware junk and all.. so when u think u are buying windows as well as the machine u aint really just a machine with windows on it..

sooo if your new machine goes apeshit and u have lost your backup.. the only way u can use the machine u have paid good mony for is to go out and buy another copy of windows.. and to make matter worse.. all the backup cd does is to make your machine exactly the same as when u bought it.. no repair function.. the backup cd is simply a system snapshot.. so if u want to repair your windows install the only way to do it is.. u guessed.. go out and buy a real copy of windows.. he he he

weird this but having entered lots of search strings into google i cannot find any refference to something in that in real life would be simple question.. "can i copy my windows cd".. there is whole army of junk about making backups of installed software.. bugger all about the simple act of copying the cd.. odd..

trog

 

[infrared]

Backing up the windows xp cd isnt hard at all lol

Infact, of all things, its laughably easy... games however are a pain...

Yeah, i've never figured out why it's so easy, yet game companies go to so much effort to copy protect thier cd-roms, and have finally got to something that's reasonably difficult to get past (but never impossible! )

In fact i think they didn't add copyright protection because each copy of xp is made unique but the activation number thingey. I use the same xp disk on all my pc's and just activate them with different serial numbers.

 

[Steevo]

Or you can use windows backup to create periodic backups to completely restore a machine. You may have as many copies of the installation software as you want, but it may only be installed on one active machine. OEM is OK to move from one PC to another as long as a nessasary piece of hardware is moved from machine to machine *cough*. If you are good you can re-integrate all the addon crap from a manufacturer into a XP CD. The server I built for work contains weekly backups of all of our important machines, and those images can be restored to a new XP install or a blank machine using a boot disk.

I built all but 5 PC's for my workplace, and have built many home machines. Plus I was on the beta team for XP, was invited to join Vista, and have rebuilt a friends E-machines that died. There is no issue for moving the software, my personal upgrade copy of XP that I have had around for awhile has been moved 4 times from machine to machine, upgrades, systems and trying things. I have made two calls to support to get new ID's and they were no problem when I explaned. I got 2 free copies of Pro OEM for helping, and a gift basket. MS isn't ungratefull or stupid. They are out to make a product that is easy to use and profitable. Just like some of the people who sell flavors of Linux.

 

[noneed4me2]

I agree and my intent never was to put more than one copy on different machines but i did use a full version i borrowed and wiped my hard drive clean and partitioned it and installed with the cd key provided by my PC. I figured if anything went wrong i could always use the restore disks, but it wasn't till after i had reformatted my hard drive that i opened the restore discs and saw 3 blank cdr and instructions on burning them from a seperate partition that i had just wiped. If i had problems with my software from first boot i wouldve had to RMA it, if i didn't have any understanding of computers. Now who would have ended up paying for the hassle of returning the thing. All i was saying that its not really violating the spirit of the law if i used it the way i did. But the people who were affected by the activation thing and there own lack of PC knowledge, to them it would seem outrageous to pay for more licenses when they bought it outright. Maybe they should package it better with bold print "THIS IS FOR 1 PC ONLY". As far as disliking or liking Bill, MS, or whoever makes little difference; the fact is Microsoft sought out to be the only real Operating system of choice by there buisness practicess and i don't know about you but last time i was in best buy i didn't see a bunch of operating systems to chooses from, just XP, and since they are pretty much the only game in town, "new and inexperienced" users aren't gonna understand they can still use Linux or buy a mac with OSX (my dad insists macs and PCs are the same) and MS can charge pretty much whatever they want and this is how the market gets skewed.

 

[mex]

If only Bill gates could read this thread!!! I would love to see his face!

 

[Steevo]

Let me say it again. If you have a internet connection, or a friend has one and a burner, you can get Linux. No buying other than the cost of the CD-R.

http://www.linux.org/dist/index.html <-- Go here and find one. Or.
http://www.arklinux.org/ <--Extremely easy to install.
http://www.lycoris.com/ <-- Damn easy install. I have a copy, and a live CD.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html <-- Run from CD, no install. I use this for a cleaning tool.
http://www.archlinux.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/

etc...


Choose one. Burn it, install it, quitcherbitchen.

 

[mex]

Would just like to say now that Macs have come into this discussion, that there is no comparison.
I support macs and PC and I am not saying macs are not good. In my opinion

Macs are aimed at a user that is not interested in all the millions of things you can do on a computer but want a straight forward single operation method for achieving there task.

With PC's there are no limit's really to where a user can take a PC and that there are so many diversities to almost every tasks it gives the user a lot of freedom compared to the Mac.

 

[infrared]

well said mex.

Also, macs don't usually need high end hardware, since they're not usually doing anything particularly demanding. They have their uses like all things.

 

[noneed4me2]

i wasn't infering that different versions of Linux is not free or almost free but it isn't marketed the same as windows. Linux tends to require alot more technical knowledge to use where as windows is tons more user friendly. I think Lindows was an attempt to resolve this issue but I haven't heard much about it lately.

 

[Steevo]

Lindows in now Lycoris.

You are right, Linux isn't marketed at most users. And some people still fear what they don't know, like a windows setup.I had a person see me yesterday about a, one, single, BSOD on 2K.

For those people that have more money than brains, it doesn't matter, but for those of us with a balance or less money than brains it does or should.

How many people at this site fear the unknown? Evidently many as the number of you who will bitch about XP but still chose to use it as your primary OS. For those of you who are too afraid to try linux, get some balls about you!

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

How many people at this site fear the unknown? Evidently many as the number of you who will bitch about XP but still chose to use it as your primary OS. For those of you who are too afraid to try linux, get some balls about you!

nice rant.