[News] WGA Gets New 'Features'

[Roy Schestowitz]

Yay! More 'advantage'!

Microsoft to Augment WGA with More Features

,----[ Quote ]
| Though, the big giant had to face controversy when its WGA was tagged
| of working as spyware by security firms and privacy groups, even so,
| legal pester have left the company?s goal intact with the current
| initiative, which will develop the capacity of the(WGA)Windows
| Genuine Advantage program.
`----

http://www.spywarehunter.org/entry/microsoft-to-augment-wga-with-more-features/

[[H]omer]

I can see it's going to get *very* busy in the "WGA Validation Problems"
forum.

--
K.
http://slated.org - Slated, Rated & Blogged
This message has not been photoshopped in any way.

Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) on sky, running kernel 2.6.16-1.2133_FC5
15:54:38 up 57 days, 16:11, 2 users, load average: 0.28, 0.95, 0.92

[Roy Schestowitz]

__/ [ [H]omer ] on Monday 14 August 2006 15:57 \__

> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> Yay! More 'advantage'!
>>
>> Microsoft to Augment WGA with More Features
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Though, the big giant had to face controversy when its WGA was tagged
>> | of working as spyware by security firms and privacy groups, even so,
>> | legal pester have left the company?s goal intact with the current
>> | initiative, which will develop the capacity of the(WGA)Windows
>> | Genuine Advantage program.
>> `----
>>
>>
http://www.spywarehunter.org/entry/microsoft-to-augment-wga-with-more-features/
>
> I can see it's going to get *very* busy in the "WGA Validation Problems"
> forum.

WGA: Windows Gets Angry.

Thief! Counterfeit!

[soup Nazi voice]No advantage for you!![/soup Nazi voice]

Nnnnnext!

[Rex Ballard]

Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Yay! More 'advantage'!
>
> Microsoft to Augment WGA with More Features
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Though, the big giant had to face controversy when its WGA was tagged
> | of working as spyware by security firms and privacy groups, even so,
> | legal pester have left the company?s goal intact with the current
> | initiative, which will develop the capacity of the(WGA)Windows
> | Genuine Advantage program.
> `----

This very much reminds me of the little fable about the man who had a
goose that laid golden eggs. Each morning, he would come in and there
would be a new Golden egg. The man became very wealthy but he also
became very greedy. On day, he was so consumed by greed, that he
decided that rather than wait for the goose to lay a golden egg, he
would just kill the goose and get all of the eggs at once. Of course,
there wasn't a "stash" of golden eggs inside, and now that the goose
was dead, there would be no more eggs. All there was left for the man
to do was to cook his own goose.

> http://www.spywarehunter.org/entry/microsoft-to-augment-wga-with-more-features/

This is the perfect example of Microsoft finally cooking it's own
goose. It looks like Billy is about to retire, but before he does, he
is going to try to make one last "big squeeze" for as much cash as he
can, as quickly as he can, by "Killing the Goose".

Microsoft is telegraphing their intent to try and force corporate
customers back into the "All Microsoft" camp by planting spyware on the
computers of their employees, then using that spyware to indentify and
harass anyone who installs their OEM or Corporate licensed software as
a VM Client software.

JUDGE KOLLAR-KOTELLY - WAKE UP!!!!
EU ANTITRUST COMMISSION - WAKE UP!!!!

LINUX COMMUNITY - WAKE UP!!!

The Linux community has eliminated the need for the Microsoft monopoly.
Microsoft Windows and Linux can peacefully coexist on a system in
which Linux is the primary operating system, and everything works
beautifully. You get the security, stability, and functionality that
was promised, but not delivered, in Longhorn/Steer/Vista, and you can
do it on a 64 bit dual-core processor that can run native 64 bit
applications and run Windows XP 32 bit applications at 64 bit speeds.

But NO!!! MICROSOFT HAS TO HAVE IT ALL!!!

They can't play nice, they have to OWN the machine. They have to be
able to TORPEDO Linux. They have to be able to PREVENT END USERS from
PUTTING LINUX on a machine that HAS ALREADY HAD A WINDOWS LICENSE PAID
FOR!!!

Why should the OEMs pay for Windows if Microsoft is just going to start
harassing these customers by refusing to accept their activation keys
because Windows is running as a VM to Linux instead of as the primary
operating system. If you are going to try and force OEM customers who
buy Dells, HPs, Lenovos, and Sony PCs, to go out and spend another $300
for an "Authorized" copy of Windows, then all you are going to do is
have hundreds of millions of users who install coexisting Linux/Windows
systems totally pissed off and demanding their money back - for the
whole damn PC!!!

They bought the machine with Windows. They purchased a Dell instead of
a "White Box Special" because Linux was included in the purchase price,
and they paid a $200-$300 premium for a machine that was "Linux Ready".
Now Microsoft is going to tell them they can't install WINDOWS on
their Linux enabled boxes?

Keep in mind that when OEMs refused to support Linux, the "White Box
Market" which is almost entirely Linux, grew to nearly 30% of the
number of machines sold in a given year. To regain that market, the
"Big 5" started shipping "Linux Ready" machines, even offering them
with FreeDOS or some inexpensive version of Linux to let users know
which machines were "Linux Ready". Even though they sold almost none
of those machine without Windows (because the telephone, retail, and
web sales channels were not allowed to do so), the sales of those
machines was very brisk, even though they often cost as much as 30-40%
more than comparable "Windows Only" machines.

If Dell and other OEMs are suddenly finding that the "White Box" market
is growing to, say, 40% because Microsoft is alienating their
customers, the "Big 5" are likely to start shipping "Linux Only" boxes,
and displaying them in retail stores.

Keep in mind that the "White Box" market exploded around the same time
that Microsoft started arm-twisting corporate customers, trying to
force them to pay triple their original support contract prices, for
machines that were going to be purchased with Windows XP preinstalled.
Microsoft wanted to "triple-bill" these customers. Charging the price
of Windows for the OEMs, then changing the corporate customers again,
then charging the cost of an OEM Windows license every MONTH for 3
years. Most of those contracts will be expiring in October.

A stunt like WGA just might be the little nudge that pushes the
corporate CFOs, CEOs, and CTOs to simply force all employees to Linux,
OpenOffice, FireFox, and Thunderbird, and any vendor, contractor, web
site, or supplier who wants to do business with this company had better
be prepared to support these standards as well.

Open Office may not have every gnat's hair feature of MS-Office, but
it's "good enough" to end these strong-arm tactics from Microsoft!!!

FireFox on Linux may not support ActiveX controls and all those other
virus friendly standards, but if you want to send us anything other
than Acrobat, Flash, and MPEG2, we probably block it anyway. Many
corporations intercept the ActiveX signature authentication CAs, and
pass on/validate only those approved by the corporate IT department.

Linux may not support every computer ever sold, but most companies have
been purchasing only "Linux Ready" systems since 2003, which means that
Linux is "good enough" to meet the needs of those companies as well.

If Microsoft insists on demanding TOTAL CONTROL of the corporate
desktop, and home PC, then they will quickly find that they will be
cooking their own goose.

Rex Ballard