Microsoft Vista.. really worth it?
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Here we have another indication that Microsoft is more worried about lost revenue than customer service. I don't believe we'll be doing a switch to vista on the bulk of our machines here. We will have to have a copy or two for development and testing but this is really begining to get on my wick! First they develop WGA, which by the way worried us to death installing it's self over and over and over and... you get it. Then their bloody server had a problem and invalidated legitimate customers. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798 Now we have a new problem to worry about. Come in a your screen goes black. Then you have to figure out that MS killed your copy. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9035478 I see a real danger here that they will progress this to the point that they just format the harddrive for you. And all because of a screw up on their part. Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling my pain?
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Here we have another indication that Microsoft is more worried about lost revenue than customer service. I don't believe we'll be doing a switch to vista on the bulk of our machines here. We will have to have a copy or two for development and testing but this is really begining to get on my wick! First they develop WGA, which by the way worried us to death installing it's self over and over and over and... you get it. Then their bloody server had a problem and invalidated legitimate customers. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798 Now we have a new problem to worry about. Come in a your screen goes black. Then you have to figure out that MS killed your copy. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9035478 I see a real danger here that they will progress this to the point that they just format the harddrive for you. And all because of a screw up on their part. Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling my pain?
I feel you. It's annoying that legitimate customers are one suffering because of all this. Is Vista worth it? Yes and no. If I had known what I know now back when I switched I would have waited a year or so. XP is more than adequate at the moment, and I have had many problems with Vista. Some of the issues were driver issues, but the majority of issues were core Vista issues. I'm on XP most of the day since we use ASP.NET at work, and at home I'm on Vista, but I'm seriously contemplating installing Linux at home when KDE 4 comes out; I can't imagine I'll have any less issues than with Vista (and I won't have to call to some German guy when I install it in order to get a 64 digit number I need to type in when installing the OS)
"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, `Who is destroying the world?' You are."
-Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand -
Here we have another indication that Microsoft is more worried about lost revenue than customer service. I don't believe we'll be doing a switch to vista on the bulk of our machines here. We will have to have a copy or two for development and testing but this is really begining to get on my wick! First they develop WGA, which by the way worried us to death installing it's self over and over and over and... you get it. Then their bloody server had a problem and invalidated legitimate customers. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798 Now we have a new problem to worry about. Come in a your screen goes black. Then you have to figure out that MS killed your copy. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9035478 I see a real danger here that they will progress this to the point that they just format the harddrive for you. And all because of a screw up on their part. Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling my pain?
[Message Deleted]
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[Message Deleted]
Matt Newman wrote:
If you have a problem with Microsoft protecting themselves don't use their software.
That was kinda the point of the post.
Matt Newman wrote:
sh*t happens, they got it up relatively quickly too.
No, shit does not just happen. It wasn't intentional but it did cause down time for users. MS failed to protect some legitimate users in this case. Last I hear MS isn't willing to reimburse the users for lost time.
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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No I have this problem to worry about if their server screws up again. In fact we have worked with the BSA to stop piracy of software by those that sell copies of software at Software fairs. You can fly your MS flag as you like but I think they are going a bit too far. If you think that only pirated copies are going to be invalidated think again. Over the years legitimate copies have been killed because of pirates using a legitimate number. How hard do you think it is to make a bogus number? I predict that someone will loose their life over this at some point. Some military field operators terminal or medical system is going to fail because of this stuff and then whos is to blame for that?
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Here we have another indication that Microsoft is more worried about lost revenue than customer service. I don't believe we'll be doing a switch to vista on the bulk of our machines here. We will have to have a copy or two for development and testing but this is really begining to get on my wick! First they develop WGA, which by the way worried us to death installing it's self over and over and over and... you get it. Then their bloody server had a problem and invalidated legitimate customers. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798 Now we have a new problem to worry about. Come in a your screen goes black. Then you have to figure out that MS killed your copy. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9035478 I see a real danger here that they will progress this to the point that they just format the harddrive for you. And all because of a screw up on their part. Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling my pain?
[Message Deleted]
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[Message Deleted]
Nope don't think so. We do not use cracked or pirate versions of software for any reason. In a software audit I can set back and laugh as they verify what we have on our software list. A better solution is to build a machine with a legit enterprise copy and use ghost to set up the other machines. We've done this at large schools and universities. Since we develop software, how can we legitmize pirating it? Sort of cuts across the grain doesn't it?
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I think the real answer is to hold MS financially responsible for any down time you have due to errors with WGA et all. If it becomes a real finical concern you'd bet that errors like this would be almost unheard of. As it stands now, it is far to easy for them to just say "sorry about that".
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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Nope don't think so. We do not use cracked or pirate versions of software for any reason. In a software audit I can set back and laugh as they verify what we have on our software list. A better solution is to build a machine with a legit enterprise copy and use ghost to set up the other machines. We've done this at large schools and universities. Since we develop software, how can we legitmize pirating it? Sort of cuts across the grain doesn't it?
WhiteSpy wrote:
We do not use cracked or pirate versions of software for any reason.
Cracked - yes. Pirated - no (since you own the license).
WhiteSpy wrote:
A better solution is to build a machine with a legit enterprise copy and use ghost to set up the other machines. We've done this at large schools and universities.
Yes, this is a better way around it.
WhiteSpy wrote:
Since we develop software, how can we legitmize pirating it? Sort of cuts across the grain doesn't it?
I don't think you fully understood my post if you think I am supporting piracy. I've deleted it to prevent more people from misinterpreting it.
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
Here we have another indication that Microsoft is more worried about lost revenue than customer service. I don't believe we'll be doing a switch to vista on the bulk of our machines here. We will have to have a copy or two for development and testing but this is really begining to get on my wick! First they develop WGA, which by the way worried us to death installing it's self over and over and over and... you get it. Then their bloody server had a problem and invalidated legitimate customers. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798 Now we have a new problem to worry about. Come in a your screen goes black. Then you have to figure out that MS killed your copy. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9035478 I see a real danger here that they will progress this to the point that they just format the harddrive for you. And all because of a screw up on their part. Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling my pain?
I've whined enough about Vista but this has to be put in perspective: it was a case of human error. Pre-production code was sent to production servers and things were a little screwed up. And this wasn't a bug - this was a single person who clearly only had 5 of his seven double espressos that afternoon and who goofed up and put the wrong code on the servers. Yes, it's a pain in the bum but this can happen to any company, anywhere, anytime. What would have happened if someone posted the wrong code for a critical update to windows and 12,000 machines temporarily had issues which self-corrected 12 hours later? Everyone would have gone "silly muppets" and then bagged Windows and Microsoft. This isn't a WGA issue. This is a process issue. It just happened that it affected WGA and validation but could have easily affected something else with the same result.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I think the real answer is to hold MS financially responsible for any down time you have due to errors with WGA et all. If it becomes a real finical concern you'd bet that errors like this would be almost unheard of. As it stands now, it is far to easy for them to just say "sorry about that".
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
The problem is MS has enough lawyers to fill the state of Rhode Island. lol. But seriously the license aggreement has a clause about no claim of merchantability. Meaning they don't claim it will do anything. So you can forget a standard lawsuit.. It would have to be some sort of class action to make it very far.
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The problem is MS has enough lawyers to fill the state of Rhode Island. lol. But seriously the license aggreement has a clause about no claim of merchantability. Meaning they don't claim it will do anything. So you can forget a standard lawsuit.. It would have to be some sort of class action to make it very far.
I understand that completely. What I don't understand is why users, even enlightened ones like us :), put up with it.
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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Here we have another indication that Microsoft is more worried about lost revenue than customer service. I don't believe we'll be doing a switch to vista on the bulk of our machines here. We will have to have a copy or two for development and testing but this is really begining to get on my wick! First they develop WGA, which by the way worried us to death installing it's self over and over and over and... you get it. Then their bloody server had a problem and invalidated legitimate customers. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9032798 Now we have a new problem to worry about. Come in a your screen goes black. Then you have to figure out that MS killed your copy. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9035478 I see a real danger here that they will progress this to the point that they just format the harddrive for you. And all because of a screw up on their part. Am I alone here or is anyone else feeling my pain?
I was wondering when this news was going to arrive here. There was a discussion over at the Peanut Gallery[^] about this yesterday. Apparently it will cause a mass migration to Linux, and your Vista system will immediately become part of a global botnet. Or maybe your screen will go black, you call Microsoft, explain the problem and get back online within 5 minutes, no real harm done. Or even better, you actually purchased[^] a legitimate copy of Vista and this will be a complete non-event for you. Just think of all that software you bought over the Internet that came with a 14-day "trial" or a limited functionality version, which at this moment, still contains code to disable itself! OMG! Think of the children! Seriously people, buy the software and STFU. Now I'll just sit back and wait for the one votes and hate mail. :rolleyes:
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
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I've whined enough about Vista but this has to be put in perspective: it was a case of human error. Pre-production code was sent to production servers and things were a little screwed up. And this wasn't a bug - this was a single person who clearly only had 5 of his seven double espressos that afternoon and who goofed up and put the wrong code on the servers. Yes, it's a pain in the bum but this can happen to any company, anywhere, anytime. What would have happened if someone posted the wrong code for a critical update to windows and 12,000 machines temporarily had issues which self-corrected 12 hours later? Everyone would have gone "silly muppets" and then bagged Windows and Microsoft. This isn't a WGA issue. This is a process issue. It just happened that it affected WGA and validation but could have easily affected something else with the same result.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
I agree with you that it was just a screw up. It did take 3 days to fix, but still just human error. That is not my issue here. My issues is that I think that at least in the case of mission critical machines (military/ medical/ emergency) microsoft should make some method that they can not be shut down accidentally by this process. For the rest of us its lost revenue and that is a pain in the butt and its not fair. But I can forgive that. I just think that the trend is that they are taking it further and further and I'm curious as to when they will say "Hey you know maybe we've gone to far here!"
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I understand that completely. What I don't understand is why users, even enlightened ones like us :), put up with it.
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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I was wondering when this news was going to arrive here. There was a discussion over at the Peanut Gallery[^] about this yesterday. Apparently it will cause a mass migration to Linux, and your Vista system will immediately become part of a global botnet. Or maybe your screen will go black, you call Microsoft, explain the problem and get back online within 5 minutes, no real harm done. Or even better, you actually purchased[^] a legitimate copy of Vista and this will be a complete non-event for you. Just think of all that software you bought over the Internet that came with a 14-day "trial" or a limited functionality version, which at this moment, still contains code to disable itself! OMG! Think of the children! Seriously people, buy the software and STFU. Now I'll just sit back and wait for the one votes and hate mail. :rolleyes:
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
Yeah, liked that. but it seems to degrade into a legal issue over being sold a non-legite copy buy a dealer. "I believe this is referred to as shifting the blame. If you're a customer of the OEM and the OEM is selling you, at full price, pirated software, it's not Microsoft who is screwing you." Which is true. But I do know that Microsoft has (had) a program that would provide a legitimate copy for a bogus one bought in good faith, if you cooperate with them in the investagation.
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I was wondering when this news was going to arrive here. There was a discussion over at the Peanut Gallery[^] about this yesterday. Apparently it will cause a mass migration to Linux, and your Vista system will immediately become part of a global botnet. Or maybe your screen will go black, you call Microsoft, explain the problem and get back online within 5 minutes, no real harm done. Or even better, you actually purchased[^] a legitimate copy of Vista and this will be a complete non-event for you. Just think of all that software you bought over the Internet that came with a 14-day "trial" or a limited functionality version, which at this moment, still contains code to disable itself! OMG! Think of the children! Seriously people, buy the software and STFU. Now I'll just sit back and wait for the one votes and hate mail. :rolleyes:
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
Miszou wrote:
Seriously people, buy the software and STFU.
Mmmmm why should I have to STFU as you so intelligently put it if I did purchase the software and need it to work as expected?
Miszou wrote:
Or maybe your screen will go black, you call Microsoft, explain the problem and get back online within 5 minutes
You need to check your facts. When the WGA servers went down and put users into limited functionality mode it wasn't a five minute fix. And even if it was, who pays for my lost time?
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
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WhiteSpy wrote:
We do not use cracked or pirate versions of software for any reason.
Cracked - yes. Pirated - no (since you own the license).
WhiteSpy wrote:
A better solution is to build a machine with a legit enterprise copy and use ghost to set up the other machines. We've done this at large schools and universities.
Yes, this is a better way around it.
WhiteSpy wrote:
Since we develop software, how can we legitmize pirating it? Sort of cuts across the grain doesn't it?
I don't think you fully understood my post if you think I am supporting piracy. I've deleted it to prevent more people from misinterpreting it.
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com linkNishant Sivakumar wrote:
I don't think you fully understood my post if you think I am supporting piracy. I've deleted it to prevent more people from misinterpreting it.
Nope didn't think that for a second. No one in their right mind would think that. I'm sure we all have someone we know of that got nailed by the BSA.
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Miszou wrote:
Seriously people, buy the software and STFU.
Mmmmm why should I have to STFU as you so intelligently put it if I did purchase the software and need it to work as expected?
Miszou wrote:
Or maybe your screen will go black, you call Microsoft, explain the problem and get back online within 5 minutes
You need to check your facts. When the WGA servers went down and put users into limited functionality mode it wasn't a five minute fix. And even if it was, who pays for my lost time?
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
why should I have to STFU as you so intelligently put it if I did purchase the software and need it to work as expected?
Hmm, well perhaps that was a little overboard. I think I'm still irritated after reading all the slashbot comments yesterday. :-O
Chris Austin wrote:
When the WGA servers went down and put users into limited functionality mode it wasn't a five minute fix. And even if it was, who pays for my lost time?
Well, we'd better all stop writing software then, just in case something doesn't work.
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
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Chris Austin wrote:
why should I have to STFU as you so intelligently put it if I did purchase the software and need it to work as expected?
Hmm, well perhaps that was a little overboard. I think I'm still irritated after reading all the slashbot comments yesterday. :-O
Chris Austin wrote:
When the WGA servers went down and put users into limited functionality mode it wasn't a five minute fix. And even if it was, who pays for my lost time?
Well, we'd better all stop writing software then, just in case something doesn't work.
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
Miszou wrote:
Well, we'd better all stop writing software then, just in case something doesn't work.
You are grossly oversimplifying the problem. It an OS and it should be the most robust software on your system. Or, we stop acting like rookies and deliver software that does work. The biggest issue that this industry has is the lack of respect for and knowledge of quality. No one is willing to raise the bar but, they are quite willing to move on to new projects and products regardless of the quality issues with existing ones. In short this industry needs to grow up and be held accountable.
My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long