"and more people want the older operating system."

...and buried among the gratuitous MS slobbering and drooling comes a nugget of truth.

Quote from the article: "My sources tell me that the early piracy reduction numbers are so significant, even some Microsoft executives can't believe they're true. Fifty-percent reduction is the number I heard from some Microsoft elves (they escaped from Santa's workshop)."
----------------------------------------------------
Perhaps there is another reason why the piracy rate is maybe 50% less with Vista than say previous versions of Windows. Nobody in their rights minds, wants to run Vi$ta, unless, they have to, because there are no XP drivers for their hardware, or they bought it pre-installed on there computer.

My guess is in China, where a pirated copy of Vi$ta or XP Pro, both sell for a buck, that pirated XP Pro outsells pirated Vi$ta by a wide margin.

Will someone post a link to a screenshot?

Chips said:

"Nobody in their rights minds, wants to run Vi$ta, unless, they have to, because there are no XP drivers for their hardware, or they bought it pre-installed on there computer."

I'm trying to decide which of your comments here is stupider. In the end, they're equally retarded. Good job.

Quote Joe: "Verizon's surprise announcement about opening access to outside phones is a tactful first strike against Google"

NEWS today : "In yet another sudden shift, Verizon Wireless plans to support Google's (GOOG) new software platform for cell phones and other mobile devices."

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2007/tc2007123_429930.htm

Whack! Thud!

Quote"
Joe Wilcox

Microsoft plans to do away with that nasty 30-day off switch. Maybe some IT organizations should rejoice and take a few darts out of their pictures of Bill Gates.
----------------------------------------------------
Maybe, but they would be far far better off just moving to Linux. OpenOffice or KOffice, and OpenSource solutions, and escaping the endless Micro$oft upgrade cycle$ for good.

Does anyone else see this doing away with the "Off switch" as Micro$oft waking up to the fact that they went too far with Vi$ta becomming a piece of "Controlware?" And now they are paying the price as businesses (44% of them) seek out Linux and Mac OS/X as alternatives to the highly restrictive and priced Vi$ta/Office 2007.

Whom does Ms think we are? Some stupid shill? Truth is that in Ms' natural arrogance (many years of sucking the consumer's blood can do that), they only turn back when the situation is desperate. Now, they are doing it step by step, to save their face. But this merely demonstrates how little they value our intelligence.
------------

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=334
This drastic change in Microsoft’s WGA system is only the latest in series of attempts to smooth WGA’s rough edges. In August, Kochis apologized on Microsoft’s WGA blog for an outage that incorrectly flagged thousands of customers’ systems as “non genuine.” In October, Microsoft removed the WGA validation requirement from IE7 downloads. Two weeks ago, on November 20, Kochis promised to “build more trust in WGA” by improving its back-end systems, its response times, and its customer support.
Getting rid of the “kill switch” is a much better way to build that trust.
----
remember: Ed Bott love to Ms

Piracy will help Vista's marketshare, just like XP when it came out. MS played this right if they want to hit the next Billion users. Now, third world countries will be using Vista instead of other OS's, because it's basically free therefore, thriving and then when the next Windows OS comes out, then that's when MS will have tougher security, thus leaving people to use Vista......plan sounds familiar.

Quote"
Joe Wilcox

"Microsoft plans to do away with that nasty 30-day off switch. Maybe some IT organizations should rejoice and take a few darts out of their pictures of Bill Gates."
----------------------------------------------------
JOe, I think you worded that wrong. Here is how it should have been worded:

"Microsoft plans to do away with that nasty 30-day off switch. Maybe some IT organizations should rejoice, switch to Linux, and take a few dollars out of the pockets of Bill Gates."
---------------------------------------------------

They would be far far better off just moving to Linux. OpenOffice or KOffice, and OpenSource solutions, and escaping the endless Micro$oft Viral problems.

Piracy rate for Vista is half that of XP

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=1682

Quote from the link:

"I don’t know about you, but harder to pirate none withstanding, the first thought that comes to my cynical mind goes along the line of “Even the pirates can’t be bothered with Vista!”

And as to why Microsoft is making it easier is probably due to pressure from irate users who are wrongly locked out of their own system due to things like device driver upgrades.

And the final puzzle I shall leave you with is — just how did Microsoft figure out the piracy rate anyway? Via Windows update perhaps?"

Quote, Joe Willcox:
"Microsoft plans to do away with that nasty 30-day off switch."
---------------------------------------------------
What Micro$oft gives back, they can easily take away. The mechanism is already built into Vista, just a simple auto update or "sneaky" auto update to put it back in. No big deal.

I don't have a scientific study to back me up, but I knew a group of people who installed Windows XP Professional from one CD. They worked happily with that arrangement for quite a while. Then one day, the few that still had their pirated copies (the rest had long since purchased new PCs) called with weird problems: system wouldn't boot, would lose icons, would not connect to the internet, and so on. It sure seemed to me that Microsoft had quietly started tightening the screws on pirated copies of XP. One by one, we cajoled them into buying their own copies of XP and all their problems went away and stayed away.
I'm not a fan of many of Microsoft's recent tactics, but I still believe that if you are going to use their software, you must strictly and faithfully follow the licensing rules they have attached to it. And note to Ballmer: Following your licensing rules for your software is no more or less viral than following the GPL licensing rules for GPL'd software. And being able to see the source code doesn't make the GPL license any less valid, just as being able to easily crack and copy your company's CDs doesn't make your license any less valid. Respect for the law goes both ways, sir.

Hey Joe,

I first want to say, I love reading your Microsoft Watch.

I just thought I would share my Vista activation horror story.

In February of this year, I built a computer and I purchased and installed Windows Vista Ultimate OEM. Two months later, my wife needed a computer, I chose to give her my computer and built a new computer for myself. However, I chose to switch out the hard drive, since it was partitioned and I had all my work and documents on a partition. I had an extra hard drive lying around which I installed into her computer. On my new computer, I installed a new copy of Vista Ultimate OEM.

Well, once I restored the Windows Vista image on the original (now her) computer, it wanted to reactivate. I attempted to do it over the internet and it would not let me, saying that the copy of Windows was installed on another computer. I had to call Microsoft and read off all the numbers and get an activation code. The whole process, including hold time was over half an hour. I thought this was ridiculous for changing just one piece of hardware.

Joe, I am sure it has something to do with my OEM copy. But I still do not find it acceptable.

It doesn't stop there. Her hard drive bit the dust a week ago, so I replaced it. I figured I would probably have to reactivate, and I figured correctly. What was worse this time is that Vista was in reduced functionality mode. I am sure you know what that is like, your GUI is IE7. That made things more difficult as I had made router changes since the image was made and had to fumble through to get online. It didn't matter, of course I couldn't reactivate online. So, there went another half hour plus.

I was reading here that with Vista SP1, Microsoft is doing away with "reduced functionality mode" and replacing it with a very annoying "non-genuine" notification scheme. I am interested in what that is going to be like. But perhaps it will at least be better for someone like me who changes hardware and needs to get genuine again. I will at least be able to fumble through the operating system more efficiently (I hope)

Thanks for "listening" to my rant.

Quote:
Brian :

"I don't have a scientific study to back me up, but I knew a group of people who installed Windows XP Professional from one CD. They worked happily with that arrangement for quite a while. Then one day, the few that still had their pirated copies (the rest had long since purchased new PCs) called with weird problems: system wouldn't boot, would lose icons, would not connect to the internet, and so on. It sure seemed to me that Microsoft had quietly started tightening the screws on pirated copies of XP. One by one, we cajoled them into buying their own copies of XP and all their problems went away and stayed away."
--------------------------------------------------
Interesting observation Brian. We have had in the last few months quite a few come in that would not boot up. Here is the fix for that:

"Have you tried running Chkdsk from the Recovery Console ?

In case windows is having a problem with the file/directory structure,
fixing this with chkdsk /f will take care of the problem. You can do
this by booting up from the XP bootable CD

The following steps may be helpful to reach the recovery console

First make the system bootable from the CD drive by changing the boot
drive option in the BIOS

When you come to the screen that asks you to install Windows, DONT't!
Choose R for recover, this will take you to the Recovery Console.
YOu will see the following
1: C:\WINDOWS
Press 1, to reach the command Prompt. Here type Chkdsk /f windows
will check the hard disk for errors. and fix any errors in the file
system/file area.

Type exit to restart the system."
-------------------------------------------------
Why I think Brian maybe be right, is they always seem to come back with the same problem after you fix them in a few weeks time. Its like the number of bootups on these customers machines are timed to fail. But then again, its probably just one of Micro$oft many builtin bugs.

correction, just type chkdsk without the /f switch

I like the looks of vista, I played with a beta copy for a while, but I will happily stay with running Ubuntu on my machines. I find it hard to believe anyone would pay money to go through such difficulties when there are perfectly acceptable free alternatives. Every person I know who bought a new machine with Vista has gone back to using Windows XP, and many have started using Linux. Maybe Microsoft is realizing that without piracy, their market share will dwindle rapidly. Vista is the best thing to happen to Linux in years. Ubuntu is a better operating system, easier to install, use and update than windows whether free or not.

This is begging for another online poll. Question: Would you use Vista if you could get it for free?

interest link titled:

Poor Performance At Top Of Users' Windows Vista Gripe List

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/12/poor_performanc.html

Quote from the link: "I'm talking about things like achingly slow search and the frequent downshifts experienced by Internet Explorer 7. Readers seem to agree.

To that list, readers added complaints about Vista's hoggish memory requirements, Windows Update glitches, inelegant networking, and unavailable drivers."

Microsoft Partners: Use Of Downgrade Rights Is Surging

http://www.crn.com/software/204600906

Quote: "Downgrade rights, which are only available through volume licensing, have existed for more than a decade with Office, and since 2001 for Windows. But system builders and other Microsoft partners say they're witnessing a large and growing number of customers exercising downgrade rights to roll back Windows Vista to XP Professional, and Office 2007 to Office 2003."
----------------------------------------------------
Yes they sold 88 million Vi$ta licences, and how many of those are 1. still in the channel. 2. wiped from the Hard Drive, replaced with XP. 3. sold to business that used the downgrade to XP rights.

Vista's annoying DRM

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/sbiddle/4200

@Chips:
Your problem description may actually have been more correct. I do know that one of those users would simply shut off the power without the proper Start->Shutdown sequence, and that would cause filesystem corruption that would lead to similar problems. But there were also other problems, such as a refusal to update and that one seemed to point in the direction of a Microsoft clamp down and not a filesystem problem. But again, I don't clean up after Bill Gates for a living; I design and implement software for Unix and Linux environments. As I seem to recall that you do, I can only offer my respect and condolences... at least Microsoft's buggy legacy creates lots of opportunities for those who want to clean up after them.
@Marc Thibault:
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: I wrote my own multi-threaded kernel, applications, and utilities during the 1979 to 1981 time period, and then discovered the landmark Bell Labs Technical Journal issue that described Unix, C, the Bourne shell, and so on. After those two experiences, nothing that Microsoft cobbled together earned my technical respect until it was far too late to care. DOS??? Puhleeze! command.com??? *ugh* BAT files??? *barf* Windows 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, ME multi-tasking??? hahahahahahaha!
Longest answer: I don't usually play what-if games like this because of where they lead. For instance, what if IBM had chosen for the PC QNX, a real operating system, instead of DOS, a hacked collection of interrupt handlers and a tinker-toy command.com shell. What if Bill Gates was happy being half of a hundred-billionaire and didn't see his competition as a mortal threat to his being a trillionaire and using it to justify his shady tactics. What if Ballmer actually had any vision and viewed his huge market as a valuable legacy instead of as his enemy?

The disaster that is Vista continues to inflict itself upon users, but people are beginning to see that they've been had. Here's what John C. Dvorak says in "When Will Vista Fizzle?":

The Vista Fizzle Dept.: The continuing negative buzz around Vista is becoming deafening as more and more users moan and groan about how unusable the new OS is. Personally, I still have not switched, because I know it will be agonizing in some way or another. The most common complaint I hear from people whose opinions I respect is that Vista is so annoyingly slow that it forces you to revert back to XP at your earliest chance.

Since this product was developed during the reign of Bill Gates as "chief software architect," he should step up to the podium and take full responsibility and apologize for it himself.

to Marc Thibault
No Vista even if it was given for free. Maybe if they paid me! In the company that i work for in Europe all the pc's sold with Vista preinstalled came back to us for "downgrade" to XP. Main reason slow performance.
And we are not talking about power users here or something just ordinary everyday users plus all the annoyances with the user interface.

A special thanks to Portuno Diamo for taking the time to answer the skeptics in this thread.
(Why again is VCSY just 1.5 cents per share?!)
Can you spell CONSPIRACY?

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_V/threadview?m=tm&bn=33693&tid=1065&mid=1065&tof=1&rt=1&frt=1&off=1

Quote Joe:

"Maybe some IT organizations should rejoice and take a few darts out of their pictures of Bill Gates."

OK, done ... only 43 left to go ...

Who cares!!

The OS is a dud..live with it. Who in their right mind would buy this OS??

The main reason for the difference has to do with the volume license keys. With XP, once you had your hands on a VLK and a copy of the volume media (many contractors or employees would have access to these), you could install as many "legal" copies of XP as you could make. VLKs don't talk to MS's activation servers, so until MS discovered that a key had been used way beyond reasonable limits and marked the key as invalid, the software worked fine. MS has said that some keys were used several million times. VLKs in Vista are different, and MS can more easily detect a bad one and turn it off. But that's also part of the reduced functionality mode issue--Vista PCs need to talk regularly with an activation server to keep functioning.
So MS has been successful in reducing piracy with Vista, and that may translate into some increase in revenues. On the other hand, people who don't like to pay for an OS and who have been using XP, will probably continue to do so for longer or will look at Linux.

Far from being uncrackable Vista is widely available in the underground movement with some very good modded copies available.
The issue is many people find the system lacks both hardware and software support,is bloated beyond belief [an the same system running XP will 9/10 get the thing done before Vista],a memory hog,fails to support many many applications and hardware which are already in the end users ownership.
The later means landfill is increased by the use of Vista [very green I must say :rolleyes].
So far from being as "available" as XP it simply being ignored by many users.

I while ago I attempted to debug the Vista boot process over a serial line. Turns out it was an *extremely* bad idea. Contrary to XP which boots in seconds, some guy working at MS never actually disabled the calls to DbgPrint() in the _RTM_ release of Vista!

Result: a constant never-ending flood of completely useless debug messages, that completely prevents anyone from debugging the startup of this OS. It's like the Microsoft kernel developers actually didn't debug the boot of their own product, because 10mn later I was still flooded with DbgPrint messages and hadn't even reached the login prompt.

This was using recent hardware, a dual-core Opteron running Vista with 2Gb of RAM, connected to the debugger over a 115200 serial line. I'll have to give SP1 a try, though... they can easily speedup the boot process by 200% just removing the gratuitous calls to DbgPrint. Anyhow I'll keep using XP for the time being.