[Spyhop]

OMG LET'S OVERREACT!!!oneone!1111

Calm down. Jeez. This is just so windows customers can upgrade their windows version without buying a new one. This is a good thing, not a bad one. If someone gets Windows 7 Business, and in a year decides "Crap, I really could use that media center", then that person can pay a marginal fee to upgrade his software, as opposed to buying a new copy of windows.

 

[Spyhop]

...since when has any huge company openly done something for the purpose of helping anyone?

Being customer-friendly gains new customers.
Having a flexible feature/price model will also help against piracy.

 

[Spyhop]

Bill Gates is a nice guy but his company has gone crazy lately .

Has it? Or are you just regurgitating old Microsoft sentiment?

 

[Spyhop]

You really are an enthusiastic advocate of M$'s corporate policies aren't you?

No, I just feel people regard them unfairly because they're successful. They've made some mistakes, yeah, but nothing deserving of the sheer malevolence the general public regards them with. They can't do ANYTHING, good or bad, without people seeing some hidden agenda or conspiracy. I find the bandwagon M$ hate asinine.

 

[Spyhop]

It's not just this, Spyhop defends M$ in practically EVERY discussion about this topic.

No, I just bring a modicum of reason into subject matter that people tend to regard very unreasonably.

Jeez its a freakin' money-drunk capitalist corporation, there's no getting around that.

So their crime is being a business and making money?

 

[Spyhop]

No, but they do rob their customers real bad and turn them into their slaves by accepting the EULA and terms & conditions....

Charging for your product != robbery.

 

[Spyhop]

Windows XP Pro: $150
Windows Vista Ultimate: $210
MS Office 2007: $120

Charging 200 bucks for CD with bloatware on it isn't very encouraging to the customer to say the least.... and now you're probably gonna rant about the fact that there's Vista Home Basic for the budget-minded person, well if I'm gonna pay $80 for that, might as well just download and install TinyCore since the difference between the 2 is negligible....

Don't buy it then. Go get a mac, or use linux.
Those prices aren't unreasonable for software though. Pretty cheap, actually, compared to a lot of other software.
You not liking the price != robbery. You can't possibly expect MS to give it away.

 

[Spyhop]

I'm really hoping this isn't applied to Windows 7, or any operating system for that matter.

Of course it will be. How is it a problem?

 

[Spyhop]

It's probably just going to push away loyal Microsoft customers.

How, exactly? The only people I see this pissing off is pirates.

 

[Spyhop]

Can someone explain this to me in English? The point I'm troubled about is it seems to indicate Microsoft will limit what you can run on your PC. Say I want to run shareware, freeware, or emulation, they could say **** you, that isn't acceptable, you can't run it on your PC. They could also use something like WGA to monitor your OS for cracks and disable it and cancel your license if you break their EULA in this arrangement, and I'm supposed to be cool with that?

Telling people what they can run on their PCs?

No, this is for windows features. ie. if you buy basic, and you later want media centre, you can buy the feature.

either that or a way to get pirates to pay up. Either way, I doubt it will have much effect on honest customers.

 

[Spyhop]

I always found it easier to go legit with windows. It's a matter of $200-$250 every few years so I don't have to worry about the constant headache of trying to keep a non-legit version updated. It's not that I don't know how, it's just a pain in the ass.

 

[Spyhop]

I've never felt the need for any Windows updates.

It's funny how you're often complaining about windows problems in Software discussion while I've never had an issue eh?

 

[Spyhop]

Proof? Even if there is a problem, what are the likelihoods that a Windows update fixed that problem. Regardless of that, 5 minutes of Googling usually leads to a quick and easy answer.

Likelihood that it will FIX the problem? Not very likely. Likelihood that it would have PREVENTED a problem? More likely.

Do you not update your drivers either?

Unless you change hardware often and have to call microsoft every two weeks because your legal version will no longer pass validation. **** that.

P.S.: 'Someone I know' who has a pirated version of XP has been using the same version for three years and it still passes WGA checks.

I update hardware often enough and the odd time I've had to call MS for an activation, it's been pretty painless.

 

[Spyhop]

But what about this.

I owned a Laptop that has a legal XP on it. The laptop breaks. So I figure "Well, I can use the XP disk with my desktop right? Since it would still only be installed on one PC, which should be acceptable following the "One software license, one PC rule." WRONG! Tried it once, even called Microsoft and they said they couldn't let me use the license with my desktop. Bull***.

You had a moron on the phone then. Just call again and get a new rep. They're supposed to let you transfer an OEM license if the hardware was replaced due to malfunction. Although it COULD make a difference if you have some proprietary HP license or something, I've never had to deal with that.

Mind you, I've been on the same license through multiple hardware revisions. Most MS reps know and just don't care.

If it's mission-critical for you to have a transferable license, you're supposed to get a retail copy, not OEM.

I update all my drivers regularly....I just avoid connecting M$'s servers as far as possible. No stupid IE7, WMP11 or WLM downloads that require WGA checks during installation (it might still pass as BigIg said, but there's no assurance, plus the benefit from the 3 is also very minimal IMO).

The LEAST of windows updates deal with things like IE or WMP.
The important ones patch security holes, improve performance, and fix bugs.

Till you consider what the call charges are for the other side of the world........

Any MS numbers I've ever had to call have been Toll Free

 

[Spyhop]

Yeah........still easier to pull off an ISO in 3 hours from the net though.....

3 hours? Takes me 15min.

Security loopholes? Oh yeah I have something that deals with those, its called a third party firewall. As for security updates which have "critical" status, I've managed to find a reliable source from the net that packs them into an exe and then you can download and install them without even touching M$. And what if it tried to connect during installation? Well I physically disconnect my network cable whenever I install anything published by M$ :evil:

Yes I know I'm a tad paranoid.

 

[Spyhop]

Can someone explain to gamefreak why not updating windows is foolish in terms he'll understand? I seem to be failing.

 

[Spyhop]

gamefreak and koko, stay out of IT please, for the good of humanity.

 

[Spyhop]

Schedule updates for when you're in bed fool. It's not "infinite TBs"....if you update regularly you might be looking at 20-50mb or so. You also need to get out of this mentality that updates add functionality, because that's rarely the case. Updates FIX PROBLEMS...most of the time you don't see it. Also, your hard drive wouldn't be so full if you didn't partition it into so many tiny pieces.

 

[Spyhop]

I don't use AV on my windows machine either. I don't do anything that would cause me to worry about it.

How could you said that example?. As GF said if you got the newest version of XP, you will never need any updates

GF isn't typically known for being correct in these matters. ALL operating systems have bugs and security vulnerabilities. No exception. Microsoft will never fix all the exploits, that's almost impossible. All they can do is try to keep them patched as they get discovered by the community. This is a perpetual process, it doesn't end until MS simply cuts off support for the operating system due to age. OSX and Linux are no exception to this either. And that's just for security holes. There's always bugs to be fixed as well.

I don't know about Vista updates, but xp doesn't need any security updates.

You may not think it important because if your OS corrupts it's not that big a deal to you to reinstall. But don't say XP doesn't need security updates. If you were using XP in a business with IT staff worth half a ****, weekly updates would be mandatory.

 

[Spyhop]

We've been getting uncharacteristically liberal on the "no warez" rule on emuforums lately haven't we?