Posted on 05/04/2006 10:36:48 AM PDT by ShadowAce
And are you even capable of reading?
Why is it OK for Microsoft to punish legal users as if they were pirates? Can you explain that for me?
Why should someone who legally purchased the software have to call the vendor OR go to a hacker site, or anything else for that matter?
"There's no easy way to know what that .exe file does for sure. "
So, let's give everyone write access to it! Yay!
Yeah, just last week, I talked to a guy on here who was discouraged at his recent attempts at Linux. Me and some of the others talked the guy through it, complete with GE whining like a spoiled child in the background. I think the guy himself even addressed a post to GE questioning his fractured thinking.
In the end, the guy got a Mandriva install up and running. Hilarious.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1626749/posts?page=66#66
FLAMING DEATH LOL. I doubt you could rub two sticks together and make a flame.
Yeah. Cute.
Care to answer my question? Why is it OK for Microsoft to punish legal users as if they were pirates?
LOL so you have one possible convert whose so far already had to dedicate years of his life. Ask him if he's given up Windows yet LMAO.
As if giving up Windows were my goal.
Still have dual-boots on 2 of the 3 computers at my house.
Mostly, I just use Windows to play games though.
Notice you still haven't answered my question.
Is that because there is no good answer? Thought so.
It all depends on a case-by-case trust basis. Do I trust such a tool that has been used by many and well-reviewed? Sure, I'd use it if I needed it.
OTOH, do I trust a Microsoft update not to break many of my installed applications or secretly open my computer to hackers? Not really, since they've done both. XP SP2 broke many apps, and where I used to work we had to test every Microsoft update in a lab before we allowed it to be installed in general, because we caught some updates turning on services that we'd turned off for security reasons. Auto Update is not trusted there.
Of course GE can't answer it, because trying to twist it is too hard for even him.
In Microsoft's BSA world, users are guilty until proven innocent. Buy twenty desk lamps for your users from Office Depot and misplace the receipts, and nobody cares. Buy twenty copies of MS Office for your users and misplace the receipts, and the BSA will make you pay for them again.
With proprietary software, licensing control is a real cost of business, and mistakes in licensing control are a real business risk, but Microsoft never mentions it of course. I doubt many IT department risk assessments include BSA raids as a risk and potential cost (including the personnel cost of complying with a raid even if all your licensing is in order). Here we pay a couple of full-time salaries just to track proprietary software licenses.
On that note, check out the latest strong-arming by Microsoft using the scare of violating proprietary licenses to sell software. This guy was smart and prepared for a possible audit (using up his precious time as a business man) so he could call her bluff, and he's plain lucky she didn't just sic the BSA on his company out of spite, which would have invaded his company's records and cost them even more money.
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