Posted on 07/20/2006 7:06:27 AM PDT by Space Wrangler
July 19, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Despite the criticism leveled at Microsoft Corp. after the recent rollout -- and rollback -- of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), experts say that effort was just the first phase in the company's latest antipiracy effort, dubbed the Genuine Software Initiative.
In fact, the initiative -- which will include a similar campaign in the near term called Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) to fight piracy of Microsoft's dominant productivity software suite -- is tied in the long term with how Microsoft and other vendors will sell and deliver software.
"It's getting to the point where we're getting 'Advantaged' left and right," said Lauren Weinstein, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based IT consultant and co-founder of the pro-privacy group People for Internet Responsibility. "The issue is, whose advantage is it?"
In early June, Weinstein publicly revealed via his blog that WGA was sending back data about users' computers every time they rebooted their PCs. That worsened WGA's already bad image: Users complained about WGA's tendency to stealthily install itself on some users' PCs, nag others who refused to install it, and falsely cry wolf with up to a fifth of the legitimately installed copies of Windows it scanned.
"A 20% false-positive rate is pretty abysmal," Weinstein said. Most victims have been gamers or PC hobbyists who have upgraded their hardware, which Microsoft has acknowledged can confuse WGA. But some have been businesses like S&S Cycle Inc., a maker of motorcycle racing parts in Viola, Wis.
WGA repeatedly identified S&S's 180 PCs as running pirated copies of Windows, according to network administrator Karen Zander. Worse, it sent that data to Microsoft every morning as employees arrived in the office and turned on their PCs.
"Our network came to screeching halt," said Zander, who eventually fixed the bug by working with Microsoft technical support.
Such complaints, along with two class-action lawsuits, forced Microsoft to pull WGA's most intrusive features and make it optional. Having learned its lesson with WGA, Microsoft is likely to proceed more cautiously with its Office counterpart, which it began testing in April.
"Microsoft has almost no competition with Windows," said Joshua Erdman, president of San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based software reseller Digital Foundation Inc. "With Office, it's a lot easier to switch to something like OpenOffice or StarOffice. So Microsoft can't afford to [anger] people as much."
OGA, for now, consists of an ActiveX-based tool that users are invited to download on a voluntary basis the first time they get certain noncritical updates from Office. Like WGA's validation tool, OGA checks to see whether the license key is stolen or counterfeit. If it isn't, the tool stores a special download key on the PC to aid in future verification.
Adrian W. Kingsley-Hughes, a U.K.-based technology consultant who runs the blog The PC Doctor, said OGA mistook his legal copy of Office for a pirated one. "No idea why I had problems," he said. "I was quite surprised when it said it didn't check out."
A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to say how often OGA is wrong. But on its tech support Web site, Microsoft says that OGA can fail to validate a legitimate copy of Office XP or 2003 for a number of reasons, including if the PC's time is off by more than 24 hours, or if the registry is modified or damaged -- something that can be caused by a virus or spyware.
Microsoft declined to specify if and when it plans to make OGA mandatory. The company is piloting OGA -- including the notification feature and the tool -- with users in seven non-English languages. English-speaking users can also download and run the OGA test at Microsoft's Web site, too.
"We are absolutely committed to having Microsoft Office participate in the advantages of Microsoft's overarching Genuine Software Initiative but have nothing further to discuss at this time as the program has not launched worldwide," a spokeswoman said in e-mail. So far, OGA has resulted in few complaints.
"If in the future OGA is kept like this, then that's OK for me," said Guillaume Kaddouch, a French programmer whose free tool for removing WGA has been downloaded half a million times. Kaddouch said he has no plans to write a tool to remove OGA.
While some suggested that Microsoft has learned its lesson with the WGA brouhaha, others said Microsoft is unlikely to abandon the Genuine Software Initiative because it is central to the company's evolving software-distribution model.
Microsoft still makes virtually all of its money from selling software installed on individuals' or companies' computers. But as more companies move toward a software-as-a-service model, such as that offered by Salesforce.com, and rent access to applications through the Internet, Microsoft has said it is likely to move toward a hybrid model.
Under that model, applications and data are partly installed on users' computers and partly accessed through the Internet. WGA-type tools that continually rescan and verify the computers of paid-up subscribers may become a necessary component of such hybrid applications.
But by putting the cart before the horse and making WGA mandatory before Microsoft has fully embraced this new software model could turn off loyal customers, Weinstein suggested.
"Microsoft is starting to tread a thin line that has quite an abyss on either side," Weinstein said. "If people feel that Microsoft is acting too aggressively, they will find some way to go to other products."
Well, if I ever needed incentive for switching to Linux, this may be it on the horizon.
May I recommend Ubuntu/Kubuntu? I burned the ISO myself and installed it on my second hard drive. Installation and setup went flawlessly. It found all of my old hardware. The installation included a browser, Open Office, and all of the programs a person needs to begin with. Although I'm really a Windows person and need help "crossing over," the interface is very friendly. Adept makes downloading and installing updates and new software as easy as any Windows installation.
It bothered me to install it so I finally did the first time it appeared just to make it go away. Now it's back again, sitting in my system tray telling me to update. It's not a perk for me at all--I know my OS is legal as I remember buying it from a national software chain. It's Microsoft looking out for themselves.
You can tell it not to inform you of it again, and it should leave you alone.
I'm using the Gentoo distro of Linux and I'm liking it. I'm going to start experementing around with some other Linux flavors as well.
I told Windows Update not to show WGA to me anymore, along with a couple other updates I don't need. The other day it came up saying something to the intent of "You've hidden a critical update for your computer. I'll show it to you so you can unhide and install this critical update."
Microsoft makes it look like not installing this will blow up your computer (it won't -- yet), and they're pushing it far harder than they've pushed critical updates for gaping security holes like WMV.
Hmmm. I haven't experienced that yet. I have told Windows Update to leave me alone about it and so far it has on all my sytems that run XP.
The sad part is that WGA Notifications is still going strong. I'm reinstalling XP Pro on my main computer now, and the install is from a very old CD so naturally there are a number of updates I needed from Windows Update. WGA Notifications was in the "first" list along with the updated version of Windows Update itself. I told it not to install, and every round of updates since then has warned me that I've hidden a "critical" update - I can't believe MS still has this in the critical category.
Fortunately, I've finished all the backdated updates, and anything going forward will just pop up in my system tray. Automatic Updates has ignored this in the past once I've told it to be ignored.
Telling the integrated auto-update to leave me alone works. But then I use Windows Update via the Web to get my updates, and that's when it happened. I told it to ignore WGA long ago, but it came up with that "You'll destroy your computer unless you download this even though you told me to ignore it!" message.
There is a way to disable it so it won't nag you, but you must use Custom Install for the updates because they will slip it back in if you don't.
I always use Custom, but it still reminded me that I had hidden a "critical" update.
I had my son-in-law make it stop telling me that. There's a way to do it.
I have a dual-boot Kubuntu/WinXP laptop. I only use WinXP to back up VHS tapes and convert them into DVDs (with my WinTV USB TV tuner). (I use WinDVR3 to record, TMPGEnc DVD Author to convert the MPEGs into DVD content, then I use DVDshrink and Nero to burn the DVDs.)
May I recommend a Mac to everybody tired of the Windows stuff.
Ubuntu is supposed to be pretty good, but KDE is much, MUCH better than Gnome.
What with Crossover Mac and Cider, you'll no longer ever have to deal with Windows again.
Crossover Mac: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossover_Mac
Cider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgaming
I've been impressed with both Knoppix and Ubuntu. I also like Gentoo, especially if you are installing on an older system.
I really don't take issue with M$ taking measures to secure what they are owed for using their software. What I take issue with is the exorbitant price that they want for their software when there are workable alternatives available. As long as Windows is pre-loaded on 90%+ of systems sold, they'll be able to bully their customers by all but outright accusing them of theft, and charging the ones who are honest dearly. It's good work if you can get it though, I suppose.
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