Vista to Take Hard Stand Against Piracy

Excite News ^ | 4 October 2006 | ALLISON LINN

[ShadowAce]

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s forthcoming Windows Vista will take much harsher steps to curtail piracy than previous versions of its operating system, including crippling the usefulness of computers found to be running unlicensed copies of the new software.

The world's largest software maker said Wednesday that people running a version of Windows Vista that it believes is pirated will initially be denied access to some of the most anticipated Vista features. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology.

If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager.

Under that scenario, a person could use the browser to surf the Web, access documents on the hard drive or log onto Web-based e-mail. But the user would not be able to directly open documents from the computer desktop or run other programs such as Outlook e-mail software, Lindeman said.

Microsoft said it won't stop a computer running pirated Vista software from working completely, and it will continue to deliver critical security updates.

The company also said it has added more sophisticated technology for monitoring whether a system is pirated. For example, the system will be able to perform some piracy checks internally, without contacting Microsoft, Lindeman said.

Microsoft also is adding ways to more closely monitor for piracy among big corporate users, who tend to buy licenses in bulk.

Microsoft plans to take similar tough measures with the forthcoming version of its Windows server software, dubbed "Longhorn," and to incorporate it into other products down the road.

The crackdown shows how much more seriously Microsoft has started taking Windows piracy, which for years has been extremely widespread in areas such as Russia and China. The Business Software Alliance, a software industry group, estimates that 35 percent of software installed on PCs worldwide is pirated.

In recent years, the market for Windows - one of Microsoft's main cash cows - has become more saturated. That's left the company eager to make money from users who may otherwise have obtained illegal Windows copies.

Microsoft has already instituted tougher piracy checks for Windows XP users who want to get free add-ons such as anti-spyware programs. But until now, the warnings and punitive measures were mainly seen as annoying, rather than debilitating.

Cori Hartje, director of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, said the company now wants users to notice the difference between legal and pirated copies of Vista.

"Our goal is to really make a differentiated experience for genuine and non-genuine users," Hartje said.

Analyst Roger Kay with Endpoint Technologies Associates noted that Microsoft has the right to curtail illegal distribution of its software. The new piracy measures, he said, "seem harsh only in comparison to how lenient it has been."

Nevertheless, Kay said he expects that the anti-piracy tactics will keep some people from upgrading to Vista from the current operating system, Windows XP.

"There will be an XP backlash, which is to say people (will) cling to XP in order to avoid this," he said.

Kay also doesn't expect the new piracy measures to be that effective against hardcore pirates, who have built de facto businesses selling illegal Windows copies. But he thinks it will stop some lower-level piracy.

After many delays, Redmond-based Microsoft is expected to release Vista to businesses in November and consumers in January.

[rzeznikj at stout]

"The long term effect will be that people, (college kids), who have switched to Linux at home because that's what they could afford, will begin to demand what they've used at home, at work."

That's a big reason why I switched over to Linux. The cost of buying Windows is a hugh turnoff given the ever-rising cost of tuition...

[rzeznikj at stout]

IIRC, Windows NT was based in large part on Microsoft OS/2 1.3 (OS/2 2 and up were produced solely by IBM).

In fact, WinNT 3.1 was originally designed to be released as OS/2 3.0.

[Amerigomag]

Linux will be the big winner.

Don't overlook the Rise of the Machine, the virtual machine.

Yes, painless Linux distros like Ubuntu will become popular as hosts for virtual servers. One copy of M$, legal or otherwise, can be duplicated endlessly.

Consumers will have a choice. Patch M$ on the first Tuesday of every month or open a new copy of the virtual, M$ appliance at your leisure, when necessary.

[theBuckwheat]

Dave Cutler was the architect of Digital's VMS, which I think is still the best OS ever written. He was recruited away from DEC by Microsoft to head up the NT project. The first NT architecture book that I was able to purchase states it was a clean sheet design. In looking at the internals, a lot of the excellent features of VMS show through. Indeed, the null task was a signature Cutler feature.

As to the timeline where NT fits with OS/2, I cannot recall. I saw OS/2 and immediately concluded that IBM was not going to take the long view with respect to competing with Microsoft, as much as some people liked it.

As an aside, in the shop I used to work at we kept a running joke going for years: can anyone name any OS feature that Microsoft really invented. The mouse and GUI came from someone else (Xerox PARC), the spreadsheet from Dan Briklin's Visicalc. The only thing that several dozen well-connected techies could ever come up with was BOB, the "feature" that Microsoft included for only a short while in its OS.

[Space Wrangler]

I like it too. I have my laptop setup to where I can boot to either XP Pro, Knoppix, or Ubuntu. I'm a big Knoppix fan, but find myself liking Ubuntu more and more every day.

[HAL9000]

It's also a given that the EULA will indemnify Microsoft against any damage their software may do you their customers.

I wouldn't be surprised if the EULA gives Microsoft the right to enter customer homes and inspect their computers whenever their software flags them as a pirate.

[antiRepublicrat]

) A high-end video card. Well, not high end - but higher than any integrated graphics chipset ... The real bitch is going to be on Notebooks

That's pretty sick. The advanced bells and whistles on OS X work fine with the Intel 950 integrated graphics chipset in the Macbook and Mac mini. As usual, Microsoft tries to copy Apple, but blows it.

[antiRepublicrat]

Windows 3.1 -> 3.11. (based on 16 bit DOS)

Windows 1.x, 2.x and 3.x were just graphical shells on top of 16-bit DOS. Windows 3.x did give protected mode on capable processors, making an actual improvement over real-mode DOS.

Windows 95 -> 98 -> 98 SE/ME (based on 16 bit DOS)

Windows 9x was a hybrid 16/32 bit OS. It could run 32-bit apps in their own address spaces, but 16-bit apps got lumped together and thunked.

Windows NT was a 32 bit design written from scratch based on a blank-sheet architecture by David Cutler (architect of DEC VMS, which rocks).

While NT was written from scratch with a lot of influence from VMS, it had OS/2 influences too. It took a turn south when Windows 3.x was successful, because Gates decided to scrap the OS/2 API and replace it with a 32-bit version of the Windows 3.1 API. Since Microsoft loves backwards compatibility, there have been some major kludges since then to overcome this basic fact.

Windows 2000, written from a clean sheet but based on Windows NT.

Windows 2000 was just NT 5.0, some work under the hood plus putting a Windows 98 face on NT.

Windows XP, based on Win2000.

Some more work under the hood, plus some GUI pretties inspired by Crayola. Windows NT 5.1.

Vista, clean sheet based on XP?

More based on Windows 2003 Server (NT 5.2). Call it NT 6.0.

[rzeznikj at stout]

NT 3.1 was supposed to be OS/2 3.0--IBM was to develop version 2.0.

But the collaboration between MS and IBM fell apart, with MS continuing to develop Windows. IBM continued to work on OS/2, but it never took off aside from a small and loyal niche market.

So, MS took out the OS/2 API and much of the IBM code--replacing it with the Windows API and their own code. Technically it was clean-sheetede because MS wrote a ton of new code and put it around the new NT kernel, which MS implemented.

[theBuckwheat]

It is interesting how this history is discovered and recalled piece by piece, as if M/S doesn't care too much about it.

[Golden Eagle]

It's made by communists, I s'pose, but it's free and great.

Classic Linux user thought process...

[rzeznikj at stout]

That it is.

And then to realize that there's only a handful of things that MS has made completely of their own innovation.

Interesting to think that Windows XP can trace its roots back to OS/2....

[rzeznikj at stout]

Thread Jester Ping

A low-volume pinglist dedicated for all the thread jesters out there--you know who you are...8^)

FReepmail rzeznikj at stout or MikefromOhio to be added or struck from the list...

[Irish_Thatcherite]

hehehe!!

[rzeznikj at stout]

It gets better...

[Centurion2000]

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s forthcoming Windows Vista will take much harsher steps to curtail piracy than previous versions of its operating system, including crippling the usefulness of computers found to be running unlicensed copies of the new software.

And the first time this hits a business computer and they have a certificate of authenticity, M$ is toast.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

So I see!

[Protagoras]

Leaving aside the technical aspects of all this, is it legitimate to build software that cannot be run if it is pirated?

[Clara Lou]

Oh, don't take everything so seriously.... =p

[steve-b]

I think it's acceptable in principle, provided that it's fully disclosed in advance and the vendor takes full responsibility for damage caused by false triggers.