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wondering about XP

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wondering about XP
ok, I heard the other day and couldn't believe my ears.
Do you really have to connect to M$ servers to update your XP license every 30 days?

I'm sure this is a great way to stop pirating of M$ software but what about folks that don't necessarily use the internet? Sure, it's a requirement but does that mean if you don't want to contact their servers that you have to use pre-XP systems? Gee, this makes good news since that means folks will be less willing to upgrade their systems for several years and/or give the *nix side of the world a nice size influx of users especially since many distros are becoming user friendly like OSX.

hmmm, is Apple next with their .Mac service? I hope not! Unsure

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [QooQ] wondering about XP In reply to
I don't believe so. I monitor all outgoing traffic on my MS XP box and haven't noticed anything yet. You may be confused with the registration that is required within 30 days of installing XP? You must do this to activate the product or else it will cease to function. You can also do this via the telephone, however, which I did for one installtion in work IIRC and is a right PIA.

- wil
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Re: [QooQ] wondering about XP In reply to
Nooo you don't have to do this.

AFAIK the only time you connect to their server is in the background when XP auto-downloads patches and updates....you can of course turn this feature off if desired.
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Re: [QooQ] wondering about XP In reply to
I think what you heard is you need to "activate" your copy of XP by registering it with Microsoft within 30 days. Once it's activated, you don't need to do it again. Although have a look at:

http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm

for some ways that XP connects to microsofts computers.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] wondering about XP In reply to
Interesting link, Alex, but there are some seriously weak arguments in that article. It's not really well written and thought out. This was a classic which made me stop reading and discard the rest of the article:

"For example, as of September 9, 2002, there are 19 security vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer [pivx.com]. (On August 8, 2002, there were 22, so some progress is being made.) This is a terrible record for a company that has $40 billion in the bank. Obviously, with that kind of money, Microsoft could fix the bugs if it wanted to fix them. Since the bugs are very public and Microsoft has the money, it seems reasonable to suppose that top management at Microsoft has deliberately decided that the bugs should remain, at least for now."

The author assumes such a simple corrolation between the amount of "money" a company has "in the bank" and the amount of bugs in one of it's products shows some serious lack of misunderstanding in product development and management. And the simplistic reference between "money in the bank" and Microsoft makes me think this guy doesn't have much of a clue about the way a business is run, either.

- wil

Last edited by:

Wil: Oct 17, 2002, 11:48 AM
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Re: [Wil] wondering about XP In reply to
Oh, I probably should have just quoted the 18 ways instead of the full article, it does ramble a lot. =)

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] wondering about XP In reply to
But not all of those 18 ways are active, such as the fax service, error reporting (you must agree to send the report), and a few of the others.
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Re: [Paul] wondering about XP In reply to
Thanks all.

I heard this from a buddy and was wondering what was up and the potential implications of actively registration of software.

My buddy could quite possibly be wrong but he did also mention that one other requirement was internet connectivity.

I'm just leery about such a system. Today, it's well, it's only a phone call or just a simple activation through the net. What's next? The chip that got whomped for holding personal information and serial numbers? Hell, .net and .mac are the wave of the future, software that spans the net for multiusers, updated, maintained, stored on company servers .... no more piracy no more privacy ....

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [Alex] wondering about XP In reply to
Yeah, guess my years of studying history is influencing my way of analyzing that article. I tend to go straight into journalist mode and investigate the source and it's creditibility before I go any further. :)

- wil

Last edited by:

Wil: Oct 17, 2002, 12:58 PM