* Posts by fred muntenara

2 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Dec 2007

Counterfeit Vista rate half that of XP

fred muntenara
Happy

@ Steven Hewitt

The EULA places restrictions on the OS's reuse on other hardware, resale, use in virtual machines without valid keys (fair enough). But it is the combination of this with Microsoft's phone-home activation that allows them to ENFORCE the terms of the EULA. I can't confidently buy a copy of Vista knowing that I'll be able to use it on the machine I'm typing this on, and on the one I buy in a couple of months, and on a machine I may buy next year, even if I only ever intend to have it on 1 system at any time. I certainly can't be confident that I can keep a backup VM containing content I create today dust it off in 20 years, fire it up and hope that MS still thinks I should be "allowed" to be running it any more.

The fundamental problem I have with all this stuff (and the discomfort started with XP's WGA), is that the ability of my machine to keep on doing what I want it to do, now and long in to the future should not rely on permission from some company across the sea. Microsoft will be around for a while yet, and admittedly their stuff generally works well. But it only takes a few cock-ups (like WGA mistaking some legitimate XP installs for illegal copies) to make me less than comfortable with the situation.

You admit you haven't yet experience protected HD content :) You admit to WPA p!$$ing you off - you at least have some sense of the limitations to your freedom - those are the bars of your battery hen cage. It may be roomy, predictable and comfortable for you, but its still a cage. Not for me.

fred muntenara
Gates Horns

@ Steven Hewittt

I think there's another angle you may be missing. I'm sure there is some merit to your argument on technical, pricing levels etc. and there may be people commenting from a perspective of ignorance.

I have seen but not tried Vista myself, use XP/Win2K/Server2K3 regularly, but at home would not touch Vista with a f@#!ing barge pole. I can slag it off all day without having used it and do so without being ignorant. Why? Because for me its not about this or that technical detail, feature or lack of it. It just sh!ts me that year after year I've had to pay Microsoft time and time again for basically the same thing. And I don't get to upgrade when I want to, I am forced to because of the deals with PC builders, T's & C's on the EULA etc, artificial "compatibility" requirements from new software etc.

No, for me its about freedom, and I don't need to try Vista to know that I think its not going near any of my machines. Why would I want to fork out hard-earned cash for something that needs to keep suckling from the MS update service to keep running, lest it stop receiving regular "PERMISSION" to keep running, and for me to keep using something that I paid for. No, Vista can get stuffed.

You probably don't understand this sentiment because you trust MS and you think your lot is OK. I once read an analogy. A battery chicken is fed, watered and kept warm - looked after in a very predictable environment. It has the freedom to do whatever it likes in that environment, but it doesn't know that it doesn't have real freedom because it doesn't know any better. It sees chickens roaming around outside the shed that are fending for themselves (software libre) and thinks that it would be too hard and far prefers to stay where its warm and there is food and water. Only the chickens that have escaped, learned to fend for themselves, and are freely roaming in the outside world have experienced both conditions and truly value the freedom that comes with escape.

Maybe that's why they're all crowing from out in the farmyard (posting comments from other OSes). I am, and now that I have experienced the freedom, can say hand on heart that as long as it has DRM, product activation and a restrictive EULA, It is a steaming pile of SH!T.