How stupid is microsoft?

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Vista has only been out for a year!

http://apcmag.com/5512/pirate_crack_vis ... activation

Thats a good point Alex.

Microsoft has long and openly acknowledged that piracy helps their market share. They have pointed out a pirate is still a user, and in most cases will eventually end up buying Windows.
The fact that it's so much easier to pirate Windows than, say, Mac OS (which is not entirely by design), is probably a significant factor in its widespread piracy in countries where intellectual property laws are weaker. But as soon as China (among others) started cracking down on it, people had to start buying, and Microsoft knew it.

That doesn't mean they want you to pirate it. It's just a way to get it into the hands of more users.

It's much easier to pirate OS X (no serial code much less activation code) but that's because Apple's OS sales are not their central money maker. Actually Apple's professional products do require serial numbers even though OS X does not.

I do think that Microsoft's anti-piracy measures are more about something other than direct sales loss.

It has nothing to do with being stupid. That's a full year before a real crack was issued. That is amazing feat of security in all honesty. Look at some of more recent security features to stop pirating software.

Bioshock being latest had a big blow up because of the poor implementation of the anti-pirating method. It took less than a month before full working cracks were around that bypassed the entire thing.

HD DVDs were cracked in less than a 3 months. Everyone should remember the blow up on digg.com when the cert key was published in the wild.


The money involved in creating cracked software, spyware and the like is enormous now. They commonly command entire teams of elite coders to do just this. Computer security is like having a house where instead of like in the real world you may get one person a year attempt to break in... you now have thousands attempting to break in, in any possible way they can all the time, every single day. It's not a matter of if but of when.

If you really wanted to call MS Stupid for something, you'd be better off referring to this...

Microsoft Apologizes to Corel for Office 2003 SP3
http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... Id=9055618

They do a lot more stupid things than being cracked, which even happens to smart companies.

You can buy Windows Vista Basic for £56.39 if you buy the OEM version. With the OEM version you just don't get all the fancy packaging and there's usely only one version on the disc where the retail version has the 32bit and 64bit version on the same Disc. I bought the Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - for £70 has it comes with the Media Centre software which is great if you plan on connecting a PC to a LCD TV. The retail version is over £200. lol

So I finally have a genuine copy of Windows yay.

You can buy the OEM versions here

Overclockers

I think they'll will sell it to you has it is without having to buy anything else. If you just wanted the OS.

Microsoft isn't stupid. Vista a pile of bloatware that only a super team of programmers can work with. I am sure for curtain Vista has to be the last version of windows. Windows cannot continue on the same pattern

I just love this article...

Microsoft Watch - Where Vista Wasn't
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/ ... X1K0000535

This is my favourite bit...

Another thing. Microsoft knows that their product is being pirated. They still get their money though. Do you really think that they have to sell the OS for so much? Legit buyers pay for the pirates.