Black Screen of Darkness for Vista users.

[alfredo]

I wonder how long it will be before some hacker figures out how to use this "feature" for their own uses? Yes, piracy is bad, but I can see some nasty surprises down the road for legal users.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9035478


Black screen of darkness to haunt Vista pirates
Buy the software or suffer the consequences
Rodney Gedda Today’s Top Stories or Other Operating Systems Stories


September 11, 2007 (Computerworld Australia) -- Microsoft Windows' infamous "blue screen of death" has become synonymous with an operating system crash or freeze, but that's nothing compared with what users of pirated copies of Vista worldwide can expect from now -- a black screen of darkness.

In an e-mail to a large Windows Vista distributor titled "Pirated Vista -- A darkness descends!" -- a local Microsoft representative made it quite clear what Vista pirates can expect to happen to their unlicensed installations.

A copy of this e-mail was obtained by Computerworld.

"Good afternoon, as of this week, Microsoft has activated a function in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality.' This is a specific function in Vista that effectively disables nongenuine copies of Windows. Therefore anyone who has a pirated copy of Vista will experience:

A black screen after one hour of browsing
No start menu or task bar
No desktop

[Buzz Clik]

1. I guess Gates heard that Jobs was now the most hated man in the computer business.

Time for Gates to rev it up and go for maximum dickishness.

[Ezlivin]

2. Thankfully Vista users will have top-notch technical support

[alfredo]

6. Hey, that's my cousin.

[Poll_Blind]

3. To wit: "Massive Microsoft WGA meltdown fingers legit Vista and XP owners as pirates"

"Massive Microsoft WGA meltdown fingers legit Vista and XP owners as pirates"

I can't wait till they join forces with Homeland Security. Can you?

PB

[alfredo]

7. I think it would be a perfect match.

[Richard Steele]

9. Holy crap. A server glitches, and suddenly people's OS's start shutting down?

That's no way to run a railroad.

And it shows the real drawback to Microsoft's
"consumers don't own Vista, they just lease the privilege
of using it" approach.

That sort of control, in the hands of any system that's less
than 100% PERFECT, will inevitably lead to situations like that.

And no system is 100% perfect.

[alfredo]

10. Sometimes their paranoia gets the best of them. Yes, piracy is a big

problem, but the upside is marketshare. They might pirate the OS, but then buy hundreds of dollars in software.

[entanglement]

25. The Windows "Genuine Advantage" failure story should've gotten more press

Most reports I read were on tech sites (slashdot, cnet)

[Atman]

11. Gawd, I thought you were joking!

That is incredible!

My first Mac was a full color Mac II with 2mb of RAM and a 40mb hard drive. I have never, ever had anything but good experiences with every Mac I've ever purchased since then. Most of them are still laying around, fully functional, waiting for the Smithsonian. I've never had a virus, I've certainly never had any of these ridiculous "validation" issues. Yowz! How do people put up with that shit for a product they've paid good money for?

.

[alfredo]

26. Power and Paranoia go hand in hand.

[n2doc]

29. but...but..but...they're CHEAPER than a MAC!

People will put up with amazing things if they believe that they are saving money. Even if they have to buy that $400 computer 2 or 3 times a year to keep working...

[n2doc]

28. Who says they haven't? n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. yep...'tis true

have a 'friend' affected by this issue...

sP

[SixString]

5. I thought "Reduced Functionality"

was a function of every Microsoft OS.

[Greyhound]

8. LOL!

It's funny 'cause it's true...
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

31. It's a "feature", not a bug

Vista. Because life is so much more interesting with problems to solve. Perfection is boring.

[riverdeep]

12. ok, so then solutions?

If this isn't the way to go, then what would be a good way to combat piracy? Assuming you believe piracy is theft. Or should they just toss up their arms and hand out OS CDs at bus stops and shopping malls, because someone gonna steal it anyway?

[alfredo]

13. I don't know the solution to this. All software companies have

this problem, but you don't see them resorting to such measures. Sure, they aren't monopolies like MS, but still you don't see such a hard line toward their own customer.

If this new "feature" gets hacked it could cause untold damage. What if some mission critical software accidentally, or maliciously got put into this mode?

Anyway, somebody will find a workaround for this.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

27. A solution that does not penalize legitimate purchasers

Should be the first priority.

[Richard Steele]

32. Simple: remove the code that AUTOMATES the process. It's just a BAD idea.

If someone is using a pirated copy, the OS can notify a HUMAN BEING
who can then decide what steps are appropriate to take.

But letting another program do it automatically is CLEARLY not
a good way to keep legitimate customers satisfied, as this incident
clearly shows.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. Hmm, wouldn't it be nice if they spent that time fixing bugs and working toward a more stable OS

You know, rather than scheming to catch someone who gets an unpaid for copy?

Nah, silly me. It's all about monopolies and mega money. Screw the paying consumer!

[burrowowl]

15. OMG worst than

the blue screen of death!

[Trillo]

16. Yawn ...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[JCMach1]

17. It will take just a few days to hack this out of the pirated versions

So, no worries.

Or, if you get sick of the BS, just switch to LINUX. I have an old PIII that made a brilliant LINUX box.

No private person here in Asia pays MSoft for anything...

[alfredo]

23. their pricing is outrageous. Can they make it more complex? I love

Linux pricing. You download, it is free.

Apple has the right idea for commercial OS's.
"We’ve got a basic version, which is going to cost $129. We’ve got a premium version, which is gonna cost $129. We’ve got a business version, $129. We’ve got an enterprise version, $129. And we’ve got the ultimate version - we’re throwing everything into it: It’s $129. We think most people will buy the ultimate version."
-Steve Jobs

[0rganism]

18. Windows Vista: Gates' greatest gift ever to open-source OS developers

All it'll take is a few of the bigwig corporados seeing their screens go dark unexpectedly, and market shares will change like magic.

[Beelzebud]

22. Get good graphics drivers, and a way to emulate Direct X and I'm there.

If it weren't for gaming, I'd already be using Linux, but the sad fact is that gaming on Linux is about as fun as scraping my teeth on ice.

[0rganism]

24. you're right about Linux gaming -- it lags MS by about 6 years, which sucks

but you probably know as well as I do that most business users with MSOS platforms couldn't care less about the frame rate on Halflife 2, they just use MS because it's familiar. When Vista starts black-screening them after an hour of use and they have to argue with MS support guys in Bangladesh over their registration numbers, lost productivity, and dropped connections, that familiarity is going to start smelling like a week-old fish.

Driver development happens for a reason. Because of the widespread near-monopoly use of Windows platforms generally, the hardware companies pretty much have to do the MS drivers first and they get the lion's share of testing. Meanwhile, Linux is third tier, almost a charity case for them. All it takes is a profit-damaging run of true assholery on the part of MS and that market share will change, as will the resultant balance of priorities from hardware companies. Vista is already closer to Linux in its hardware abstraction than previous MSOS, to the point that some Linux drivers were working as well or better than the corresponding Vista equivalents during the betas.

Of course, if you want to use Linux and still have the same system available for MS-compatible games, dual boot is a definite option, as is VMWare. No reason it has to be either-or.

[Nihil]

19. Aw well, at least there's a silver lining ...

> "Good afternoon, as of this week, Microsoft has activated a function
> in Vista called 'Reduced Functionality.'

... at least they're admitting it was a design feature as opposed to a bug!

[alfredo]

20. there's nothing wrong with fighting piracy, it's their history of

arrogance teamed with incompetence that makes us look upon this "feature" with suspicion.

[porphyrian]

21. If they had spent half as much time make legitimate copies work properly, people would pay for it.

I'm just saying.

[alfredo]

30. What I am going to do is get a Mac Mini, then look for a used

or new laptop that will run Linux.