News Latest WGA deletes wallpaper

True, but don't forget that Apple are practically guaranteed to have made money from you already when they sold you the machine that runs the OS. Microsoft don't have that advantage; they get nothing at all if you pirate the software.

I'll openly admit that when I was a student I did run a pirate copy of windows on one of my two PCs, simply due to the fact that money was tight. However, as soon as I had a proper job, I "upgraded" to a legitimate copy, simply because my conscience didn't like the fact that the software was stolen and nagged me to sort it out as soon as I could afford to. Besides, despite various niggles, I reckon that XP home is probably worth the £57 I paid for my genuine copy.

 

Payed $90 for my vista ultimate retail

 

Just wait until WGA starts deleting legit windows users' wallpapers....

 

I don't run bleeding edge games (no reaction time left at my age), so Linux + WINE = Cheesecake.

 

Very sensible method tbh.

Rather than just say "No! Bad!" they should just irritate the hell out of Pirates.

Obviously a work around will be made, but that's why they should keep doing new things.

 

When Linux can finally run Direct X games or when programmers finally support OpenGL, then we'll see the end of Microsoft and potentially Apple too.
Until then. We will be shelling out a stupidly high amount of money for dodgey software. Because you see, it isn't that Windows is the greatest, its that its the only option if you want high-end gaming content on a computer. And Apple is fine-- if all you want to do is work with photo/video editing and check your email while wearing an Oxford shirt while sitting in Starbucks sipping your overpriced latte. Mac's and their OS are beautiful to look at and stable as hell, and I love World of Warcraft-- but forgive me if I want to play something on a computer with REAL graphics sometime. Linux is getting there, but slowly. And until the DEVELOPERS start support OpenGL or Linux in some other way-- we'll have this problem.

Software is important. As Glider said, without it-- you just have a box of parts. However that doesn't mean that our two choices should be limited to a moldy apple and a gilded apple. One you'd eat only because of desperation and one you CAN'T eat because its solid gold. Pretty to look at, but a bitch on the teeth. Open source makes sense with an operating system. I think the majority of mature adult end-users that would choose a solid free OS over something like Windows-- i think with them you'd find them willing to voluntarily donate money to the project.

All in all, it doesn't justify pirating a copy of whatever, for now. But as someone else said-- its like complaining about the price of gas. I will pay it cause I have to, but I damn well won't be happy about it. And its my given right to complain about it. If you don't like it, don't listen. Voting with your wallet only works if you're in the majority and/or have the upper-hand. Combined, what is MS and Apple's market-share? We will never be the majority until a good free alternative comes out for the gaming demographic as well as the mom-and-pop demographic.

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For those who'll TL;DR this: Linux needs better high-end game support to sway alot of people.

 

That would be a reasonably valid point if WGA was accurate. Or, indeed, if a pirate copy ever had any problems beyond all of the problems that Windows has regardless.

When MS makes a good OS, people won't have an issue paying for it. Unfortunately, they don't, so they have to result to dirty tricks and abusing their monopoly.

 

nope. and it's still clearly marked in windows update as "windows genuine advantage tool" or something. if you are running a pirated version of windows and install that update, you deserve whatever microsoft does to you and your system.

i am running a pirated copy of windows, but i have an unused purchased copy sitting in a box, so i don't feel bad. i have never seen the WGA message on my pirated copy, but on my purchased copy i kept getting bugged to activate and then my activation would fail because i had reinstalled so many times, or had windows running virtually inside windows or something. so i use a pirated copy, it's just easier.

 

A point that sadly I have to agree with. Last week I swapped my DVD drive... and my legitimate copy of Windows locked my machine down and demanded that I re-register the installation. Fine, I connected to the internet and it worked again, but I was wondering to myself; what will happen when Microsoft get fed up with XP and decide to terminate their validation service? Some of our work PCs are still running windows 98, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Hell, one of them still runs DOS6.22. In ten years or so, will Microsoft issue a patch to let us bypass the registration system and run XP after they pull the plug on the registration service? Sadly, just like with DRM, you pay for something, and ultimately get less functionality from it than if you were using a pirate copy.

 

You sir, should go back to DOS.

 

Pirate versions imo are better than OEM/Retail with all the added crap and hoops they make genuine users jump through. I have a valid OS key which I used on a pirate install lol.

 

Greetings!

What "added crap and hoops"?!

 

^

I'm running genuine versions of Windows and don't have any issues or crap and hoops to jump through.

Some time ago when I went through a benchmarking phase, trying to beat overclocking scores (constantly changing hardware) it could be a pain having to call MS, but not on a normal system I use for day to day use.

 

The crap being most of the included software i don't want/need and the hoops being the activation and DRM. As such, I now have nLite and vLite unattended versions.

 

just so you all know, there is now a crack to take WGA off your system even if you install it.

 

read bodgers post above. and sometimes it doesn't even need to be new hardware. my computer crashed once, and when i turned it back on windows decided that i had new hardware and i needed to reactivate. calling microsoft to get permission to use my computer after it crashed was the last straw for me. now i have a cracked copy and can do whatever i want with my hardware without having to explain it to microsoft.

 

All I can say then is I must be very lucky.

 

I bought Vista.

I have a plain color wallpaper and the windows classic interface.. By choice.

If this is all they can do to make me pay I don't think I'll be buying the next one! Haha.

 

Greetings!

Never had to phone anyone. And I do make lot of hardware changes.

Correction:
"Did" make a lot of hardware changes.

 

This is how much of a pain WGA is:
1) Install operating system.
2) Enter product key and check the box to activate Windows when I'm online. (easier in Vista because it has most of the drivers already)
3) If you have a Dell or other computer that won't let you activate online, take the 3 minutes (literally, I do this all the time) to call Microsoft and get your activation code.

Then if I have to download something off of MS's website, all I have to do is download a little exe which gives me a code to copy and paste into the box on the web page. Not all that intrusive if you pay for your software, is it?