Your Opinion Of Windows 7 Activation Technologies ?

[archer6]

Here's an article about Windows 7 Activation Technologies
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... -hit-china

Check in with your take on this.

Cheers...

[Harryc]

Every 90 days it phones home...I don't like it. I think I'll start developing a 100% Linux strategy for the (2) machines I run W7 on. I already dual boot Linux on those same machines.

[qviri]

It's already been cracked. Cat, meet mouse.

On a wider level, I'd be interested to know how much of Microsoft's revenue comes, directly or indirectly, from individual Windows consumers as opposed to larger organizations and other products.

Personally I like Win7 very much. Through my school, I can get two licenses: one for 32 bit and one for 64 bit. It might not be enough to install the system on every computer that I could or would want to, and that might be Microsoft's loss in the long run.

[Harryc]

Lets see how much you like it if you get a nastygram popup and black wallpaper .

[qviri]

If my install wasn't legal, it'd be my job keeping it nastygram-free -- sounds fairly reasonable, much as I would wish otherwise.

[GomJabbar]

I don't overly concern myself with this. I run legit copies of MS software. I don't really expect a problem. Even if one came up regarding activation, I am confident that a phone call to MS will resolve it.

It does not seem that MS is sending private info to their server, but rather only a notification (to their server) if their scanning software (downloaded and run every 90 days) detects something amiss. I can live with that.

[visionviper]

It annoys me only to the extent that pretty much all DRM annoys me: I am forced to prove I am the rightful owner just to use it. I know it's practically a cliche now but I don't like having to prove I am not a criminal all the time.

[bill bolton]

I have legitimate licences on all my systems and the checking is entirely invisible to me, so where's the beef?

Cheers,

Bill B.

[donzoomik]

I can't really blame Microsoft for trying to make money off it's products.
I'm running legal stuff on all my systems, so reporting to Microsoft doesn't really bother me. After all, i've been a beta tester for microsoft for some time and i've never had a problem sending feedback. Actually i usually keep the feedback enabled on stable products. Telemetry can have a pretty big impact on development.

[dr_st]

I have legitimate licences on all my systems and the checking is entirely invisible to me, so where's the beef?

Agree with Bill here. I fail to see the problem, and more over, fail to see the big news. This is not different than the WGA annoying popup on XP systems which were not deemed genuine. I never had problems with the WGA validation on any of my genuine XP systems.

As far as non-genuine systems go... Qviri said it well:

If my install wasn't legal, it'd be my job keeping it nastygram-free -- sounds fairly reasonable

And such techniques do exist, for all the pirates among us.

The real "victims" may be people who have a pirated installation and are ignorant of it. Maybe because some scammer sold them a "license". Microsoft's goal is not to fight these people, but rather the scammers that sell their pirated software. This is why it does not disable systems that are not genuine, merely adds minor annoyances.

On a wider level, I'd be interested to know how much of Microsoft's revenue comes, directly or indirectly, from individual Windows consumers as opposed to larger organizations and other products.

In copyright-respecting countries, like the US, private consumers probably constitute a noticeable amount of revenue. Generally, however, I'd say it's close to zero.

[ashleys]

I see no problem either.

Furthermore, if you have Windows Update set to only notify you of updates, as opposed to automatically downloading and installing, you can decide not to install it. It will be marked as an "Important" update but will, in effect, be voluntary.

[TTA]

I have the free upgrade and valid COA BUT I may have made a fancy Lenovo OEM copy I (might) have installed that so far (if it was installed) seems to work great. I will say I'm going back to XP though, too many issues with my other hardware and legacy software.