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Microsoft Finally Earns Passing Grade (Barely) for WGA | |
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| Time: 00:00 EST/05:00 GMT | News Source: OS News | Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum | ||
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Probably one of the most hated parts of Windows are its anti-piracy measures - product activation and Windows Genuine Advantage. While most people acknowledge Microsoft's right to implement these measures, many have also been bitten by the measures' shortcomings, such as server outages or false positives. Microsoft blogger Ed Bott has been monitoring WGA since its inception, and in 2006 and 2007 he didn't give a passing grade to WGA ("a big fat F"). This year, the situation has improved somewhat, earning Microsoft a passing grade - barely. | ||
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| #1 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 9/8/2008 8:35:07 AM |
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Who are they trying to kid here? WGA will always get an F, at least from the public. I'm sure MS thinks it's great, but they are the only ones who receive any benefits from WGA. To the rest of us, it's more akin to the Sword of Damocles.
Defective By Design |
| #2 By 23275 (68.186.182.236) at 9/8/2008 4:58:21 PM |
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#1, no kidding. WGA is the absolute most consumer unfriendly monster of a program any software company has ever forced on its paying customers.
I hate thieves as much as anyone and would love to see disc loaders jailed, but WGA treats honest people like garbage. MS needs to come up with another way to combat piracy or they need to pay huge bucks out to any innocent party that has ever been falsely hit by WGA. MS should be ashamed of themselves over this one. |
| #3 By 15406 (99.224.112.94) at 9/8/2008 6:08:44 PM |
| At least now the WGA servers are returning a pass if there is a problem. That's a start in really helping consumers, but I'm afraid WGA is here to stay and has emboldened a new generation of software companies to do the same since we've all been desensitized to online activation. |
| #4 By 92283 (142.32.208.234) at 9/8/2008 6:15:40 PM |
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"WGA is the absolute most consumer unfriendly monster of a program any software company has ever forced on its paying customers'
Not compared to dongles. |
| #5 By 23275 (68.186.182.236) at 9/8/2008 6:46:54 PM |
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#4, yeah, those are still around... parallel at first, now USB based. Adobe was big on them as were specialty companies like Canfield.
I still think WGA trumps a dongle - at least when you had one attached you didn't have to do anything else. How many times have we had to upgrade our WGA SW? I lost count at 10. |
| #6 By 54556 (68.35.10.96) at 9/8/2008 7:01:48 PM |
| What's wrong with dongles? They work very well for storing security certificates for system requiring maximum security controls (like financial systems). I also use some commercial scanning software that uses dongles to control licensing (software is licensed by the number of documents scanned eaxch month); hardly a big deal there. |
| #7 By 15406 (99.224.112.94) at 9/8/2008 7:25:45 PM |
| Those old parallel dongles were a pain in the ass. Some of them interfered with the signal so your print jobs looked like crap unless you had a second port. Then there were communication issues when the ports got smarter and you had to figure out which mode to use for the dongle to be able to talk. |
| #8 By 2231 (72.5.151.4) at 9/8/2008 9:23:45 PM |
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WGA is not stopping determined pirates. Do the MS financials show how much development and operations $$$ has gone into WGA?
I have to wonder if they've sunk so much money into the WGA sinkhole and are now just too proud to admit that they made a mistake. |
| #9 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 9/9/2008 4:47:14 AM |
| While, as well as you. I have no exact data about the financial cost of the "WGA operation" I am convinced that is a loss; introducing a true "Family license" for the OS, something with three or five licenses for the same SKU, would have increased MS profits and company image. Considering that the latter is priceless I have no doubts that this will be remembered as another blunder of the bean counters that are, unfortunately, running the company nowadays. |
| #10 By 54556 (68.35.10.96) at 9/9/2008 7:00:27 AM |
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#7
I appoligize. I was referring to USB dongles. |
| #11 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 9/9/2008 8:32:58 AM |
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#9: MS will never do this until there is enough competitive pressure. Until Apple & Linux start making more inroads into userland, MS has no incentive to make less money.
#10: Hey, no need to apologize. I was just ranting about the bad ol' days of parallel port dongles. I haven't had the pleasure of using a USB dongle for any software I have. |
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