[Gllug] OT: WGA (was: A long shot... Windows support)

[John Edwards]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 06:24:29PM +0000, general_email at technicalbloke.com wrote:
<snip> 
> Oh and, why would you block WGA? If you're running legit software at
> best it's pointless, at worst it can prevent you from getting updates,
> download and free(beer) software from MS.

Because very occasionally it (or the hardware change detection in XP)
goes wrong and you have to waste an hour or so finding out what is
wrong and being on the phone to Microsoft to get the OS re-activated.

Sometime that hour can be at a very inconvenient time, like a deadline
or 4:45pm on an important Friday. And if the machine is a laptop in
the field used by someone non-technical then this can a lot more
complicated.

Not using it does not stop you from getting updates via the Automatic
Updates, only via the web frontend on Microsoft's website (see other
emails in this thread).

Despite it's name there is no real advantage for the average user in
using it, and a small risk of a major headache.

The technically savvy can opt-out of installing it, and the copyright
infringement brigade will use a hacked version, so there is not much
advantage for Microsoft in using it either.

I can't think of any other major Operating System that uses something
similar for a desktop OS, so that suggests it's a not a popular idea.

In the long term WGA has the potential to be a remote "kill switch".
When Windows XP comes to it's end of life, are Microsoft going to
continue to spend money on ensuring that WGA and re-activation works
correctly?

There are still machines running DOS out in the wild, doing very
important tasks (eg machining) 16 years after it was discontinued.
Windows XP still has the largest market of any version of Windows,
there are going to lots of companies that needs to keep running it
after Microsoft stops supporting it.


-- 
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|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
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