XP

[Guest]

Just read the XP preview, and I gotta say the so called activation system is gonna be a real pain in the ass. Like Tom says, everytime you format your system you gotta call microsoft?! Thats a joke. Dont know what everyone else thinks, but I format my sys at least five...six....seven times a year. So I could be calling microsoft every other month on XP! Erm thanks, but no thanks. What's everyone else think on this?

 

[Arrow]

Hope they drop it. It's going to be hard for people who play around with the hardware - that's many of us here at Tom's.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http/www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http/www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[Guest]

And how long before a hacker writes a cool self-registration app?
Not condoning illegal copying but clearly MS will cause people act that way if they keep the forced registration in the release verion. A lot of the times i try out new hardare or programs and then hace the need to cleanse the system! I don't want to call MS every month. Especially if they will charge for registration!
zed

 

[Guest]

You don't have to activate the OS everytime you install a new piece of hardware or if you format the drive. You only have to re-activate if you replace a couple major hardware components (e.g. if you replace both the CPU and Ethernet card). I agree, sometimes that might become annoying. But it seems fine to me for two reasons:

1) How often do you replace your CPU? If it's monthly, you need a little more foresight.

2) I've called the activation line before and getting a re-activation took me 15 minutes (less time than it took to drive to the post office to pick up my chip).

Only thing that worried me at first was MS keeping track of where I had installed what software. But a report came out about a month ago detailing what data MS gathered and it was surprisingly little.

 

[Toejam31]

The activation is linked to ten hardware components in the system. You should be able to replace 4 of those before needing to call M$ again.

Toejam31

<font color=purple>My Rig:</font color=purple> <A HREF="http/www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http/www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>

 

[Guest]

What if you don't have an internet connection? This is the case for my borthers computer. My comp is connected to internet but he's comp isn't.

Besides, I've heard that XP requires hell lot of computer power. I've seen it on a P3 450 with 64MB of RAM and it was really slow. What does Microsoft expect anyway? Everyone owning a 1GHz rig or what?

At work, I use a Sun station (Ultra 10) with 333MHz CPU + 256Mb RAM. I can run 10-15 applications in paralel. Most of them are synthesis tools by the way.

I wonder, when will Microsoft be able to write a reasonable operating system?

I wish we would play games on Solaris

 

[Guest]

I'm running XP Beta 2 on a P3 550 at home and typically have 15-30 apps running when I'm working. I rarely see any problems unless I'm playing movies and rendering at the same time (chip speed issue really).

IMHO, MS has put out a decent operating system. Granted Sol is a lot more stable, but I've found most people who know even a little about computers can use Windows effectively, while Solaris seems to be either totally unusable or at the minimum unfriendly.

I'd have to agree though, that if you really know what you're doing, Solaris provides a much more direct and stable way of doing it.

The issue is a trade-off. MS is catering to average Joe and Solaris is shooting for the power-user. The only unfortunate part is that game designers are also looking to market to the average Joe, so no games for Solaris.

 

[peach]

The activation is linked to ten hardware components in the system. You should be able to replace 4 of those before needing to call M$ again

toejam, I have heard this elsewhere as well. Do you have any credible source for this information though.

I also remeber reading an MS big cheez saying (I think at some respectable oc site) that MS doesn't even flinch until your number of reinstalls approaches like a 1000. I wonder if that is more or less just a trap. I figure 200 reinstalls of at least 4 major components smells like someone is not being true to the EULA.

This same exec also said that they did not expect the software to be that hard to crack and that the die hards advanced computer users would all have a crack to it - it was just that they were trying to prevent the masses from posting their CD-Keys etc.

I hope so, because I plan on buying XP and I also plan on MS never knowing about it either...... I have a computer full of legally owned, unregistered software. I subscribe to <A HREF="http/grc.com" target="_new">Steve Gibson's</A> theory.

<font color=blue>On company time.....

<b>Change the Sig of the week!!!!</b>

 

[Toejam31]

Here are some of the links I've seen recently:

<A HREF="http/www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5094381,00.html?chkpt=zdnnp1tp02" target="_new">http/www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5094381,00.html?chkpt=zdnnp1tp02</A>

<A HREF="http/www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20282.html" target="_new">http/www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20282.html</A>

<A HREF="http/www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt" target="_new">http/www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt</A>

<A HREF="http/www.licenturion.com/xp/wpa-eng.txt" target="_new">http/www.licenturion.com/xp/wpa-eng.txt</A>

<A HREF="http/www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,apn=2&s=1027&a=11079&ap=1,00.asp" target="_new">http/www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,apn=2&s=1027&a=11079&ap=1,00.asp</A>

<A HREF="http/news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1448000/1448869.stm" target="_new">http/news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1448000/1448869.stm</A>

Some of the information in these sites can be conflicting, so make your own call. But I know several beta-testers, and from what they have said, the first story sounds closer to the actual reality. The second beta appears to be less sensitive to hardware changes.

You might find it interesting that some of them are running the BIOS clock ahead 17 years before the installation, and then setting it back ... hoping to beat the 180 day evaluation period. I wonder if it will work?

No ... I don't think the OS product activation will be that hard to crack. I know for certain that people are "out there" running hacked versions of RC1. I've also heard of easy-to-find Product Keys that can be obtained from Warez websites.

You'll notice that I'm being deliberately vague. This forum is very popular!

I expect that we'll all know the "real deal" within a few weeks after the product launch. Nothing takes care of the hype faster than actual use of the Gold Code. And for years afterwards, people will be coming to the Forum and trying to get help with the OS after changing the motherboard, video card, etc.

Comment: I respect Mr. Gibson' opinion. I've read several different articles by him over the past few years. But ... he does tend to have a little of the "Chicken Little" syndrome, and some of his statements can be slightly overdramatized, such as "Evil Port Monitors." Yes, there are port monitors. But I don't really think that they are "evil". <GRIN>

I understand his paranoia, but I don't necessarily subscribe to all of his theories, or his declarations. For instance, I've waited for a very long time to see his hyper-speed port scanner, the one that could, theoretically, scan all TCP/IP ports. Somehow, I don't think it's ever going to see the light of day. I consider it to be Gibson's Vapor-Ware.

But that's just my opinion. I only swallow powerful adjectives with a good-sized pinch of salt.

Toejam31



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