This just appeared on Boing Boing.
DRM bites again: the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage servers (which every XP and Vista install phones home to) all failed sometime earlier today.
The result? Every single Windows XP and Vista installation — except possibly those with volume license keys — is being marked as counterfeit when it tries to check in.
Looks like this isn’t the weekend to install a copy of Windows or buy a new Windows PC. Now where are they selling Macs.
When you read the forums on this (linked in blockquote below) it’s incredible.
Validation issues – Microsoft is having WGA server problems
Thank you for your response.
I’m sorry to inform you that the Windows Genuine server might be down for few days. I have escalate the issue to our Genuine team, kindly try to validate again on Tuesday 28 Aug 2007.
Thank you for contacting Microsoft Technical Support.
If these programs were properly designed they would all self-validate if the validation server went down. The cheaters would have a free day or two and be caught later. How hard can that be? But no. Now everyone is assumed to be a crook. This is a developing story.
______________________________________
UPDATE: It’s fixed, relatively speaking. Sort of.
Folks:
I understand the frustration you all are going through. I’m investigating the issue right now.
I guarantee that we’re working on this issue right now. For folks wondering, MACHINES ARE NOT SHUTTING DOWN with reduced functionality.
I guarantee that I will personally resolve this issue before I go to sleep – whether or not it is Tuesday I sleep.
True, ECA. But IBM adopted the term and applied it to their product, even though Apples had already been around a while. IBM officially naming their Intel-based machines PCs led to it being used mostly as a synonym for Wintel machines and not all desktop microcomputers…
If you’re gonna blame anyone, it’s not IBM’s fault that the gen pop has come to lazily use the term PC to mean only Windows boxes…
To extend on Ghoti’s remarks
After IBM officially coined their Intel machines PCs. Other manufacturers reverse engineered the IBM PC and called it ‘IBM PC compatible/clone’
Up until the switch from PPC to intel… PowerPC, and Motorola processors were anything but compatible with IBM PCs. If you look at games even made up till just a few years ago before Microsoft tried their ‘games for windows’ FUD campaign, almost all IBM PC compatible games were put in the genre of PC-CDROM.
Does that mean to say Macs should be able to play them fine then? No… although by your logic they should. (I’m not saying you should be right or wrong here….) but what I will say is that I have a whole stack of old PC-CDROM games that would never work on a Mac without Windows and/OR an emulator.
Just as DOS/Windows games (notice the OS requirement also) became PC-CDROM, Mac games were branded ‘Mac’ which guaranteed that as long as you had the current flavour of architecture in Steve Jobs shrine, then you could likely play the game on your Macintosh.
What does amuse me is that people like to call Macs as MACs… i’d never thought of my Mac as a network address before, its not a 3 letter abbreviation … but then, I also dont pull anyone up about it either 🙂 do I #59 🙂
(and yes you probably did use caps for emphasise, just couldn’t resist 🙂
Hop, lemme ask you this: if someone told you there was no difference between your Lex and, say, a Chevy Impala, that you just thought yours was better because it’s yours, what would you say?
And didn”t you have to get used to pushing a button to start it, instead of inserting a key and turning? Would that be sufficient reason to stick with a Chevy and it’s many-faceted relative inferiority, because you have to do a few things differently? (Especially if the differences are for the better?)
Of course people tend to be egocentric and think that what they chose is the best – but that does NOT mean that viewpoint of the person who happens to actually have the best is worth no more than anyone else’s…
Let me put it a different way… I say the Big Mac is the best hamburger you can buy anywhere – you say that the $45 ground-filet-mignon burger with truffles on artisan bread that you get at Spago is the best. Naturally, we each think our choice is correct – but your choice, as opposed to mine, happens to objectively be correct as well.
So because we feel the same way about our respective choices, that neither makes my choice correct nor yours incorrect. The right to an opinion does not make my opinion right. Just because people have subjective biases does not mean that there is no objective truth, nor that that truth may be dismissed as merely one of our ‘opinions’. See what I’m getting at?
A = a Very Good Thing; B = a Very Cheesy Thing
Joe: “A is better than B.”
Sam: “No, B is better than A.”
To someone ignorant of any knowledge of A or B, Joe and Sam have presumably equally valid opinions – but in objective reality, Joe knows that A is better, while Sam erroneously thinks B is.
Sorry, analogizing is something I do……….. 🙂
#64 – Ian
“What does amuse me is that people like to call Macs as MAC…”
Since some of them have never been exposed to the technical term “MAC” I hypothesize that they must be making some association with the far more publically-visible brand name of cosmetics. But even that’ s wrong, because that company’s name is M•A•C (with bullets, not periods), for Makeup Artists’ Cosmetics.
In second place in technoilliteracy (or maybe ‘techno-obliviousness’, to be more charitable) after ‘MAC’ is ‘Apple Mac.’ I’ve seen every model they’ve ever built and some they haven’t – and not a solitary one of ’em ever said ‘Apple Mac’ anywhere on ’em… 😉
Microsoft is not the answer – Microsoft is the question. The answer is no!
#62, Karmakaze
…you simply deselect WGA and an option comes up to never notify about that update again. WGA is not installed and Auto Updates never tries to install it again …
Uummm, not quite. I have to keep an eye on my updates other wise it will install. Although I have deselected WGA several times, it will still keep coming back. I have also noticed they changed the text description a few times too.
If only it was that simple.
My good fortune.
A tragic twist of fate
Just when I had decided to update to Microsoft Vista?
How is the city of Fortuna going to survive ?
64,
Mac=Macintosh
And even you understand that a Windows program from win3.11, win 95, 98, 2000, xp will not ALWAYS work on the other versions…
Even if it says it will work on a PC, you have to look at WHICH version its going to work with.
I have some NICE old programs that I would LOVE to be running, but they wont even TOUCH the current windows…and I havent even touched on Vista or 32bit and 64 bit. Even the Windows games, have the SAME problems…
PC was designated for the smaller more portable computers…something that DIDNT take up 1 room in your house.
Ubuntu!
http://tinyurl.com/563oe
“Now, go out and buy a Mac.”
DAMN, what is it with you people?! Its like the gun debate – get a gun, get a mac.
Did the turtle neck close off too much blood to the brain? 😉
Not every person who has a PC is in a ‘life and death struggle’ to turn it on. You know there aren’t any stories to tell about all the PCs that just have no problems – like mine and my wife’s and many others.
Compare a Mac in a side by side comparison with a PC of the same cost Macs are terribly overpriced ‘pretty boys’. “I’m a Mac don’t I look good? We all heard that OS X is the heavenly host and its like you know, it like operates itself (with the rising intonation at the end) – gosh!
People are quick to point out that MS is so restrictive – and Apple is not? You have no other option than to buy a Mac to use OS X, while Windows has endless hardware possibilities. See how well OS X does if it had to suit the same hardware options as Windows. Sorry that is not possible, that is so outside of what Apple can ever achieve.
So, Apple is not restrictive?
iPods – you MUST use iTunes, you MUST open an account to get album art. All other mp3 players – feel free to use what you want and the album art? Well that is a given. 😀
iPhones – well gee, what is there I could add to that, huh? 😉
When you buy a Mac is there like a book you get with all the catch phrases and scripted responses to PC users?
Shame you all don’t get a life when you get a Mac. 🙁
Cheers
#35, #41 and to all others who are using pirated copies of Windows and MS software.
All of you created WGA, and you blame Microsoft for that?
What, are all of you that stupid in not understanding that?
Cheers
72. “See how well OS X does if it had to suit the same hardware options as Windows. Sorry that is not possible, that is so outside of what Apple can ever achieve.
Touche, I have nothing to add.
#65 Lex and Chevy? WTF?
You really think Apple Mac boxes are the Lexus of computers and all other PCs are Chevys? Is that is in the little book that comes with all Apple Macs…?
What ever happened to NeXT? Oh yeah, that was Job’s Intel platform baby after he was fired from Apple and later bought by Apple for $400m along with Jobs and NeXT’s executives replacing Apple’s executives and ported to powerPC to became OS X and now it’s back to the original platform it was designed for. Apple doesn’t buy others software and call it their own like Microsoft does…. 😉
#64 “And even you understand that a Windows program from win3.11, win 95, 98, 2000, xp will not ALWAYS work on the other versions…
Even if it says it will work on a PC, you have to look at WHICH version its going to work with.”
Just like Apple Macs… so the point is….?
Cheers
#73 .
I’ve donated $1200 over the years to Mandrake before they became Mandriva. I buy OSX each time knowing that I’ll get a good product, and I pay for all software that I actually make any money on in return.
I do pay for what I believe in but sadly Microsoft lost that belief years ago with their war against Netscape. In the same way I pirate music and then go buy 3 – 4 T-shirts at gigs to compensate the artist.
Bottom line is, if you screw your customers – they WILL screw you back.
Congratulations #70, as I stated in my post #64 Mac does indeed = Macintosh, I’m glad you felt you had to show your knowledge but I think I was the one that told you in said post 😉 look back over, you’ll catch on eventually – I’m sure.
“Even if it says it will work on a PC, you have to look at WHICH version its going to work with.”
Which then goes to back up just what I said about PC vs Mac. If a Mac is a PC then PC compatible software should work fine on the Mac PC right?
/class finished
These programs keep braking down because MS and the gov’t left open many backdoors so they can spy on you. After all, corporations and gov’t are merely quid-pro-quo whorehouses sold to the highest bidder. When the gov’t needs illegal wire-taps, Verizon and Sprint allow them secret rooms to listen in on calls. When Haliburton (and KBR) need more revenue, the gov’t hands out no-bid contracts. When the gov’t dislikes literature, Amazon and Wikipedia ban the book America Deceived (book) . We The People had our gov’t (and our internet) sold out from beneath us.
Off topic but in the same vein, check out the DRM hassle being experienced by buyers of the new game Bioshock.
Some say it’s a rootkit, some say it isn’t. Either way pirated hacked versions are having less trouble than legitimate buyers.
sigh.. it amazes me.. how long have most of u been alive? MAc = UNIX so you can praise your nothing but a GUi interface all you want. i don’t protect windows.. thats not my point.. but lets look at the user numbers.. why don’t we hear about MAC crashes.. well lets look at the dollar values and what hits the news… MONEY…
we were just reading about iphone being hackable and – yes it is… actually do you even want to know what I can do to a mac…. so regardless…. M$ screws up… you have choice use it and don’t bitch about what you apparently don’t use…
One more thing all and all Bill Gates has billions of dollars and officially does not run MS anymore…so bitchin gets u what? and him what?
I have to add to above.. we care so much about monopolies – i think there is far more morally tiwsted monopolies in the world and if we spent our time on those then M$ something might change, like say oil, child abuse, slave labour, etc etc…. whatever its a bug life goes on…
“72. “See how well OS X does if it had to suit the same hardware options as Windows. Sorry that is not possible, that is so outside of what Apple can ever achieve.”
I have, I installed it on my beige box built from the ground PC. It sees the GForce card, the memory… the soundcard… the dvd drives… doesnt detect the TV card and only detects the VIA SATA controllers and not the Promise ones…
But I’ll tell you something. Keeping in mind that it was never intended to be installed on a beige box… to have it up and running almost perfectly on an AMD FX cpu is a pretty good accomplishment in itself! And in all honesty.. it was almost practically impossible to get the proper working drivers for Vista nevermind getting hardware working in OSX. Regardless of OSX, My Audigy 2 ZS platnium pro has better sound control support in Linux than it currently does in Vista. So I’m sorry but I think your spreading shite 🙂
The latest version of OS X installs and runs reasonably considering on a Mac that was made 7 years ago. Can you say that about Vista?
(and FYI I uninstalled OSX afterwards…. good support but I cant live without the 400GB drive on the promise controller 🙂 )
79#
“sigh.. it amazes me.. how long have most of u been alive? MAc = UNIX so you can praise your nothing but a GUi interface all you want.”
hehe obviously longer than you, OS X only received its UNIX certification a few weeks ago… so how can MAc = UNIX? for the last god knows how many years you are trying to suggest?
OSX is UNIX in the same way that Windows is UNIX
The majority of Windows code is based from the berkley BSD license which doesnt require the code to be revealed. OSX is the same but equally in the same sense that they use a very different code base and kernels. The reality of it all is very complex… so I’ll spare you the details.
if you had been paying attention of course you would have also realised that a Mac is a Macintosh and not a M A C.
M$ is supporting Apple and the Linux community?
– Vista?
– Genuine Un-usability Disadvantage Program?
– Digital restriction management?
To be honest, I would not even pirate the new windows, let alone pay money for it! Keep it up M$! Open software is what the world needs!
#76 “Bottom line is, if you screw your customers – they WILL screw you back.”
Let me make sure I understand what your logic. People pissed off at MS and Windows ‘get back’ at MS by pirating MS software and Windows? WTF? Where did you learn marketing principles?
People pissed off at a brand or product switch brands or products. That is not that difficult to understand.
E.G. People pissed off at US car manufacturers switch brands e.g. imported cars. Don’t whine that “MS has a monopoly so we can’t switch” BS! Apple has been around forever as an alternative.
People pirate things they want – not to ‘get back” at the manufacturer.
#81 BFD, OS X worked for you…on a non-Mac box you built, so….how many other hardware options did you test bed to further support your point? Ok…
This is like debating religion and guns…. All sermon, no substance. 😉
Cheers
#82 Good points…
#81 I forgot to mention OS X is based on NeXTSTEP fathered by Jobs after he was ‘let go’ by Apple. NeXTSTEP was CPU independent (PowerPC and Intel x86) and this was retained in OS X. although only PowerPC versions were released except for Darwin in which both versions were released and of course what we have now for Intel.
Cheers
The problem…
Is that NOT enough people KNOW there are other options, or OS’s.
they also do NOT know how to setup a computer from scratch.
And when we talk about drivers/inf/dll they go blank…
I would say that 70-80% of ALl computers AFTER setup are never changed…Unless some SMART ass thinks WIN XP would look great on a P133(yes, I had 1-2)…
I guess if there’s ever a worldwide catastrophe, humans will rebuild the planet with linux software, since Microsoft products will all deactivate themselves with nothing to call home to.
#54 hhopper…the lucent lone voice of reason. 🙂
The week that was…what a week!
Guns
Religion
Apple Mac / MS Windows
Sex
Gays…?
Ok everyone lets try real hard and find a story about some Gays who got married, one who uses an Apple Mac and the other Windows Me and that were shot at by a gun activists (that were actually looking for blacks and Hispanics or anyone who is not “American”) on their way to adopt a Chinese baby that was abandoned outside of a Chinese labour camp by parents finding Jesus and wanted to be Seventh Day Adventists after feeling bad about painting baby toys with radioactive lead to get back at the Japanese on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima which they thought was a pretty good idea after all the shit Japan did to the Chinese who deserved it anyway….did I miss something…oh yeah the Gays are HIV positive and it is a violation of their rights to have to tell anyone…Windows Me is pirated from China……and they do drugs………with children………to make them gay.
That just about does it… 😉
Cheers
87,
Close…
But there have been some Major changes…
Many Countries that USED MS, have QUIT.
MS has dived in and TRIEd to get them back.
the countries such as Germany, India, Pakistan, and others STOPPEd using MS.
to many HOLES, to little protection, and you Keep paying and paying and paying, THEN you are REQUIRED to update…TRY that on 1000-10,000 computers…THEn find out that 1/2-2/3 of your programs for doing business, and keeping records FAIL, and you have to get NEW versions to work on the NEW windows…
the Best thing about Linux is that MOSt of it works, no matter which version you have…ONCE its installed and running, well/properly, IT RUNS…and runs and runs….And the updates ARENt that bad…
#87 Germany, India, Pakistan, and others.
So what do they use?
I got an business trip to India and Turkey in a few weeks followed by a trade show Brazil, we have clients in Pakistan, Germany, France. Israel and our Italian distributor is coming here soon – I should ask them…
Cheers
My boss told me a couple weeks ago to scrap his XP installation and set him up with Fedora, just to see for himself how hard “this Linux thing” really is. The idea is to eventually replace the OS on all our machines (the Windows 2003 server already is no more, in favor of RedHat. Worked more or less painless).
You keep getting harder, Microsoft.
#64 Ian.
Yes, I was using caps to emphasize. I’m surprised nobody said that to some circles MAC is Multiply ACcumulate.
This is a fun thread too. We’ve got all this anti-mac bashing, and nobody referred that it was a response to the “Win sucks – buy a Mac” reasoning at the beginning.
I don’t despise the Mac. Nor I use the Logic Mr. fishsticks (#65) uses of cultural relativism to justify either ones point-of-view (although he finishes saying that even with cultural relativism he’s right all along…). Macs just have some things that make me frown, and so, I’m not a buyer for now.
What really really makes respond is these fanboys…I mean, “buy a Mac” as a be all response to problems…c’mon! It comes across as a snobish remark and seems to imply that “we (PC users) are all laboring on a mistake because are too dumb to see the light”.
People, I’ve got news to you, there are more ways to look at things and there’s something called freedom of choice. And some of us, just some, have been riding different horses all their lives and they’ve chosen one that is to their liking…I know, I did.
Ian, just by curiosity: are you from Scotland? You quoted a price in £ and something you wrote (#81 …speading “shite”). Just curious.
Damn! this is definitely the hot post of the weekend. Just sad that I’m in a time zone that puts me away from the live debate…