Microsoft News Tracker

BadVista.org: FSF launches campaign against Microsoft Vista:

Boston, MA—December 15, 2006—The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today launched BadVista.org, a campaign with a twofold mission of exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free software alternatives that respect users’ security and privacy rights.

“Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new ‘features’ in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We’ll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care”, said FSF program administrator John Sullivan.

The campaign will organize supporters into effective and unusual actions drawing attention to this daylight theft of computer users’ rights, aggregate news stories cutting through the Vista marketing propaganda, and provide a user-friendly gateway to the adoption of free software operating systems like gNewSense (http://www.gnewsense.org).

More in the same vein by following the link. In particular, the FSF folks have it in for Microsoft’s Trusted Computing initiative or as they term it, Treacherous Computing.

Microsoft is expected to get an revenue and earnings boost because there will be no undelivered element deferral for Vista. Actually, it’s not really a boost but an avoidance of delayed recognition, but it looks like a boost. This accounting change had been announced along with the accounting treatment for the Vista holiday coupons.

Microsoft launches new global ad site at http://advertising.microsoft.com/. What took them so long? It still seems heavy on the last generation of web advertising though. Must be the Bradford effect.

Reruns already? 1998 video deposition of Bill Gates shown at Iowa trial.

“Gears of War” made history today by becoming the fastest-selling next-generation game of 2006 and the fastest-selling exclusive Xbox game ever. Not to rain on the Xbox 360 parade, but consider that Sony’s PS3 Could Still Outsell Microsoft’s XBox 360 in 2006. I consider it unlikely, but only because of Sony product shortages.

Microsoft’s Avanade joint IT services venture with Accenture is doing well.

It was amusing while it lasted - Research Firm Clarifies: iTunes Sales Are Not Collapsing. Related: Digital Music Sales Soar in 2006.

More wrong conclusions - Vista flaw could haunt Microsoft. True, SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 with Vista support is late, but it has nothing to do with enterprise installations of SQL Server and competiton in that space with Oracle and IBM. It has everything to do with desktop applications from Microsoft and third parties which years ago bought into using the functionality of a desktop version of SQL Server which doesn’t exist yet in Vista compatible form.

The bad news: Third MS Word Code Execution Exploit Posted. The good news: Microsoft Patches Windows XP Wireless, Tells No One. I can’t explain it either.

Besides upselling pricey new versions of its Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft is also committed to increasing the return on its Windows franchise by reducing the “shrinkage” from piracy. To that end, Microsoft yesterday rolled out a press release complete with pictures of genuine and fake Vista packaging:

And although Windows Vista is not yet broadly available, unauthorized DVD copies of Windows Vista are already for sale on streets around the world. Users unaware or looking for an inexpensive version of the software are risking, at minimum, losing their money, and worse, exposure to the security risks associated with acquiring and running counterfeit software.

… With the exception of products purchased by customers under volume license agreements, users can be confident that 100 percent of the copies of Windows Vista advertised for purchase or download prior to the January 30, 2007 consumer general availability date are counterfeit, and that any new PC purchased and pre-loaded with Windows Vista prior to general availability is improperly licensed or counterfeit software, and carries a risk of hacks, Trojans or other malware.

While there undoubtedly are unknowing users who end up with counterfeit goods, I suspect that most piracy involves customers who are fully aware of the clandestine nature of what they are buying and thereby indifferent to the nuances of the packaging. For them the deterrent is the Vista Software Protection Platform announced in October and related Microsoft actions and that’s actually the meat of the press release. Basically Microsoft promises to routinely retire compromised product keys and also release Vista updates that target specific counterfeit versions as they are discovered.

In particular, Microsoft released the first such Vista update this week to counteract the so-called “Frankenbuild:”

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a number of attempts at workarounds for Vista product activation.   As of now there are at least two distinct workarounds that have worked to some degree, but I’m sure there are more on the way.  One of these workarounds we have affectionately named “frankenbuild” because it involves cobbling together files from an RC build and with an RTM build to create a hybrid that bypasses activation.

… Windows Vista will use the new Windows Update client to require only the “frankenbuild” systems to go through a genuine validation check.  These systems will fail that check because we have blocked the RC keys for systems not authorized to use them. In other words, the wrong key is being used. The systems will then be flagged as non-genuine systems and the experience will be what we announced back in October …

All this is certainly exciting, but the ultimate objective is to make more money so the real question is how many conversions to paying customer status will be accomplished and that’s obviously still up in the air, if it is even measurable.

IDC suggests that “Microsoft’s anti-piracy campaign will drive customers toward Linux,” but Joe Wilcox disagrees and reasons that Windows XP is the pirate’s best friend. I suspect they are both right: Linux for political reasons in the developing world and XP because of its familiarity to pirates despite the newly strengthened Windows Genuine Advantage program. Then there’s the third option we are seeing now: head to head combat, Microsoft vs. the pirates. The pricey new versions of Vista make piracy an even more lucrative pastime and almost certainly guarantee more entertainment to come.