I''ve been noticing that a lot of people are angry at Windows XP. I haven''t time to read the thread because I haven''t been following it. I just thought that you might be interested in how the product works: http://www.hardocp.com/articles/windows/xp_piracy.html ...before you start boycotting it.

well ok that dosen''t sound as bad as it did before... but still... the wizard & stuff... ummmm no thank you... I''m about ready to kill that paperclip guy =).... I''m in the process of switching to linux right now... my server is already there... but my work station is going to haveto wait for a while... got alot of generic hardware that linux doesn''t like.... when thats replaced... the switch will be more or less complete... other than a windows partition to dual-boot to to do final testing of my games & run programs that use features that wine hasn''t implemented yet... god I can''t wait =)

I am against this because it starts a disturbing trend towards rented software.

Treating your customers like thieves is not a good thing to do.

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Have I no control, is my soul not mine?
Am I not just man, destiny defined?
Never to be ruled, nor held to heel!

You can change the MAC address of netcard and the CPU IDs of processors. The first is easy, the later is more difficult, but both can be done.

Pentium II''s and later have CPU IDs. So what so they do if you try to install on a Pentium? Or does XP require a 500MHz+ machine?

If I buy a new graphics card do I have to get a new key?

Magmai Kai Holmlor
- The disgruntled & disillusioned

Intel stopped using the ID in their chips as of the Pentium 4.

I believe that only the Pee3''s have the CPUID.

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Have I no control, is my soul not mine?
Am I not just man, destiny defined?
Never to be ruled, nor held to heel!

quote:Original post by Null and Void

It''s the principle of the thing as much as it is the reality. I''m not going to start (or continue, in the cases of future MS OS''s) paying MS to make products that don''t work for me. They have started to attempt make me pay to have a product that works against me, why should I give into their will?

Did I ask you to buy Windows XP? Buy or download a Linux distribution or some other OS if you don''t like Windows. Encouraging people to boycott a product is much different from simply not buying the product yourself. I''m saying that you shouldn''t encourage people to boycott products that you (and they) do not understand.

Everyone wants to be a prophet of doom.

quote:Original post by Magmai Kai Holmlor

You can change the MAC address of netcard and the CPU IDs of processors. The first is easy, the later is more difficult, but both can be done.

Pentium II''s and later have CPU IDs. So what so they do if you try to install on a Pentium? Or does XP require a 500MHz+ machine?

I don''t know about the network card, but I thought all CPUs have IDs. Check the program CPUID (it''s at tweakfiles.com), which spits out a formatted display of the processor info registers, right down to the revision of the chip you are running (it''s called a "stepping"). You are confusing this with the "serial number" thingy that Intel marketed a while back (and later dropped), which places a unique number on each processor. The CPU ID Windows wants is the bitset that means "AMD K6-2" or "Intel P55C".

Heck, every PCI device has a product ID and vendor ID. Same with the BIOS. Same with every Plug ''n Play device that Windows detects, including USB devices, CD-ROM drives, PCI/AGP expansion cards, some ISA cards, chipsets, etc. How do you think Plug ''n Play works?

Now, according to the link I posted, what Windows cares about is the variety of configurations on which you use your product key.

product_key == license

If the product key shows up on the database as having been installed on 1000 different hardware configurations, someone is pirating the software. It''s a simple sanity check.

You do not have to obtain a new product key every time you reinstall Windows XP, nor do you have to obtain a new product key every time you upgrade your video card.

quote:Original post by Mithrandir

I am against this because it starts a disturbing trend towards rented software.

Treating your customers like thieves is not a good thing to do.

I don''t think you know why you are against it. Do you expect automobile manufacturers to stop putting serial numbers on parts because it might offend some customer who thinks that the car company thinks that he is a thief? And should we drop hand gun licenses and background checks, because that might treat honest citizens like killers? Really...