From slashdot

"Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide, and sent a letter to OEMs explaining the consequences of Vista piracy. These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"

Now, i have a have a full msdn subscription so legit microsoft keys have never been a problem for me. That said I still don't run Vista because i don't see the benifit.

So, has anyone noticed this happening to their "questionable" install of Vista?

edit: microsoft are reporting that "the reporter received inaccurate information" but has not ruled out the article completely. The reduced functionality mode exists as documented by microsoft here. It goes on to describe the behavior mentioned in the article with the exception of the blank screen.

I have an NFR, so no... but lol to those who have it happen to them.

Using fear as a motivator

haha right

fear? like.. scared of the dark (screen)
they'll find a way around it, just like the found a way around XP's "genuine advantage" crap.

i have legit vista through my MAPS subscription but last weekend after taking it hard from vista since Christmas i upgraded my main desktop to Ubuntu and haven't looked back once.

so much about vista infuriated me (& Mrs) so i said f***it to her near daily bitching about vista, if MS OS isn't happy after 8 months of use why should i continue to battle with it? SP1 is scheduled for 6 months time. i am not suffering for that long, its gone

if your screen has gone black due to this protection bulls*** u should do the same.

ubuntu makes winxp seem difficult to use.

note: i run xp vm for some stuff and will move occasional desktop publishing stuff to OSX, but i no longer have to use vista for day-to-day stuff.

I dont understand....they are talking about activation? Vista already goes to a blackscreen that only allows you to open a browser when it passes activation.

Im curious to see what happens to ppl who have installed the corporate editions that dont require serial, activation or a KVM server.

Hrm, looks like I'll need to setup my KMS server now :(

i have legit vista through my MAPS subscription but last weekend after taking it hard from vista since Christmas i upgraded my main desktop to Ubuntu and haven't looked back once.

I'm the same. Despite having legit licenses through MAPS, I'm perfectly happy running Mac OSX :)
The only thing XP even gets touched for any more is games.

ubuntu makes winxp seem difficult to use.

I'm going to have to disagree. As much as I love Ubuntu, simple things like using a secondary display take FAR more effort to get going than they should. As much as I'd like something as reliable and cheap (read: free) as Ubuntu to become mainstream, it's NEVER going to happen so long as I have to use the damn terminal and edit config files to accomplish some seemingly easy tasks.

Granted, it does do other things easier, like adding new software, but then that's sometimes counter-balanced by grabbing the odd program that needs to be complied from source rather than simply installing. I would not call that user friendly at all.

Got an nvidia card and the nvidia drivers? works the same way as windows :)

In the past when my WinXP s*** itself and tell me the rego key was invalid, I would just ring Microsoft, and the nice Indian lady would give me a new code to type in. I lol at people who take the time to write cracks.

This news story is false.

Thread should be updated.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/microsoft-vista.html

Microsoft was quick to debunk this e-mail warning of a Black Screen of Death. A Microsoft representative told Wired News "the reporter received inaccurate information," and that the company has not rolled out any updates to Windows Vista's anti-piracy platform.

I suspected it might be false, when I saw one of the tags on the Slashdot story being 'hoax.'

I wholeheartedly support Microsoft's attempts to secure their own software and thus bring the existence of alternatives to the attention to all computer users

I actually want to bring the alternatives to the attention of developers. Since I've been dual-booting Ubuntu, I've been very happy with how I can do pretty much everything (plus more) I can do in Windows, EXCEPT for playing a bunch of games. -Some- games do work, but a lot don't, or they run slowly.

It's getting better though. One of the other big things that stopped me from using Linux was the lack of support for the 3D apps I use, but I've since discovered that many of them now (or maybe always did?) install natively in Linux. Just gimme my games and I should be set.

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~boldajis/images/mousemove.jpg

It's getting better though. One of the other big things that stopped me from using Linux was the lack of support for the 3D apps I use, but I've since discovered that many of them now (or maybe always did?) install natively in Linux. Just gimme my games and I should be set.

I used to use linux back when you could get quake2/3 binaries that installed natively under it, I just wish valve would release steam/source engine binaries for linux. I could go get that cedega thing but it requires you to pay for it (no credit card).

I dont understand....they are talking about activation? Vista already goes to a blackscreen that only allows you to open a browser when it passes activation.

Funniest thing about that is that you can still open task manager and create a new explorer.exe... hello desktop!


I attempted to try Ubuntu which worked fine off the CD but when installed onto the HDD it just decided to say "Operating System Error" when attempting to boot it. I cbf exerting anymore effort after trying multiple ways and it still failing.

^ Valve was founded by ex-Microsoft employees, right?

And they ditched the perfectly good multi-platform OpenGL renderer in Quake1/2 (remember HL1 had full OpenGL support!) and supported Direct3D exclusively instead in the sequels.

Somehow I don't see Linux support on the agenda.

Running 3 legit copies of Vista and will never look back. I havn't had one hassle yet.

Somehow I don't see Linux support on the agenda.

Yeah ok looks like I might be wrong:

http://www.valvesoftware.com/job-SenSoftEngineer.html

Employment opportunities

Senior Software Engineer

* Port Windows-based games to the Linux platform.