Windows Activation is Too Much for a Paying Customer
I am a paying customer of Windows Vista who has purchased an authentic, licensed version from Microsoft; and yet, I am obliged to help the company monitor pirated copies. InformationWeek reports that Gartner strongly suggest that Microsoft should pay for their security hassles such as (in an excerpt):The process, which Microsoft calls “Volume License Activation,” can be carried out with one of two techniques. One, called “Multiple Activation Key” (MAK), is similar to retail product activation, and requires that companies’ PCs are always connected to the network. PCs activated and validated via MAK connect to a Microsoft server. The other technology, called Key Management Service (KMS), uses an internally hosted service, said Silver, and is the best choice for systems like laptops which are often outside the network perimeter.
MAK requires a PC be activated only once, while KMS demands that a system activate once every 180 days.
“MAK is easier to manage because it gets the enterprise out of the business of management,” said Silver. “But they still have to work out how many licenses to put in the [activation] hopper. They have to keep enough there to activate all the machines that may connect with Microsoft’s server.
The bottom line, of course, is that Microsoft’s making customers do more to bolster not their own revenues, but Microsoft’s. And the developer isn’t offering enough in compensation.
Can you just imagine spending big bucks on your brand new car which requires you to check-in your car for police inspection every three months to ensure it’s not a stolen vehicle? Or say you rent DVD’s from a nearby store which asks you to video your activities every three minutes to ensure you’re not making pirated copies?
For what it’s worth, I don’t care about software piracy affecting Microsoft, and all I care is hassle free, great customer support out of what I paid for, unless Microsoft gives me a chunk out of the added revenue they get from helping them control piracy.
Tags: Microsoft, Vista, WindowsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Windows Vista
3 opinions for Windows Activation is Too Much for a Paying Customer
Rob
Oct 13, 2006 at 8:40 am
I kinda understand your point but Microsoft would just say you do get a chunk of the profit from the controlling of piracy, if they sold less copies due to increased piracy then they would not be able to afford to sell software a the prices they do.
Milo
Oct 15, 2006 at 4:02 pm
I agree with you. It would be a case of no choice for the customer and everything is all for the sake of Microsoft earning more to give you more application, something they are good at. :)
SugarDaddy
Dec 6, 2006 at 7:40 pm
I don’t see the point of a volume license with all of this. In usual business, if you buy a particular product in volume, you get a discount. The product is the same, it’s just cheaper because you bought so many. With this, the price decreases for business deploying a volume license, but the product is inferior to say the individual license. The individual license at least allows you to re-install a single time. Doing so with the volume license harms everyone under the license.
Now microsoft is leaving it up to the businesses to do the policing of piracy. You might say that’s brilliant for them, but I would say it’s stupid. Businesses are not likely to use a product that increases their own costs. The benefits from using Vista over say XP or even Mac OS X are few and far between. The main addition that Vista brings is the infrastructure necessary to police piracy — hardly a benefit to business. Businesses don’t want to be concerned with that. That should be Microsoft’s job. That should be the appeal of getting a Microsoft product. They took that away with Vista. I don’t see Vista taking off at all. Just go buy a mac.
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