A source close to Microsoft today sent documentation about an Update Rollup for Windows 2000 that the software giant will release in 2005 in lieu of a Service Pack 5 (SP5). Also, Microsoft has announced what it hopes will be a new attack on piracy – the Redmond-based giant has decided to give away free software to those who bought machines with fake copies pre-installed.
Microsoft Drops Windows 2000 SP5, Plans Security Rollup Instead
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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that means new coasters with shiny “genuine microsoft” holograms! they are beautiful!! I saw one, once.
I have a legal question.
Is it legal for a company to issue “free” copies of its product line when it charges for the same in all other instances?
Yes it is.
Yes, a company can give you a free copy of something they sale to everyone else. It’s called marketing.
Also, what are the requirements for getting the free copy? If they want you to tell them where you purchased your computer, then you can rest assured that they’ll count the number of computers sold by that vendor and then sue them.
Don’t even get clouse to that offer… and if tou lie to them… be ready to pack you stuff, and say goodby to your house!
Easy way to make money, just sue everyone and watch the income
Of course that’s their motivation, you think this is charity? They’re not even making a secret of it – it’s mentioned right in the article. The MS SpokesDrone XP is quoted as saying the user won’t be prosecuted but the ‘source’ may be.
Easy way to make money, just sue everyone and watch the income
Right, how dare they sue companies that are selling fake copies of their software, the bastards!!
… although it could be even more kind. Maybe I’ve bought second-hand PC with “preinstalled” pirate XP – I wanna new fresh genuine XP (with hologram, of course), and I want it now!
I figure that Microsoft will be dropping Win2000 support very soon. Sad because I think it’s more stable than XP but everybody has a choice.
“Right, how dare they sue companies that are selling fake copies of their software, the bastards!!”
Even though I do not like Redmond, of this I make no apology nor am I bashful about stating my opinion, I believe a company has a right to manage its product line.
I guess, what I am asking, is it logical as a marketing tactic to give away a copy of software “free” when others must pay a license fee for its use? Would that not encourage others to commit theft of services by saying they purchased an “illegal” copy from some fly-by-night computer company.
It’s a well-known fact that in certain Asian countries that Redmond fakes are sold over-the-selve in major department stores or from kiosks. We are not talking about some backwater operation in Vietnam, Cambodia, or one of the Indonesian islands. We may be talking about several hunderd thousand computer users or more.
How is “fair-and-proper” that “business N” here in the Americas or Europe must pay top dollar while some guy in Asia claims he got his copy from “suspect vendor” and is creditied with a “free copy”?
This makes no economic sense unless it is a fishing activity before legal litigation takes place.
I figure that Microsoft will be dropping Win2000 support very soon. Sad because I think it’s more stable than XP but everybody has a choice.
According the latest EOL statements, W2K mainstream support ends June-2005. With paid-for-support for another 2 yrs.
I personally was hoping for a SP5. Ho-humm, I guess we’ll have another NT4 case on our hands, eg SP6a, Roll-up, + 5-6 hotfixes, which are still trickling in…
This situation does not leave me happy in the slightest. I was looking towards the release of at least another two service packs. So much for wishful thinking….
Windows 2000 is the first operating system from Microsoft that I actually enjoy using and supporting, both at home and work. I have no love for XP and the aditional bloat.
Maybe Microsoft will suprise us all with a stripped down workstation OS based on the Windows Server 2003 codebase. I’d buy three copies.
If not…..I’ll just keep on migrating to FreeBSD.
Re: Piracy. For a company that constantly tells everyone else how “innovative” it is, this is some of the most innovative thinking I have seen in a while, from any party. Good work, Microsoft!
the last thing we need from you is more borked service packs that break our systems after upgrading, not like they were stable to begin with.
There isn’t a difference between a fake and a genuine copy.
They all work the same way.
What in the heck is a “Rollup”? I guess, it its going to be a bunch of loose files/patchs that you have to keep on disk somewehere.
“If you’ve got some issues with your local OEM, you’re encouraged to rat them out. Please send a statement to a corporation (Microsoft), not to the police.”
Am I the only one who sees something wrong in the previous paragraph ?
A Rollup is a mini service-pack that only replaces the files required, rather than every file within the OS like the traditional SP does, (The SP of 2K/XP basically contain the whole OS, minus the installer).
Rubbish – a rollup is an update that includes security fixes, and possibly some other important fixes, released since the last service pack.
Service Packs contain all fixes released since the OS was released.
A rollup depends on the most recent service pack being installed already. Service packs require no updates at all to the base Windows version before they can be installed.
A service pack does not necessarily contain every Windows OS file. It contains every file that has been updated since the OS’s release. Whilst after 4 service packs, the number of files not changed is probably very small, it is not right to claim that every Windows system file is contained in or replaced by a Windows service pack.
No matter what anyone says, XP Professional and
Windows Server 2003 are the best operating
systems MS has produced so far.
If someone is having system crashes, it is
the hardware or USER error. Plain and simple
the person at the keyboard causes 99% of the
problems, not the Operating System.
If Microsoft were to suddenly stamp out piracy of their products overnight, linux and OpenOffice usage would tripple the next day (:
SWITCH NOW TO LINUX.
A couple of months before I had a dual boot machine and most of times I booted in Windows, I would end up downloading Shareware and programs with weird EULA’s & it was always at the back of my mind hey I am breaking some law/patent/IP. No more I removed my windows completely since Linux supports all my hardware. Not only is it fun using Linux but you tend to learn more by just typing “info foo”. Now I no longer have to worry about
1. Opening an infected e-mail.
2. Getting an adware installed without my knowledge.
3. Worrying about whether I follow the EULA
The funnest thing about linux is either you have support for something or no support at all. Its unlike Windows where yadayad my thing works but just 1/5 times.
Windows 2000 is the first operating system from Microsoft that I actually enjoy using and supporting, both at home and work. I have no love for XP and the aditional bloat.
What bloat ? You mean the ~6 mouseclicks it takes to change the theme back to “Windows Classic” ?
Maybe Microsoft will suprise us all with a stripped down workstation OS based on the Windows Server 2003 codebase. I’d buy three copies.
Windows 2003 works quite nicely as a Workstation right now. Faster than 2000 or XP (and possibly more stable, but neither 2000 nor XP ever gave me any stability problems).
If not…..I’ll just keep on migrating to FreeBSD.
If you’re seriously doing that, it’s highly unlikely any future versions of Windows will have anything to offer you.
Let us reward being a crook again.
Why do I bother buying software?
Buying a box from a white-box supplier in good faith and finding the software it arrives with is pirated hardly counts as ‘being a crook’, in my mind.
I agree to the people who is switching to/already switched to Linux. Personally, I use Gentoo Linux, and I can say, updates are coming daily, or even two times a day. The only thing is: You need to learn it, and you need to stay a bit in front of it, and it will work. It is much like the fun old DOS days, when you needed sometimes to type something in command line. But that will work. I showed some deeper things to some friends of mine, and they want now to switch to Linux, because they like it. You can upgrade your distribution without reinstalling, as I write these lines, I am running emerge world – updating all my environment from Gentoo 2004.2 to Gentoo 2004.3.
On the other hand, I agree with the things about bloatware in XP. I miss that you cannot choose what to install (in the setup progress) and you cannot remove some things because Windows will simply won’t work after that. Not the 6 clicks to transform it to a more usable thing, but the space it does require. Those, who don’t know, there is a program, called xplite, which can uninstall components of Windows XP not uninstallable normally. I don’t need IE and OE, since I use Firefox an Thunderbird even when I use windows. Can I get rid of these apps? Not really, because the system needs it… So interesting… On the other hand: The thing I don’t like in Win2k: it boots soooo lazy. Otherwise it runs fast, but booting up and shutting down are considerably long times.
You can bash Microsoft all you want: but for all the rubbishing they received over Windows 95/98 and its poor quality (and, the quality really was dodgy), they finally got their act together with XP (after stabilising it via. NT and 2000 paths). XP is extremely stable, and as another poster has mentioned, the only issues that I have are with unsigned third-party drivers. Honestly, for me, XP really made Microsoft more credible in my eyes.
As we all know, security is currently the biggest problem: no one talks about XP stability, as there are no issues, everyone takes about XP security. Don’t underestimate the golliath of Microsoft to actually work through and solve a lot of the security problems: sure it may take 2-3 years of effort, but in 2 years time, we might just find that things are remarkably better, so we’ve stopped complaining about security, and are now discussing the next Windows roadblock (whatever that turns out to be).
Microsoft is also learning (stealing?) the Apple understanding that things should be simple and easy for the user.
I was waiting for at least one more SP for win2000. After I saw that MS worked so hard on XP-SP2 it became clear that they’ll support XP rather than 2000. Sad..
XP is generally more stable, but no where near as stable as linux. My linux server/workstation has been up and running now over 8 months, my XP box needs to be rebooted regularly just doing simple tasks. My hardware is cutting edge with SP2 installed.
First thing Windows XP is only marginally faster than W2000, second thing the fact that a driver has not been signed off doesn’t mean anything about its instability, I had crashes on the past from signed drivers.
I do not like the direction MS is going with XP and onwards which is to supply a bundle of software along with the OS, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, IE, OE just as an example… why can not I remove those apps? because they strenghten MS’s dominance on other areas.
XP is slightly less stable than 2000, I say this based on the fact that I use them extensively each day at work. However I do agree a normal user should not experience many crashes on XP under normal circumstances.
The main flaw on Windows is that you can have a good degree of control with it, but you can not truly customize it. True if you are a pro you can get very confortable with it, but you can’t make it onto your computer platform without give in to what MS dictates, you have to accomodate yourself to the OS. This doesn’t happen on the disorganized Linux world where no matter how caotic your distro is, you always remain in power, you can get to the core of anything easily.
This is why GNU/Linux and BSDs distro are making such strides on to the server market, you can do as you please with the server. Far away from the rigid MS world.
I trully look forward to the day I can move the few apps I use on Windows to Linux via Wine. I’ll be more than pleased to kick MS out of my computers.
Every time I come here,
I hear…….
MS is really really bad guy….
Windows sucks….
Linux is best ever….
And still my company pays so much money to MS.
What they are thinking…are they stupid?
I don’t know what to say…
I have to show this site to my boss.
Forget it…
>>Every time I come here,
>>I hear…….
>>MS is really really bad guy….
>>Windows sucks….
>>Linux is best ever….
Linux is not best ever it has its own degree of problems.
>>And still my company pays so much money to MS.
Because it does as advertised and just works?
>>What they are thinking…are they stupid?
>>I don’t know what to say…
>>I have to show this site to my boss.
While I do agree some people are a bit too extreme, nothing of what I have said is false. MS doesn’t allow you any control at all about what goes in or out on the OS, and they use its desktop dominance to give a push on other services or technologies they make.
Why do you think MSN Messenger got so popular? or why IE is the dominant browser?
An OS should provide only frameworks to build upon, not a suite of applications.
MS is like a wood dealer that also makes markets and sell houses, to who do you think will sell the wood cheaper???
Look what has hapened on the software market for the last 20 years.
GNU/Linux and BSDs do not enforce this policy. Apps and OS are separate.
“so we’ve stopped complaining about security, and are now discussing the next Windows roadblock (whatever that turns out to be).”
I can tell you what it’s going to be right now – compulsory DRM…
Right on the nail.
You can bash Microsoft all you want: but for all the rubbishing they received over Windows 95/98 and its poor quality (and, the quality really was dodgy), […]
To be fair, if you take into account the objectives and limitations of “Chicago” (the project that became Windows 95), really it worked amazingly well.
I do not like the direction MS is going with XP and onwards which is to supply a bundle of software along with the OS, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, IE, OE just as an example…
Say what ? This is the “direction” Microsoft (and just about every other OS vendor) have been going since, oh, at _least_ the early ’80s.
why can not I remove those apps? because they strenghten MS’s dominance on other areas.
Because:
a) third parties rely on that software being there;
b) the proportion of customers who want to be able to remove them is insignificant; and
c) there’s no point to expending time, development and support effort to features no meaningful number of customers demand.
MS doesn’t allow you any control at all about what goes in or out on the OS, […]
They give as much control as their customers demand.
In case you have noticed, the trend in computing over time has been to *increase* automation and abstraction, not reduce it.
[…] and they use its desktop dominance to give a push on other services or technologies they make.
Which makes them different to every other business in the world how, exactly ?
Why do you think MSN Messenger got so popular? or why IE is the dominant browser?
The same thing that makes any product dominant – be cheaply and easily available and being good enough.
An OS should provide only frameworks to build upon, not a suite of applications.
Which OSes are you thinking of that have only provided “frameworks to build upon” and “not a suite of applications” in the last twenty to thirty years ?
Another trend you may not have noticed in computing over the years has been to *increase* functionality, not reduce it.
Look what has hapened on the software market for the last 20 years.
Software has continually gotten cheaper, more useful and easier to use.
GNU/Linux and BSDs do not enforce this policy. Apps and OS are separate.
Last I checked both Linux and the BSDs came with “a suite of applications” as well.
Sorry, as much as you bury your head in the sand, the fact that Microsoft possesses a near total monopoly of the desktop computer operating system market MEANS THAT NORMAL ECONOMIC RULES (and laws) DO NOT APPLY. Microsoft bundling stuff up is the same strategy as any other company, yes, granted. But its effect in a market in which Microsoft has over 90% control is *completely different* from the effect of the same strategy when carried out by a company which does not have such a position. Imagine BT, the UK’s dominant fixed-line telephone company with whom virtually everyone in the country still has some kind of contract, suddenly deciding to give everyone a free year of cellphone access. Would that be a fair business practice? No, but it’s just bundling services!
>I do not like the direction MS is going with XP and
>onwards which is to supply a bundle of software along >with the OS, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, IE, OE >just as an example… why can not I remove those apps?
>because they strenghten MS’s dominance on other areas.
+80GB HDs are cheap these days i.e. just don’t be lazy in installing the alternatives e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird, VideoLan, Winamp 5 and ‘etc’. This alternative applications could be useful in building ReactOS’s bundled applications….
>This is why GNU/Linux and BSDs distro are making such
>strides on to the server market, you can do as you please
>with the server. Far away from the rigid MS world.
Both Linux X86/X64 and Windows server markets are growing.
>An OS should provide only frameworks to build upon, not a >suite of applications.
Microsoft Windows XP would be disadvantage when compared to MacOS X if that was the case. Imagine comparing ReactOS with MacOS X 10.3.4. This Windows release (ReactOS level) would be a total joke in my POV.
“If someone is having system crashes, it is
the hardware or USER error. Plain and simple
the person at the keyboard causes 99% of the
problems, not the Operating System.”
I guess all those blatant negligent remotely-exploitable security holes are just an illusion, then.
‘We call it different, and we don’t really want to support it anymore, but here you have your goodies’. Well thanks. Windows 2000 needs some patches right now (e.g. for MSIE).
“If someone is having system crashes, it is
the hardware or USER error. Plain and simple
the person at the keyboard causes 99% of the
problems, not the Operating System.”
dont forget about minimally tested and debugged third party software. this is what causes most of my crashes.
Without third party software/drivers, Windows is useless. And unlike the massive division that puts Windows out, most Linux distros have small teams of programmers trying to stabilize it all. But notice how when Windows kicks you out of an app (even after mishaps due to SP2), people say it’s because of the app. But if an app crashes on Linux, they say the Linux kernel is at fault. Yet Windows users don’t see themselves as being “religious” like they claim Linux users to be.
…if the recent release of Autopatcher 2000 had anything to
do with the decision not to do SP5?
–bornagainpenguin