01.14.10
Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Service Center Still Broken; Use GNU/Linux Instead
Summary: With layoffs and other forms of disruption, Microsoft infrastructure keeps breaking without being repaired for over a month
THE Microsoft Boosters section [1, 2] of Network World (IDG) has just covered what we wrote about twice in recent days [1, 2], suggesting that Microsoft’s serious problems with the VLSC Web site have not been resolved.
Microsoft apologizes for, but doesn’t really fix, software validation snafu
Problems with the licensing server has left some customers unable to use their apps for more than a month
Microsoft today apologized and explained why its Volume Licensing Service Center has been refusing to allow some legitimate users to access their Microsoft software for about the past month.
Maybe it’s better that way. They might even feel encouraged to install GNU/Linux instead; it requires none of this licensing mess.
SJVN has this report about another reason to abandon Windows XP right now.
While Microsoft only released one patch today, they also admitted that the copy of Adobe Flash they’ve been shipping with XP until recently is outdated and buggy.
Windows XP could be banned from the Internet in Australia for being insecure beyond remedy. █
“Innocence is thought charming because it offers delightful possibilities for exploitation.”
–Mason Cooley
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Needs Sunlight said,
January 14, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Clever marketing: Block their licensing then mount a sales campaign against their own customers for ‘piracy’
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
“No less than Bill Gates himself said in a recent Fortune article that Microsoft competes better against Linux in China when there’s piracy than when there isn’t.
“So, Microsoft actively looks the other way as people pirate its software. It builds its market share that way, and lets people get used to the idea of having Windows at a certain price.”
–ECT