Windows Vista & Office 2007 cracked

[Zack Barresse]

I thought this was an interesting read, which I picked up off the MSFT newsgroups...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/vista-gold-but-cracked-already/2006/11/14/1163266532925.html

It seems that the new Vista OS and Office 2007 have already been cracked and available for download on some pirated sites, along with product keys and activation cracks. They sure are getting faster and faster these days. :eek:

[Ken Puls]

Holy crap! Vista only just RTM'd, and isn't even available for download through MSDN yet!

So what does that say, exactly?

[malik641]

That's amazing :eek:

[Ken Puls]

Yes, well... equally amazing is how fast MS can respond to this stuff. I wouldn't be surprised to see many of those cracked version disabled within the next two windows updates.

[malik641]

That's true too. But how many more pirated items can be taken and shared? What could the rate of getting new pirated copies be against the rate of MS sending windows update patches?

[Zack Barresse]

Bottom line is, there will always be pirated versions out there. MSFT (substitute company name for whatever you want) will create a bigger mouse, others will build a bigger mouse trap. That is just the way of it. I'm not surprised, for as long as it's been out on Beta for. MSFT will keep coming out with patches and better OS, and likewise with hackers.

[Ken Puls]

But how many more pirated items can be taken and shared? What could the rate of getting new pirated copies be against the rate of MS sending windows update patches?
Valid questions, Joseph, but let me field this one for you...

As a consumer, do you want to risk that you're one step ahead of MS catching up? You go to install an update to make your system more stable, or a new driver for a piece of software and are told no? MS has said that they'll offer security updates for pirated systems (to protect the rest of us), but security updates are not the same as functionality ones.

The price of the software is high, and that sucks, but what you'll waste in time later trying to replace a pirated system with a valid copy may just be higher.

[Zack Barresse]

As a side note, I know somebody with a pirated copy of Windows XP and they cannot even update anymore in lieu of the Windows Genuine Advantage protocols. The OS is seen when attempting to update as invalid and no updates can be received unless the copy of Windows is updated as Genuine. I guess no updates for them.

[Ken Puls]

That's correct, Zack. The thing that sucks about that is that those systems will be left vulnerable and get infected with whatever. They then become part of the problem plaguing the net.

My understanding is MS was going to take this stance with Vista as well, but later backed down from that. I haven't got any links, but I believe that security updates for Vista will still be delivered, but that's it. You won't get any non-security related updates. So a shim to a dll to prevent programs from crashing, for example, would not be delivered.

As I say, I have no links to back this up, but it is what I picked up from somewhere. I hope that it's true, as I don't really think it's responsible of MS to block security updates, leaving systems vulerable to bots and zombies that will become points to attack legitimate systems.