Ini kabar terbaru ttg 'rencana kekejaman' Micro$oft. Gimana tanggapan teman2 ?. Arief K ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- Hello all, I've been beta testing Microsoft Office 2000 and, as a result, I'm having a vision of things to come, which I fear might include Windows NT and Windows 2000 (Win2K-formerly NT 5.0). This vision is the result of having encountered the beta software's less-than-enchanting registration wizard. Two features about the wizard annoy me: forced registration and the method Microsoft uses to enforce it. I predict that Microsoft will use this antipiracy technique with all its products, including Win2K and NT 4.0 (which companies are still buying). The registration function lets you launch the software 50 times without registration before the software shuts down. After that, it's over. You can't use your software. You paid for it, you own it, but you can't use it. I hate this. If I pay for a product, I want to be able to use it. I think the decision to register is mine to make, and there's sufficient incentive in the fact of "no registration, no support" to make me consider the choices carefully. I don't like entering my name and address on a form, I get enough junk mail already, thank you. The first person who writes to tell me I bought a license, not a product will make me angry--you should think about getting someone else to start your car. Most users don't see their purchase that way, and it's not how it should work. On top of my philosophical objections is the amusing methodology at work with Microsoft's registration process. The process writes your registration information back to your system and checks this information when you try to launch the software. If the registration information is accurate and valid, you can use your software. However, the information is based on several elements, including data taken from the system hardware. If you change hardware, you eliminate the validity of your registration. Hello? Has no hard disk ever died at Microsoft? Has nobody ever upgraded to a bigger, faster computer? It doesn't require an imagination equal to Leonardo DaVinci's to realize this registration process is going to upset somebody some day. Also, consider the time this process will consume in companies that deploy multiple software copies where each workstation must register separately. Microsoft says that large-site license customers probably won't have this registration requirement, but what about smaller companies? Wait, there's more. If you can't register over the Internet, you can register by phone, but only during normal business hours at Redmond. Let's see, 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. in the United Kingdom is 1 A.M. to 9 A.M. at Microsoft. Oh so convenient, no? Expecting every user to have Internet access is unrealistic and unfair. This approach is like an airline announcing that airplane tickets will have surcharges if you don't purchase them on the Internet, or banks charging extra for transactions that involve a teller instead of a cash machine. Oops, wait, both of those events have already occurred. I'm betting we'll see this technology in Win2K, and I'm tempted to extend the bet to cover copies of NT 4.0 sold after the second quarter of this year. 'Til next week, Kathy Ivens, UPDATE News Editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Gunadarma Mailing List -------------------------------------- * Archives : http://milis-archives.gunadarma.ac.id * Berhenti : 'unsubscribe' ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Administrator: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
