Black market Vista ships ahead of schedule
Well, it didn't take long. Blogger Stephen Wahrhaftig reports that he managed to pick up a pirated copy of Microsoft's (MSFT) new Vista operating system on a recent visit to China: "It took me about twenty minutes to locate a 2-disc set that purports to be Vista Ultimate. This product lists for $399 retail. I purchased it for 20 RMB, or about $2.50." Naturally, the blogs are delighted. "Screw the limited edition signed collector's Vista plate set with matching flatware and signed Bill Gates lithograph," writes Engadget. "China's already rocking it black market style...."
Of course, nobody is vouching for the quality of the software. Wahrhaftig, who didn't actually try to install it, says he expects the software he bought "is probably what Microsoft is calling the 'Frankenbuild' version," which is cobbled together from source code released during the beta testing period. But The Browser's favorite comment on all this comes from a Digg reader: "Well at least the pirates managed to ship something ahead of schedule - unlike Microsoft with Vista itself." What a stupid title for your post?
Do you not know that Vista shipped for business users on Nov 30th? It's code has been frozen from Oct so it's not like there are people scrambling to make the Jan 30th release. The RTM (final version of Vista) has been publicly available since mid-November 2006. Copies of it aren't the issue. Circumventing the 30-day mandatory registration is. Make or sell as many copies as you want, but you can't use it (beyond 30 days) until you get it registered. Current registration hacks/cracks contain trojans that allow remote control of Vista by the trojan's creators. Vista has been available for free for about 60 days. Please keep up, guys, this is really old news.
I've had 'Vista' for 4 years now ... only Apple called it OSX !
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