WGA phones home - and no one answers.

A system that will lock itself if disconnected for a short while from a server. No thanks.

This article, and Leo's earlier article - WGA: Is it spyware - nicely summarizes the feelings of many legitimate users of MS products. MS's claim that WGA "helps" illegitimate users enjoy the benefits of a legal copy of MS products by nagging them to purchase a copy of the product is derisible and offensive. It's quite clear what the real purpose of WGA is, and MS sneaking it in as a "critical" update changed my mind about what O/S I run at home.

Now, half our home network PC's run Linux. OpenOffice works fine on all our MS Office Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. We haven't yet had any problems finding a Linux replacement for our favorite apps that run on WinXP, that provide equivalent or superior functionality.

MS appear to have a badly judged the market if they think they are on a winner with WGA.

Ironically, on Sunday, USA Networks' "The 4400" had an episode in which a super-powered virus was attacking all instances of the show's analog for Windows, making them unusable.

The problem/benefit (depending on your POV) of the real-life WGA server crash is that it happened over a weekend and was fixed quickly when it started bleeding into business hours. So for many people, it was just a hypothetical situation.

But it does give Anti-Microsoft activists and hackers a lovely and vulnerable target. DDOS the WGA servers for a month and maybe 40% of the Windows-powered machines in the world will be crippled and nagging. Then you'll see some real defections from the Microsoft camp, especially if it starts nailing Windows Server installs and shutting down e-commerce sites in droves.

But until such an issue is longer-lived and the collateral damage is more widespread, you'll have a few really incensed people moving to the Mac or Linux camps, while others will stay with Windows because it's easier than switching.

And to the guy who thinks having Open Office is enough. Nope. Get ACT! running well under WINE or DarWINE or there are a lot of corporate decision makers who will never migrate and won't let their underlings migrate while they stay behind.

Greg, what is ACT!

I agree, WGA is just another MS bottom line protector - it is NOT an advantage to the customer.

I have NOT installed WGA because of this - and have to go through the MS routine to install anything from them (I would rather go through the hoops then have WGA 'call home'.)

WGA is just an extension of the hassle trying to replace your lost operating system when your PC crashes and you've lost the original disc. I gave up and loaded Ubuntu. I'm not that PC savy, but Ubuntu is user friendly.

I was one of those people who's XP PRO suddenly
needed reactivation ( wrongly claimed 3 hardward changes) ; reactivation refused to give code a page asking for $199.00 for valid XP PRO kept reloading.
An 'activation tech said call again and hit "0" ; it took 25 minutes of repeating "0" to reach a Microsoft TECH - who sent me to a new "temp" authenication page ,which athenticated then I had to start reactivation all over again.
4 hours of misery and frustration and if I didn't
need Windows to repair others' computers I wouldn't have it on any of my machines.

Microsoft has become too full of itself. Bill Gates was always afraid of the company turning into the IBM he dealt with back in his early days. Now, it has happened.

Even the very name WGA is an offense to anyone who understands its purpose. And the way it was and is forced on people via Windows update tells you all you need to know about the corporate attitude towards their users.

And the stupid design of WGA (there is no other word for it), one that doesn't have a built in warning period for situations such as this, is also very telling.

The persistently flat stock price, compared to other tech companies, tells you that investors see no real future for the company.

The problems of dealing with Microsoft is one reason why I bought a Mac last November to replace my old PC. I had heard about the WGA problems of legitimate users. Updates for my Mac come easily and without any hassle.

It's funny that a software company is acting so hard to prevent one of the things that made it successful in the software industry, namelly piracy. If they had this system in the beginning, then other, and possibly much better, OS would have been successful.

Like all DRM, the only ones affected are the honest ones. Music CD's and DVD's that don't play in the customer's equipment, failing software checks like the WGA case, obstacles against peoples legal rights, backdoors for illicit persons to gain access to your property (rootkits) etc.

Those people that this DRM is aimed at, they continue to listen to their illegally aquired music, view films, use copy-protected software without hazzle, etc.

In the end I believe that the money they spend developing copy-protection software should have much better use in the development of better products, and to hunt people that SELL pirated content, not the ones that eg. downloads Photoshop to inprove their home photos....

In the end, a software's success is based on how many that use it and recommend it...

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