WGA has never helped Microsoft customers, serves to alienate users, promotes cracking and piracy and has just tagged users as pirates.
They must have been working overtime over in Redmond, Washington this weekend when posts began to spring up on the Microsoft WGA forum. Users were complaining that their copy of Windows would no longer validate their authentic and legal version of Vista. This instantly kicked those law abiding users into a reduced functionality mode which would remain until their software was validated or until the 30 day expiration would pass.
Apparently there was some issue with the validation software that Microsoft loads onto users PC's. That software will occasionally call home to verify that it is of genuine and legal origin. Unfortunately, legit copies were flagged as illicit.
"This is inexcusable, I am not a software pirate, I paid good money for both my copies of Vista, and due to poorly implemented anti-piracy measures, I am prevented from using my own PC!" in user had posted on the Microsoft WGA forums.
A few hours later, Phil Liu, WGA program manager at Microsoft, made an early Saturday morning announcement that he hoped would appease angered users. Turns out that the black-flagging issue was the result of some servers at Microsoft HQ. They resolved the problem by noon Saturday Pacific time, but offered no further explanation as to what had caused the complication in the first place.
Maybe someone forgot to activate their copy of Windows Server 2003.
"I guarantee that I will personally resolve this issue before I go to sleep -- whether or not it is Tuesday I sleep. My goal is to identify a FIX for this issue -- afterwards get you all what you are looking for, an explanation and cause," wrote Liu.
This marks yet another blackeye for Microsoft and their failing copy protection schemes. Certainly, they do have a right to protect their product and intellucetual property from the likes of pirates and counterfitters. They however, do not have the right to blatently and blundly accuse their customers of piracy. It may have been a simpe server issue that had caused the problem, but it's still quite disconcerting.
I am so glad that I run Ubuntu Linux.
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I admit Windows is far from perfect and the same can be said about Linux. I agree that Ubuntu looks promising for the average user yet the more you continue on, the more you admit to an inferiority complex. I wouldn't have as much a problem if you weren't so biased, but you are, and never have anything negative to say about Linux. So would you please drop the elitist 'nix' attitude because you are giving other Linux users a bad name.
If you are always yelling, people will learn to tune you out very quickly.
Linux does take some effort to get working, but once it works, it's rock solid.
Same with FreeBSD
Windows has its uses, but real power users do find that it is unstable and flawed.
If you want me to say something bad about Linux . . .
The apps don't have the professional look of commercial programs.
Some packages just don't work.
It doesn't handle 3-D gaming or CAD very well.
Developers update their packages far too often requiring updates every other day.
Lots of these updates are pointless, like an extra sentence added to the help file documentation. Others will cause conflicts.
Honestly, the only bias I have against Windows is that of its fractured copy protection scheme, excessive and draconian DRM and the laundry list of vulnerabilities and exploits inherent to an OS that was written with a single user in mind but augmented with hacks and cracks (developed by Microsoft) to allow for multiple users and networking.
But to digress; humanity would survive without Windows or Linux and or computers in general so the point is somewhat moot.
OpenGL has all the power of DX10 but is as of yet untapped. OpenGL could spell huge problems for Microsoft and perhaps (if the industry made the shift to OpenGL) could cripple Microsoft.
Won't happen anytime soon though. It would take the backing of a major developer and or console manufacturer to do so.
DX10.1 won't be a problem for long, if it really even is one. DX10 or 10.1 has not stopped me from playing any games that I know of (apart from Lost Planet apparently? but there was a DX9 version of the demo?) on my 7600gt.
Oh and I used to think Linux was quite good until I kept reading you bashing windows in favor of Linux. >
On your OpenGL comment, I somewhat disagree their. As any OpenGL application I have seen looks like crap compared to anything around, even some of the older PC games. Yes, I have a few that requier OpenGL compatability instead of DX9.
I just do not see how OpenGL can REMOTELY compete with DX10, 9 or 10.1. Seeing as how most of the games on the PS3 and 360 use DX10. I just simply do not see it, sorry.
It's impossible for the 360 to use DX10 as it would require a hardware overhaul (specifically th GPU made by ATI).
The PS3 uses LibGCM which has evolved from portions of OpenGL. LibGCM is a little more powerful than DX9 and DX10 as it allows for lower level programming/hardware access.
OpenGL still uses old code for old hardware (runs fine with a 5600 GPU) and that's why it looks like 1994 (people who use OpenGL run old hardware cause they're usually running Linux).
Developers don't code for OpenGL too much as the real money is in DX9 PC games. If more developers started coding for OpenGL we would see new modules added to that API and the subsequent improvement in graphics performance. But it has to be profitable for them to do so.
Additionally, OpenGL uses extensions to run the likes of pixel and vertex shaders, subsequently taking a latency/performance hit. DX9/10 (DX is also known as Direct3D) have those sets built into the API graphics engine. And since Nvidia nd ATI can't agree upon anything, the execution of shaders and filters remains a juggling act. Microsoft have the money to work closely with Nvidia and ATI to learn all their secrets before others do. OpenGL does not.
LibGCM and DX9/10 are both programmed using Cg, a programming language developed by Microsoft and Nvidia (C as in C++ and g as in graphics).
If someone wants to program Windows games and Microsoft consoles, learn the DX/D3D API.
If someone wants to program for anything else (PS3, GameCube, PS1, Gameboy, Acarde machines, Linux, OSX, Cell Phones, PS3, Wii, etc.) learn OpenGL. LibGCM will seems easier after OpenGL. The PS2 and DS have their own wacky API's, but they're loosing steam.
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/
articles/article1775.asp
For some info on what the various consoles use, just run a search on
http://www.gamedev.net/
There's articles on everything; console programming, Windows programming, Linux, you name it.
Additionally, Doom 3, Quake 4 and a whole lot of other id games use OpenGL with their own unique API. The next big id 'Rage' won't use DX, but likely a modified API for OpenGL.
The graphics war starts, well, soon.