[geeks] Windows XP, and activation

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 @ 13:03 +0200, Geoffrey S. Mendelson said:

> On Sun, Nov 05, 2006 at 02:22:13AM -0500, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> > Today I tried to download DirectX 9.0c, and I was refused the download
> > because I didn't have GA installed.
> 
> I would not install it that way. The regular way only works for a person
> who ones one computer and loves to spend time watching a thermometer bar.
> 
> The download you get is a few hundred kilobytes. You run it and it ties
> up your computer while it dowloads the entire product to a temporary
> directory, installs it and deletes it. During that time, you should not
> be running anything else.

I know, that's why I got it elsewhere.

On the DirectX download page under "Additional Information" you can also
get it there from Microsoft.

I just have a habit of going elsewhere since I can also get things
Microsoft no longer releases.

> If you look around, almost every update provided for Windows is available
> in downloadable form without the GA check. The GA check is the price
> you pay for being spoon fed the updates. It's easy to understand why
> it's done that way, someone adminstering multiple computers knows which
> updates to install and which to not, does not want their Internet
> bandwidth eaten up by hundreds of machines each downloading the same file,
> and the GA check to them is just a big waste of time.

It's a waste of time for *anyone*.

There is *zero* reason Microsoft could not give you a list of what you
need to download and let you schedule it later.

> IMHO the GA check is really a marketing tool for legal copies of Windows
> Vista, to "soften up the ground". Since just about every multiple instalation
> is legal, it's just "preaching to the chior", and a waste of everyone's time.

No, it's designed to force you into upgrades, and soften people up to
accept complete remote dependency and eventual remote control of their
systems.

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["And in billows of might swell the Saxons
before her,-- Unite, oh unite!	Or the billows burst o'er her!" -- Downfall
of the Gael]