Day: November 21, 2006

So, obviously you should pay for a legitimate copy of anything that you install on your PC, but how many of you have had bogus “errors” of improperly authorized Microsoft products? That is, it it is a real, purchased package, but it fails authentication anyway. Well, if that happens with Office 2007… you are hosed, dewd!

Office 2007’s “secret kill switch”

“Microsoft’s battle with pirates, which started as early as 1975 with Bill Gates’ infamous ‘Open Letter to Hobbyists,’ continues on in 2007, as the company has built a feature into Office 2007: Reduced Functionality Mode. While Microsoft has been fairly coy about whether or not this feature exists in the latest Office release, a new Knowledge Base article on their site confirms that it will apply to all Office 2007 products. Reduced Functionality mode is triggered whenever Office 2k7 fails activation. This can happen when the program is initially run after installation, or if it fails a subsequent check following an Office update. Once the switch is thrown, Office continues to run, but with the following restrictions:

You cannot create new documents.

You can view existing documents. However, you cannot edit them.

You can print documents. However, you cannot save them.

Despite what some media outlets are reporting, the Reduced Functionality Mode is not new. It already applies to Office 2003 and even Office XP versions. While the approach undoubtedly has at least some impact on piracy, the process is not 100 percent foolproof: some legitimate users have reported problems with the activation process.”

So, remember, “just say, ‘NO!'” to Office 2007! Use OpenOffice.org! Free, excellent, and no “kill switch” to contend with!

Microsoft is now saying that only Novell SUSE Linux customers are free from infringing on their intellectual property. Riiiight!

Novell disputes claim by Microsoft on patents

“In a twist that underscored the unlikely nature of their alliance, Novell Chief Executive Ron Hovsepian publicly distanced his company Monday from Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s statement last week that the open-source Linux operating system contains patented Microsoft technology. ‘Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property,’ Hovsepian wrote in a letter to the open-source community, posted on Novell’s Web site. He added, ‘When we entered the patent-cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.’ Responding to a question about the Novell deal at a conference in Seattle last week, Ballmer said that Linux ‘uses our patented intellectual property’ and that one result of the pact was to be ‘appropriately compensated’ for that intellectual property. Novell’s Suse Linux is one of many varieties of the open-source operating system, created by worldwide communities of programmers. In his remarks, Ballmer said that, because of the Novell deal, ‘only a customer who has Suse Linux actually has paid properly for the use of intellectual property from Microsoft.'”

FUD, or “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt” is what Microsoft wants to spread about Linux, because they know it is their biggest true competitor. They are evil. Don’t be swayed.