Microsoft Giving Away Vista Ultimate, With a Catch 495
Opinari writes "In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is giving away copies of Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit or 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, or Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 — you can choose any one. The caveat is that you have to let them monitor your use of the program."
Re:Which is the catch? (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Not accurate. (Score:3, Interesting)
I've got a machine still loaded with OS/2. And a nice little G4 with OS X 10.4.11.
Upon further digging (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Upon further digging (Score:5, Interesting)
Make it productive. (Score:5, Interesting)
Impossible to unsubscribe (Score:5, Interesting)
I looked on their FAQ page and found conflicting information. Two separate sections saying to send a blank e-mail to two different e-mail addresses with 'remove' in the subject. I e-mailed both, and what did I get in return?
I did that. What did I get back? Two NDRs for separate reasons:
: host maila.microsoft.com[131.107.115.212] said: 550
5.7.1 (in reply to end of DATA command)
-- and --
: host maila.microsoft.com[131.107.115.212] said: 550
5.1.1 User unknown (in reply to RCPT TO command)
Good one MS, you never cease to amaze me!
Under Wine.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder what kind of "useful" data Wine reports...
Re:Which is the catch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Laptop 1 is mine (for supporting Vista). Yesterday I installed Adobe Acrobat 8.1 - the installer told me approximate install time was 160 minutes and it was not lying. The other day I installed another app and the same thing happened - several hours elapsed while a single app was installing. When the machine comes out of standby, it occasionally will go slow for about 10 mins (I have 1.2GB RAM). The wifi switch/LED didn't work properly until a driver update was applied.
Laptop 2 is in marketing. The user is currently sitting in their car to be outside our wireless zone because she's trying to finish tidying a mailshot spreadsheet and the laptop keeps freezing. She was working OK on two other sites yesterday where there was no wireless so she's testing the theory that it's network-related. Her wifi switch won't turn off the adaptor reliably and it also works in reverse - when the LED is ON, the wifi is OFF and vice versa - even though the switch event handler puts on the screen 'wireless on' and 'wireless off' the right way round.
Laptop 3 has just been brought in because it stopped making RDP connections and I have just had to hack the registry.
I am totally neutral when it comes to Vista - I don't love it or hate it, but user experience in our office has been poor; there's too many 'rough edges' and annoying little habits - simple things like the power button options not including 'ask me what to do' and sometimes a USB mouse not being detected when plugged in etc. Overall, the support effort for just these 3 laptops is disproportionate compared to the 100-odd desktops, servers and other laptops (ranging from NT4 through 2000 to XP) we support.
Re:Which is the catch? (Score:3, Interesting)
So when this doesn't work... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Free... (Score:3, Interesting)
Why they ask why can't the monitoring software work I will simply say that I don't let substandard software out on the internet, and go back to my Linux box.
Re:Which is the catch? (Score:3, Interesting)
And they're right. I built the PC under my desk at home five years ago, and it's still orders of magnatude more powerful than a supercomputer made when my last car (a 1988 Chevy) was built. I keep stuff for a long time; waste not, want not.
Trading your car or computer every couple of years when it's perfectly servicable is for rich idiots. If one can afford to waste money, one should give to charity instead.
Re:Upon further digging (Score:3, Interesting)
An example.
Let's say I have a program that's a mere 50K on disk, but allocates 200MB of memory on startup, and fills it with data in from hardware - maybe a video capture. The O/S cannot cache the 200MB because it doesn't know what video frames your camera will send to it the next time it runs. (Well, if it did you'd have a time machine on your hands, and you'd be selling stocks or making sports bets and not posting here.)
The best it could do is preallocate 200MB of blank space so that when it starts up, it maybe doesn't have to swap anything out, or move anything around to make room for it. But then there's 200MB you don't have for another program you are using. There are well-known trade-offs on how much free space it's good to keep around (meaning, when you have to ask for it, it's there for the taking) versus how much space it's good to use for aggressively caching. I'm sure the kernel folks at MS have run the numbers.