[plug] Piracy!

[wayne]

Aye, aye; mi 'arty!!  Raise the focsal!  Sto' the yard arm! Close the
Windows!!  We'll board 'em and slit thar gizzards instead!     ||.-)

Regards,
wayne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Tombleson" <brian at paradigmit.com.au>
To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: [plug] Piracy!


> > * Compatibility
> >
> > The implication here is that since Microsoft no longer support Windows
95,
> > and compatibility was a fairly hazy issue even when they did, there is
no
> > loss to ``pirating'' it. I know of several occasions when people paid
for
> > software, either Microsoft software or 3rd-party to run on Microsoft
> systems,
> > and the software proved incompatible, so they ``pirated'' a compatible
> > version (either of the software or of a compatible supporting component)
> and
> > used that instead. Who is in the right there?
>
> They don't support Win98 anymore either (or at least will very shortly
drop
> it).  Their policy is to support two (2) versions in each of their streams
> and in the current situation that is XPHome+ME and XPPro+2000.  And, of
> course, they are merging the streams.
>
> Considering probably about 30% of the businesses I deal with run '95 and a
> further 60% run '98 ... they're frigged for support.
>
> Additionally - have you ever tried calling, emailing or otherwise
contacting
> Microsoft for support?  No, no-one does - they contact the supplier.  The
> supplier then charges them accordingly as per any other service industry.
> Contacting Microsoft directly gets you nowhere very slowly and their
> "support", when it comes, is "download a patch from the US" (for which you
> will undoubtedly need a new patch soon, so learn how to do this fast) -
too
> bad if it's your DUN/RAS or network that's screwed screwed because there
> ain't no way they'll be sending a tech out to you for less than $200/h:-).
> Lastly comment is - what warranty?  There is no warranty on software.
This
> means that any support costs you directly or indirectly.
>
> You have just received $0.0234 worth of my oppinion (with rounding, 2c :-)
>
> Regards,
> Brian.
>
>
>