From TNPC issue #4.21...

eXPeriencing Windows XP

by Al Gordon
October 18, 2001

You just have got to love Microsoft. Windows XP should be playing to rave reviews and be a no-brainer recommendation for computer writers. But Redmond instead decided to choose this moment to adopt a rigid activation scheme and to build a huge number of its ".Net" (a/k/a "we want to own the Internet") features into the software. As a result, virtually every review of Windows XP is taking on the form, "The best version of Windows yet, BUT..."

Including this article.

XP is the most stable and user-friendly version of Windows yet. [Insert the wisecrack of your choice here.] The new interface is attractive and functional. It finally ends the divide between the Windows 9x-based consumer and NT-based corporate versions of Windows. Trust me; you are going to want it.

And next time, I will get into some of the ways to successfully migrate to this new operating system. But first, we need to look at some of the reasons why you WON'T want it.

When the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the lower court finding that Microsoft is a monopoly but rejected the ordered breakup of the company, the justices made a very sophisticated determination about the software business. The ruling said, in effect, that regulators need to distinguish between the times when Microsoft is a bull in a china shop and those when it is mainly an elephant in a flowerbed. The former--intentional abuse of market power-- has been the focus of government lawyers. But the latter--being so big that it can crush things even unintentionally--may be a more serious problem, especially since Redmond typically is blind to it.

And that's the problem with XP.

I am not all that bothered about the ways Microsoft XP tries to steer you to use Passport, Windows Messaging, MSN, etc., etc. Frankly, we should be used to this by now, and more important: you can shut this stuff off. A PC user who wants to use, say, AOL, and finds the task of manually installing it too onerous probably ought not to be using a PC in the first place. But "product activation" is something for which there is no legal workaround.

To run the software, you must notify Microsoft by Internet or telephone that you have installed it. The process involves Microsoft obtaining information about your hardware so that the activated copy can be run ONLY on that PC. If you don't activate Windows, it won't run. Further, when Windows starts up, it scans your system and if the software detects "substantially different" hardware, re-activation is required or it won't run.

The one-PC-per-operating-system limit has been Microsoft's policy for years. Go read your End User License Agreements (EULA) for previous versions of Windows. (You did stop during setup to read your EULA before clicking the "I agree button," didn't you?) However, until now, Microsoft had the good sense to not be ham- handed about it.

Under the new system--first inflicted on users with Office XP-- the installation program takes a snapshot of your system configuration and then uses it to develop an activation code, which is obtained from Microsoft via the Internet or a phone call. Without the activation code in place, Windows XP won't run.

In the face of searing criticism from the biggest Bigfoot in computer journalism, Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, and others Microsoft retreated slightly.

It disclosed more details of the criteria:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/421/tr.cgi?al1

The insanely complicated scheme looks at your display adapter, SCSI adapter, IDE adapter, network adapter MAC address, RAM amount range, processor type, processor serial number, hard drive device, hard drive volume serial number, and CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD- ROM. You get to change six out of these 10 components without requiring re-activation. As a sop to power users, every 120 days the activation process is supposed to reset so you can change six more things. Unless you have a network card--now standard on most computers--in which case the change limit is three things. Unless it is a dockable laptop, for which there is a different set of rules. Unless you change your motherboard. Unless you install a new BIOS. Unless, Jupiter is aligned with Mars.

This is the kind of overkill that happens when a company gets so big that it caught up in its own particular version of reality. And there is no one around to point out: "Hey, that's stupid."

Redmond's stated goal is "to reduce a form of piracy known as 'casual copying' or 'softlifting.'" Or, in other words, taking one copy of Windows and using it on all the PCs in your house. Which pretty much everyone does to some extent.

PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak got to the heart of the matter when he wrote, "Though Microsoft is right to try to protect its cash cows by ensuring people don't fill a neighborhood with copies of the software, you'd think that compensation for petty piracy would've been built into the pricing scheme."

Exactly. The Windows XP activation scheme is a backdoor price increase on top of a direct price hike.

The upgrade version of Windows XP Home is $100:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/421/tr.cgi?al2

The upgrade version of Windows XP Professional is $200:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/421/tr.cgi?al3

Window 98 upgrades have had street prices in the $90s--and no activation scheme. Windows 2000, which parallels XP Professional, had a street price at introduction in the range of $190, with a $70 rebate to users of Windows NT 4.0 (no rebate for Win9x upgraders). Plus, as another hidden price hike, XP Home edition does not support logging on to a network domain, as Win9x and Millennium did. So XP Professional, at twice the price, is mandated for networks with that kind of security. Naturally this is the security required when you build a network around Windows NT/2000/XP servers.

The fact is that the retail price for XP is several times the price computer manufacturers and large corporate enterprise customers pay per copy (although they, too, have been hit with price increases). Microsoft has agreed to offer a minimal "family" discount--$10 off the retail pricing for up to four additional licenses. According to recently announced details, initially you will be able to get the discount only from your retailer or by calling the Microsoft's activation call center-- online fulfillment won't be available for 90 days or more.

News bulletin for Redmond: the tech industry is in a recession.

Econ 101 says that if demand is down, you probably ought to be lowering prices instead of raising them if your goal is to jump- start sales. When it was conceived, activation might have had some vague strategic value to counterbalance the mammoth ill-will it is generating. That was then, this is now. Right now it is in Microsoft's own interest to get XP past antitrust scrutiny and on as many PCs as possible. Ten bucks is pathetic.

Cut the price of XP, Microsoft. Do it now.

You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com

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