It’s happened again, as it’s happened without fail for the past so many years. One company in Redmond decides to release a new OS, and the whole hacking community turns it into a rat race to break the activation code. Not surprising really, because I can say with some certainty, that Windows is by far the most widely pirated piece/huge chunk of software.
What I was thinking, is what exactly drives these guys (i.e. hackers). Of course, at one level, these guys just want Windows for themselves. Then comes the sense of pride of having cracked through what a huge team of people worked hard to create. Then there might be the odd hacker who might have a heart and decide to distribute his crack for the general public (i.e. torrent and Rapidshare enthusiasts).
This time around, some loon at Lenovo let loose (alliteration…:-P) an OEM volume license key used to activate multiple PCs. Armed with the appropriate ISO for the Windows installation DVD, this key could spell doom for Microsoft’s profits. But hey, most people buy their PCs with Windows preloaded, and and Microsoft does make more money from OEM licenses than individual copies sold at stores. And I can never see a business or firm’s IT manager using a pirated copy of Windows, when he can easily squander away his IT budget.
But even this little/big mess-up depends on the reach of that key+ISO package. So it really doesn’t matter what Microsoft does, their software will simply have to be cracked, simply owing to the large number of people using it!
Suckers…