[NTLUG:Discuss] Open, free choice -- and Windows XP/ Passport

[David Neeley]

At 01:07 PM 10/21/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Steve wrote:

>But you still have to phone them up to ask for a re-registration of your 
>OS - right?

Yes, if you have changed the configuration more than four times I think it is.

>I don't think the basic detection mechanism in the OS has changed.

It hasn't, because it has been in manufacturing for weeks.

>I havn't seen anywhere a list of what you can change before XP wigs out on 
>you.

It can be pretty simple. David Coursey, a Microsoft whore of a journalist 
if ever there was one, took a trip with the final release candidate on his 
laptop. While on the trip, he inserted a PCMCIA card once too often and his 
machine shut down fully within three days. He had tried to hook up with 
Microsoft to re-register, but could not because he was dialing in from a 
different IP address than his original registration!

>Suppose you upgrade your motherboard, CPU and RAM?  Is that enough to 
>invalidate
>the OS?   What about the hard drive?  The NIC?

As I understand it from people who have reviewed it, a MB/CPU change would 
certainly be enough...as would the hard drive. I don't know about the NIC 
or RAM.

There are other problems with XP as well. For instance, it's brain-dead 
"keep alive" process sends ID messages to the servers incredibly often. 
Some who have looked into it are predicting that XP will bring down many 
DNS servers and even possibly some of the root servers as the numbers of 
these machines increase.

It appears that the Al Quaeda terrorist organization doesn't need to engage 
in computer warfare--we're letting Microsoft do it for them!

David