Images: Which copy of XP is the fake? | BNET

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  1

  bluesrenegade@...

  04/25/07 | Report as spam

  Entertaining but not Educational

  It would have been useful if we were told how to identify the fake. Without educating people on how to tell the difference between a fake and an original, all you've done is provide entertainment.
  
  But, really, who cares? Why pirate Windows when there are so many open source alternatives (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.) that are better than MS Windows?!

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  2

  trh1948@...

  05/15/07 | Report as spam

  AMEN

  You are exactly right. This must be the work of someone with nothing to do. They should be glad they aren't working for me as they wouldn't be putting up such time and bandwith wasters.

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  3

  tonedoggydogg

  05/19/07 | Report as spam

  Well not completely true...

  Well "better" than MS Windows is relative. See, there might be more stable operating systems than Windows. There may be more extendible features in other operating systems. But in terms of conducting real everyday business, MS Windows is the common denominator. And unfortunately that makes it the best in the eyes of us business owners.
  
  We do not care about the war between good and evil software makers. We only care that our customers, partners, and suppliers are able to communicate with us without incompatibility issues. In a perfect world, yes MS Windows shouldn't be considered the best. But we don't live in this world so MS Windows-- right now-- is the best and you're going to have to simply live with that for a while. lol

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  4

  mrfcobf

  07/01/07 | Report as spam

  Business owner who has no problem with MacOS

  I live in an industry dominated by Windows as well. However, we have
  absolutely no issue with running MacOS.
  
  As you said, it's more stable and has some unique features, but I receive the
  same files everyone else does via email from my customers: word, excel,
  powerpoint, pdf's, jpg's, eps, wmv, mp3, vcards, zip, spam, etc. etc. They all
  open and they all work. The only exe files I've received have all been trojans
  and viruses (virii?), and I'm glad they don't open...
  
  I'm not doubting that there are some files out there that I can't open, but I
  simply can't remember any that any of us have received in the past 5 years
  from any of our vendors, customers, or partners.
  
  We get a lot of questions when people physically see our laptops as to
  whether or not we can open various file types, because I don't think a lot of
  people know that we all run the same applications, but that's the extent of it
  in our experience.

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  5

  jasker

  07/13/07 | Report as spam

  Mac App support

  Yeah, well try doing anything to do with Engineering on a Mac. Oh wait, you can't. AutoCAD? What's that?

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  6

  Digitalcomet

  06/14/07 | Report as spam

  Right!! and is so free

  well .. i agree with you on everything...but you have to understand that if you have a poor operating system, have to fill it with the idea that it will offer you much more than what it have ("benefits") and that's what i belive they call program ... if i were Billy, i'll reduce the costs of every software cutting the people that works making the people to buy the original and the lawyers that fight against piracy and sell my S.O. at a lower price...if i plan to keep going against the linux wave

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  7

  chareyno@...

  04/25/07 | Report as spam

  Pirated software

  One of the major contributing factors to the pirating of Microsoft is their marketing and corporate policy of forcing updates through service packs and backwards compatibility issues. When one person in a group gets the newest version of any of the office tools then everyone has to get them in order to read or use the files sent by the first. Seen it happen time and again since Windows 3.1. I once worked for a company that had 10-12 thousand desktops and WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 were the standards. A few managers got new machines with "free office tools" and the next thing we knew the company dumped the previous tools and started using the "bundled" office tools which later became a separate offering along with Exchange and cost the company a fortune with every forced upgrade.

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  8

  The-Bytemaster

  04/27/07 | Report as spam

  Office is backwards/forwards compatible now

  Microsoft doesn't break backwards compatibility anymore, especially with service packs. Office 2007, for example, also has plugins so that you can view and use the documents on Office 2003.

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  9

  patinhas@...

  05/06/07 | Report as spam

  Word2003/Word2007 compatibility (now in the right place)

  Have you really tried using the compatibility tools for Word 2003? I tried, and on the first doc I made changes to I got complaints from my Word 2007 partner that I had broken his formatting.
  
  So, compatible, yes, but only on the same level that OpenOffice is compatible with Word, that is you can read it, you can even change it, just don't rely on it to maintain all the characteristics. Since one costs upwards from 300? and another is free, I know the one I will be using.

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  10

  jgbsmith@...

  05/26/07 | Report as spam

  Word 2004...

  I use Word 2004 on several computers (macs btw) and I've never had any huge
  backwards/forwards compatabilty iissues with it. i dont like ms much but Office
  2004 seems pretty good to me

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  11

  mITw@...

  07/05/07 | Report as spam

  Limited backward compatibility

  Microsoft has clearly abandoned its earlier file formats not only for Word for Windows but for other wordprocessing products MS "rented" to end-users. But there are still a lot of documents on personal backup disks, tapes, etc. Nor can one install the earlier software under Windows XP.
  
  As to Word for Windows itself, Try opening a document from Word for Windows 2.0. I may be wrong, but I do not believe MS has even made viewers for their earlier file formats, especially other than Word.

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  12

  bobinvegas@...

  05/03/07 | Report as spam

  Which Twin Has The Phoney?

  I do not comprehend the idea behind this. I have already passed the authenticity test; so what's the point here? I believe the genuine copy of the XP booklet is the one without the large red multi-pointed star on it. But, at the moment, I cannot locate the book that came with my my PC. I located the booklet that came with the Hewlett Packard Pavilion, and I have used that one for the sake of comparison. Isn't this taking your counterfeiting paranoia just a bit too far? So far, MS has created two dozen mine mines and a hundred tests that an XP user must pass before you're assured that his copy is genuine.

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  13

  mike_flood

  05/04/07 | Report as spam

  Which copy is the fake?

  I guessed that the genuine package was the one with the printed
  sticker adjacent to the "Start Here" on the cover.
  Looked like something Microsoft would do.

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  14

  cescobar@...

  05/04/07 | Report as spam

  Attention Microsoft

  If piracy exists in your software, means that prices are possibly too high.
  
  Well... at least in chile $200 usd is way much money if you convert it to Chile Pesos (CLP) and that's an average price for Windows XP (at least the Pro edition), not to mention Office 2003 which costs about $600 and Vista around $300... so what'd be left for brasil which has a not so good economy

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  15

  patinhas@...

  05/06/07 | Report as spam

  Word2003/Word2007 compatibility

  Have you really tried using the compatibility tools for Word 2003? I tried, and on the first doc I made changes to I got complaints from my Word 2007 partner that I had broken his formatting.
  
  So, compatible, yes, but only on the same level that OpenOffice is compatible with Word, that is you can read it, you can even change it, just don't rely on it to maintain all the characteristics. Since one costs upwards from 300? and another is free, I know the one I will be using.

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  16

  GreatInca

  05/17/07 | Report as spam

  Don't buy a box! Get Windoze from eMule!

  Then who cares if you gave money to a counterfeiter! Because you paid neither the open-source hating patent-lawsuit tyrant Microsoft OR the counterfeiter!!
  
  Better yet, get Linux. From eMule or BitTorrent.

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  17

  MrAnderson1st

  05/24/07 | Report as spam

  What?! Red Start = Fake?

  Hmm... the packages' right or my right. If the one on the left with red star is a fake, then newegg is selling fake OEM versions of XP Pro with DVD Install Disks that have Holograms on the print side and big Red Starts. Actually every package I have purchased when building a new system never looked like the right pictured with white rounded corner rectangles. The air needs to be cleared, I have contact Microsoft for suppport and registered my products with out incident... where do we go from here.

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  18

  codeblue@...

  06/03/07 | Report as spam

  What?! Red Start = Fake?

  Its the resolution and colour depth of the cover (blue sky with clouds,Logo) not the red start.
  originals are printed using Offset Printing, which has greater colour depth to name just one item. these Machines are huge and expensive and only cost efficient when printing high copy numbers, like magazines etc.

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  19

  jimbgalloway@...

  05/31/07 | Report as spam

  Office 2003 Pro.

  My Office 2003 has been updated probably 20 times over the past year and through that hideous validation process many times so why is it only now it is said to be counterfit. I paid 190.00 +shipping from a supposedly reliable software supplier on ebay. What is my recourse?? Any suggestions or Ideas would be appreciated. THANKS JIMG

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  20

  eldergabriel@...

  06/18/07 | Report as spam

  recourse - uninstall ms office...

  ...install openoffice. Problem solved!

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  21

  davidmi711

  06/27/07 | Report as spam

  Why not just answer the question?

  Your ansewer is like answering the question: "How to I get my Porsche to run?" with "Just throw it away and buy a different car"

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  22

  pueblonative

  07/03/07 | Report as spam

  Depends on who is asking

  Well, I don't know. If my porche kept refusing to run, or if it kept calling the cops on me every time I tried to open it just because I didn't turn the key just right, I may think about throwing it away and finding another car. Could just be me.

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  23

  Kai Ahnig

  06/09/07 | Report as spam

  When will these people just go away?

  We've been listening to this junk for the last several years. "Educating" the public on using properly licenced software. Yadda yadda yadda. Isn't there a nice scandal somewhere just waiting to be uncovered? Files on individuals to rival those of the FBI? Mass litigation just a mouse click away? I'm sick of these tyrants and hope they would just go off somewhere and explode.

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  24

  Digitalcomet

  06/14/07 | Report as spam

  Sao Paulo, Brazil??

  Why you have to see so far...if you see, a lot of sites hosted in the U.S. and american companyes offer the right to keep their backups of windows xp and vista for less than US$12 and for US$20 including shipping to everywhere in the world...those are ilegal copyes of windows too and are not on latin or 2nd world countryes ... i belive that the best way to attack the piracy is to give the chance to the people for buy an original version at a good price..in my country,Windows vista home edition is around to US$135 ... and the basic salary is US$230 .... as you may see, is a high price against the alternative of piracy ... i don't mean to sell windows at $US20, but sell it at a more human price...specially considering that the hardware is selled here at no more than 3 times the price of the S.O....is logical that an operating system full of bugs and that have to be patched everytime be the 25% of the cost of your computer bill?

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  25

  warpuck@...

  06/18/07 | Report as spam

  Fake XP?

  This Checksum
  b950a4d7cf3151e5f213843e2ad77fe3
  Is used for
  ubuntu-6.10-desktop-i386.iso
  
  I guess it is pretty hard to fake that.
  
  In my house only Unbuntu and PCBSD live there.
  
  At work however all is not in harmony. I use a XP box as a terminal for a Alpha VMS server. I have been informed by IRM (IT) that Open VMS running a DEC alpha server is not Unix!
  
  I do know mixing Microsoft and Unix is not good.
  
  Meanwhile back at the house, my dual channel amd box and my dual PIII box are happy with Unbuntu and PCBSD. However my Win printers and other Win hardware are looking for new houses to live in.
  Yes the Linux/Unix printers, scanners and modem cards cost more, but the software is much cheaper, more stable and easy to get.
  
  Warren
  
  Windows does not live here anymore. He came here as an infant. 21 years later I got tired of supporting him. I adopted Unbuntu and PCBSD So I would not have an empty nest.

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  26

  ralph@...

  07/05/07 | Report as spam

  I know which one

  I'm a printer - of course I knew which one was the legal one.
  It was the one with the nice shrinkwrapping!
  It takes a quality printing company with a good relationship with the customer to
  print and finish properly. Pirates just wouldn't take the time to do it right. It's not
  like their looking for the reorder!
  Ralph
  Graphicom Digital, Santa Fe Springs, CA

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  27

  edinmusic.ba@...

  07/08/07 | Report as spam

  Attention Microsoft

  After I read last message on this article I realized I need to respond do.
  
  I'm from Bosnia. Here the diferrence betwen USD and BAM is 1:2 and approx. price of Windows XP is 260 BAMs witch is 130USD and MS Office 2003 English is 350 BAMs = 175 USD. Approx. sallary in Bosnia is 200USD = 400 BAMs. At street illegal copy of MS Windows XP PRO is 1,5 BAM = 0,75USD and MS Vista is 3BAMs = 1,5 USD. Many people here doesn't need any Microsoft's services (They only us Windows and Office and no internet) so you can see why is piracy growing.

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  28

  thomas.tyrie@...

  07/15/07 | Report as spam

  xp

  i already know wich copy is genuine

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  29

  james@...

  07/16/07 | Report as spam

  Linux vs Windows

  I use Linux in my business, I have no problem opening Windows Documents or files with it, X Windows does a great job of things for what I need. Everytime MS does an update things get thrown out or have to be re installed with teh latest patch to work. The only thing I see Windows has going for it is teh marketing machine behind it. Other then that no real use for it. I have made all my company laptops Linux machines, work gets done we make money no issue.