October 30, 2004

YOU get a pirated software CD for Rs35 no matter what the original cost of its genuine registered copy is, and that’s not it, if you happen to be in a fix, you log on to that company’s website and download a patch, or some add-ins, libraries, etc — so much for an unregistered version, isn’t it? But at least Microsoft is going to change it soon. The plan is to make life tough for pirates and consumers of pirated software by requiring registration and activation that couldn’t be faked easily — no more copying of registered versions either, more over, even an upgrade could cost some amount, seriously.

Micsrosoft is pushing fast for its ‘trusted computing’ initiative that would make it nearly impossible or very hard to break in, intrude or install malicious software on its operating system — not officially released but coveted Longhorn.

This move will be of great help restricting effectiveness of email worms and other viruses which have recently wreaked havoc on Microsoft technologies and computing in general, for example the Sobig, RPC exploit and attacks on SQL servers.

Means of achieving this restriction are not complicated either — by requiring every new installation to be verified, check-summed for tampering and approved to be Trojan free status can greatly reduce overhead a company faces in terms of distributing ‘free’ patches and upgrades for its products, and this very ‘patch’ culture is what Microsoft wants to get rid off.

In doing so, it has planned to stop support for its older products. This can also be seen as an effort to make people buy and use latest versions of its operating systems and MS Office which would require strict authentication — either through internet of some physical call centre service.

This second option could be applied in West but we are not sure if this would be a good idea in sub-continent, anyways, we have to wait and see if MS could force people here in this part of the world to shun its unregistered products and go for the legal copies — or towards free Linux. It’s no doubt a big opening for open source products and even for Mac OS if enterprises find the MS move tough to adjust with.

Abandoning support for software of the past might be a good idea for vendors but it could have not so good effects on application users. Often, we see people developing a certain sort of liking towards a particular version of software or operating system and do not move on to the next version immediately as it hit the shelves.

There certainly are users who still use Windows 98 when Windows Me is there (and we also have Windows XP in market for some time now). Same is true for Office — majority of the users haven’t got their hands on to 2003 version (Office 11) and are still proud users of Office 2000 or XP. Reason for this behaviour is the level of trust they gather over time on the ‘current’ OS because it has given them hours of trouble free (or less troublesome) usage and good compatibility with their installed drivers and other utilities, so they are not too keen to risk the smooth performance by trying out new software versions each time they appear in market. But if there’s an effective upgrade and support ban on old software, users will be left with no option but to upgrade, register and learn the latest version.

Imagine what you would do if your PC restarts due to RPC bug within minutes of logging in and you are told that there’s no patch available (unlike the case right now) or more annoyingly, you come to know that a new piece of software you want to install requires latest OS (unlike today’s Windows 98/Me/XP compatibility list). The matter is not just of having software, but also regarding hardware.

Quite a few users do not go for a new Win OS only because they know that their LAN card or modem doesn’t have the latest drivers or even if drivers are there, they will have to ‘waste’ time searching for it or may well have to upgrade the device altogether and get a compatible one.

Retiring old software will have some more benefits to MS, including an opportunity to get rid of doomed technologies with inherent flaws. Developers at Redmond are thought to be architects who cleverly planted a graphical design on DOS technology to create Windows and continue to build upon this layout in new versions.

Now, moving towards a completely new design of OS, MS hopes to bury the 95/98 ghosts forever. There’s another dimension to this phase-out program of MS - lawsuit and settlements with mother of Java, the Sun.

According to Microsoft Watch and eWeek, Sun’s law suit on MS (that it had infringed the Java copyright and trademarks) has been a driving factor behind MS’s phase-out policy.

MS had to settle the issue by giving out millions of dollars and agreeing to phase-out those Java-included products that were the cause of case. It is now believed that every product having built-in support of Java VM will be included in the phase-out list — no more downloads, no more sales of those products, and date for this retirement and complete transition is somewhere in the month of September 2004.

According to Tony Goodhew of MS’s development division, users should tie up their seatbelts as time is running out for free support — ‘As part of our settlement and license extension with Sun we can only modify the Microsoft virtual machine (VM) until Sep 30, 2004. After that date, we will not be able to modify the VM for any reason, including security’.

We have had taste of it when Windows XP was released without Java support. On a similar note, Ghoodhew continues, ‘We will not ship products that include a piece of software we can not provide security fixes for, thus we are phasing out some older products and re-releasing some older products without the VM’.

Determination on part of MS is evident by this statement of Jim Desler, a spokesman for Microsoft — ‘Microsoft will abide by the Court’s ruling on copyright and (we) have already stopped distributing the Microsoft JVM through internet download.

This is part of a broader process of phasing out the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine’.

People at Sun hope to capture some market as they join hands with a few prominent hardware vendors to ensure Java VM (of Sun of course) is released in their PC-bundle.

Talking about MS products (as we mostly are MS users), whether one downloads Java VM for XP from Sun’s site or not, it’s sure that no one stopped using Windows XP when no Java support was there.

Here in Pakistan, we believe that people would continue to cling on to the Microsoft legacy — at least till the time they encounter an eye-opener (be it a virus attack or hard-disk washout). But there are other options too. For instance, Sun has released Java Desktop — a complete office suite like the Star Office for Linux (you have to see it to observe its resemblance with MS Office).

List of to-retire software was made public by Andy Boyd, program manager of MSDN subscriber downloads. His message on MS community message board (December 8, 2003) lists several versions of Office 2000, 2000 versions of Outlook, Visio and Project along with IE 5.5, Visual Studio 6 MSDE and Windows 98 as products that ‘will be removed permanently from MSDN Subscriber Downloads’.

According to research analysis quoted through an IDC official, there still are approximately 21 million users using Win 95 and about 58 million using Win 98, and because of this, an end to legacy-support from MS can reduce costs but at the same time, can cost it in terms of reduced customer satisfaction and/or brand loyalty.

This phase-out also means a security concern for all those security buffs out there — our piece of advice: get yourself a latest anti-virus and a free firewall if you plan to keep on with an old OS before it’s too late!