Activation servers overloaded at Microsoft

That would explain why I was not able to activate our client XP machines today!

Ahh… that makes sense – I was actually wondering if that was my issue as well. Was the response to Office/Vista B2 releases higher than anticipated?

Neat stuff in the new versions. Kudos to the Dev. teams.

I remember downloading the XP B2 and CPP CD ISOs about two months after broadband was finally available in my area – 45 minutes – I was stunned. Previous to that I had always had to wait for CDs/Flippies to arrive…

Thanks Robert!

Scoble – You know MS is the only organization that would even get close to admit to that! I love the transperancy here and will try back later. I was sitting here wondering what can you do to make office better….and I think I just found out. I think by 2007 we (MS and the .net communty) will leave Java about 5 years behind!! Its incredible how much progress has been made.

- Nikhil Roy

Speaking of Win95 beta memories, I installed the beta (downloaded via a 14.4) the night before a demo on my work machine even after being cautioned against doing so because of the risk. I was confident enough of the 16 bit compatibility (and I really wanted the new UI, something that is my #1 upgrade motivator to this day) and wanted the newest stuff as early as possible that I did it anyway.
The demo ran fine, all was well. I loved the original Win95. The jump in experience from 3.x to 9.x was amazing.

I thought you guys were gonna kick our ass with your “services” know how? You can’t even deliver your bits to your customers? What a joke! Bring it on baby!

Bradley, do you build services that support millions of downloads per day? We’re hiring!

Microsofts can’t get there stuff out, what a surprise

Windows is the BIGGEST SCUM in the computer field. It purports to make computers easier to use for everyone. However, quite the opposite has occurred.

I believe the real reason why the return on investment for office computer productivity has been flat or increased little in the last ten years is because of Windows. I certainly feel Windows has contributed to the computer productivity paradox. It may even be the main cause for the paradox! Waiting for this time parasite to bootup, restart after frequent crashes, time spent on installation of programs, dealing with program conflicts, etc. is the biggest time waster in any business!

Computer Crashes Are Not Normal. Believe it or not, your computer hardware was designed to run continuously for weeks and months without crashing. Crashing everyday is NOT normal. It is accepted as normal because of Windows.

Why is it that Microsoft’s products keep mushrooming in size with each new release always requiring significantly more disk space and more processing power than the last time? They might claim it’s because of all the new features they add each time, but that’s only half the story. The new features and the increased processing requirements are designed to fuel the process of perpetual upgrades. This is Microsoft’s way of rubbing Intel’s back so that Intel will give Microsoft preferential treatment when it comes out with new chip specs. It’s also Microsoft’s way of convincing consumers that their newer product versions are better because they are so much bigger. Their new features are often superfluous but users must still deal with the overhead required by the features even though most will never use the features.

Also contributing to Microsoft’s goal of putting everybody on a perpetual upgrade cycle is the backward incompatibility in Microsoft’s products. Once a small number of users adopt a new version of a Microsoft product all other users are pressured to upgrade lest they are unable to interact with files produced by the newer program.

It’s pretty obvious why the concept of perpetually upgrading is a bad idea for consumers. Perpetual upgrading encourages Microsoft to ship bug ridden products because they can always charge for the upgrade after the bugs are fixed.

Microsoft tends to kill off competition by drawing on resources supplied by its OS monopoly to completely out-spend its competitors, by using its customers’ dependence upon existing products to force new products upon them, or by buying its competitors outright.

System administrators who have had experience with other operating systems know that Windows is a nightmare to maintain. For a taste of what these people must suffer through read this insightful usenet posting by one frustrated sys admin. He describes some inexplicable problems that crop up in Windows and the vastly inadequate support that Microsoft provides when they arise. Especially interesting to note is the catch-22 that Microsoft puts its users in by refusing to give technical support when the user follows the instructions in Microsoft’s own “knowledge base”.

Ragards and switch to Mac OS X or Linux

So then a new delay?

Early Testers Hit Vista Beta 2 Snags. The first testers managing to download Windows Vista 2 bits are reporting in. They say it’s not all smooth sailing, and are encountering everything from driver and app compatibility problems, to red-hot laptops.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1967346,00.asp

Oh…

Ballmer Says Microsoft Pushing Back Vista–Again
http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/24/vista-rollback-microsoft-cx_ck_0524autofacescan11.html

Nor will most users…

Most Monitors Won’t Play New HD Video
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122738,00.asp

Activation on beta software that expires. Are those guys crazy?

Distribution : BillG keynote had a demo with P2P. Why don’t they use it? Hmm. “Do what we say, not what we do.”

Hey Mac User,

Do you really think people switch to a Mac OSX or Linux because of your posts? Every OS I know has beefier system requirements over time, including OSX and Linux (I speak about Red HAt with some experience). Sure you can choose not to install everything with Red Hat, and that’s just great for a lot of people who know what they’re doing.. But the “minimum” keeps getting bigger for everyone..

Besides, if I have a more powerful processor for the same price I paid for a weaker one 3 years ago, why *wouldn’t* I want to take advantage of it?

Mac User, what exactly was the point in that?
Are you just trying to give the Mac community a bad name?
Don’t you have anything else to do with your time?

BTW, office 2007 is fantastic, i’m loving word, exel and powerpoint, nice work guys(-:

I’m now using IE7, WMP11, playing with the expression stuff and now office 2007 and I haven’t had a real problem with any of them. Although i’m having a few problems getting vista beta 2 installed on my laptop at the moment so maybe my lucks ran out.

“Scoble – You know MS is the only organization that would even get close to admit to that!”

Of course, MS is about the only organization that demands activation too.

@13 Whether Office2007 is fantasic or not is not Mac User’s point.

Anyone remember Office97? That’s his point. Thankfully MS has apparently learned it’s lesson from that fiasco.

There is some bit of truth to his comparison between the MacOS and Windows regarding MTBF, ease of use and time to boot.

“do you build services that support millions of downloads per day? We’re hiring!”

I do, but I don’t do it using Windows. I can do it using any flavor of *nix. Plus, M$ has the rap of being a crummy place to work if you’re a plain old implementer and paying below market salaries.

I’ve read enough mini to know I don’t want to work there.

Quick question: does that mean, then, that the activation servers and the download servers are one and the same?

I’d have figured they’d be separated, to be honest!

I’m glad they actually admitted it rather than blame it on “xyz” problems… Honestly though, I’m surprised that there is enough interest to make that type of impact.

Note to MS: If you plan on making so much of your software ‘phone home’ then you had better make sure you’ve got the back-end ready to support it. It really makes you look bad when not only can’t you deliver a product on time (vista?), but you can’t handle the reg load…

“That would explain why I was not able to activate our client XP machines today!”

And here’s why I hate this activation crap.

Today you couldn’t activate because the servers were overloaded… What happens a couple years down the road when you can’t activate at all because the activation servers for XP are down? You can’t use an OS you paid for.

Meanwhile, pirates go about happily installing and using XP / whatever software because they have a release that has the activation system removed or cracked.

A major inconvenience to real users. A non-issue for pirates. Activation of this sort just sucks.

“That would explain why I was not able to activate our client XP machines today!”

And here’s why I hate this activation crap.

Today you couldn’t activate because the servers were overloaded… What happens a couple years down the road when you can’t activate at all because the activation servers for XP are down? You can’t use an OS you paid for.

Meanwhile, pirates go about happily installing and using XP / whatever software because they have a release that has the activation system removed or cracked.

A major inconvenience to real users. A non-issue for pirates. Activation of this sort just sucks.

Free betas! Sweet! I joyously contribute to the activation server overload.
Now, to try to run this baby on WinE…

Hello, Really cool information…Thankyou!!!!
absolute pleasure to read it, instead of reading
all that crap which is floating about on blogs.
Looking forward to more posts from you…….