Ok almost free you say? Microsoft is planning to ship over a million trial editions of Office XP via retailers, hardware manufacturers and even magazine cover mounts before the final version is available in stores. The 30 day trial version will cost $9.95 in the US, but it also comes with your favorite magazine.
Well 30 days isn't much for $9.95 but if u get it free with a computer mag...
So what's the news? It's a trial version right. Well we all know the security of Microsoft isn't that good. On the internet there is already a universal key available for the final version of Office XP. But:
MS UK anti-piracy chief Julia Philpott however tells The Reg that corporate "worldwide fulfillment product" keys will not work with retail code. |
Ok this code perhaps doens't work. But I am shure that only hours after the release of this trial version hackers will succeed in cracking this version.
It seemed to us that Microsoft is playing an extremely dangerous game here, so we asked about that this morning. The spokesman seemed to think that the universal key routine was a hack (but we hear just the key is needed, no hack). He pointed out, however, that all keys can eventually be cracked (which is the sense of putting in product activation, but if the key itself bypasses product activation...) and that Microsoft's objective was to get the small businesses who run unlicensed copies to pay up, rather than to clean up every last playground. |
So they really know this, but don't care. Well I don't care also. Wouldn't you like your own office XP on a beautiful silver pressed CD with some 'universal' key?
Source: The Register
