microsoft

This weekend, the blogosphere was aflame with reports of Microsofts Genuine Advantage Servers crashing. And on a Bank Holiday weekend, no less.

The Windows Genuine Advantage(WGA) servers are what your Windows XP or Vista installation 'phones home' to in order to verify that you are not using a pirated copy...if the servers think you are, there are various restrictions and warnings placed on your account. All most unpleasant, I'm told, although as a Mac/Linux user I am unbearably smug about such things.

BoingBoing threw petrol onto the fire initially, and when the WGA manager replied to say he couldn't give a time for a fix, why, it seemed to some people like this was the death knell for Microsoft. Treating paying customers like thieves? An outrage!