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From: Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.arch.embedded,alt.comp.hardware,comp.lang.c++,comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Windows XP gotchas
Date: 28 Mar 2002 15:17:05 GMT
Organization: Aachen University of Technology (RWTH)
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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In comp.os.msdos.djgpp Adam Anderson <adam DOT anderson AT start DOT com DOT au> wrote:
> So what exactly does remote control mean?
> Looks like everyone with USB Keyboards will have to get an XP licence for
> the Code in the keyboard microcontroller.

No.  Not even if it's a wireless keyboard sitting behind the wall in a
neighboring room.  Or a console switching hardware as used for
multiple servers in one rack or otherwise close to each other.

Remote control means: operating the machine from some other machine.
Like around 99% of all Unix boxes are operated entirely remotely,
using Telnet or SSH --- Unix sysops practically never leave their
office unless there's actual hardware to replace.

Remember that study about WWW server downtimes?  One of the less
speculative reasons for why the average IIS-driven site took
considerably longer to come back up again than Apaches was that once
the server was noticed to be down, the average IIS operator has to get
out of his chair, walk to the actual server machine and restart the
server.  And feel lucky he doesn't have to pick up the phone to
convince somebody in the outsourced or remotely located server
location to do it for him.

A Unix admin with even half a brain would type in an equivalent of
"ssh myserver /etc/rc.d/httpd restart" and that's it.  *That's* the
difference remote control makes, really.  Admins can leave their
running shoes at home, because they will never again have to whizz all
around the building to install a Office on someone's PC.

> Oh hang on I've assumed that the licence agreement is read and understood
> and enforced and cared about etc...

You may not have read and understood it.  But you should think again,
*very* carefully, if you actually believe it will never be enforced.
Never is an awfully long time to plan forward for.

Sure, it will probably not be enforced tomorrow, and not next year.
Just wait until, one day, M$'s multi-million-dollar funded legal
department takes a fancy that they would like to sue you (probably for
an entirely unrelated actual reason).  If they then find out about
this one, you're *toast*.  And with all that phoning home XP
reportedly does, you will never quite know if they don't already have
that information about you stored away someway.  These dinosaurs _are_
known to be hoarding ammunition.


-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.