>Only two registry settings are needed to switch between these two modes in NT 4.0, and only one setting in NT 3.51. This is extremely significant, and calls into question the related legal limitations
People who know things about software thinking they know things about law (when they do not): a tale as old as time.
The first few times Windows 95 told me that I had performed an "illegal operation" I freaked out and was literally afraid the police were on their way.
Could the bullet time I experienced when I installed Max Payne on Windows 2000 Server been even more bullet timlyer, simply through a reg tweak? Where was this information, three thousand years ago, when I needed it?
BTW, Windows 2000 Server, the most rock solidest OS I've ever used.
Common knowledge at the time (happened to mention it here a day ago [0]). MS just took a leaf from the mainframe makers, who slowed down their systems so they could charge a hefty premium for increasing performance when the customer was desperate ([1]).
It was binning, pure and simple. Microsoft wanted to charge more for server workloads, so they did.
Of course what's happened since is the rise of consumer grade NT systems starting with Windows XP. So these days they bundle a lot of crudware with consumer Windows that they don't with the server editions.
Ah. A simpler time when people were still able to access the operating system internals of products they bought and alter their function without first having to jump through hoops that risked bricking the product they bought.
There’s an irony that the products we buy now which are so thoroughly locked down have learned all the lessons of Windows NT both in terms of product marketing and the security improvements which protect the product companies even more than their users.
“The [Windows NT] ruse was typical of the software giant, a way of artificially shifting a market in its own favor. It could force all web serving onto a more expensive OS while still selling a cheaper version for other tasks. And after Russinovich exposed the practice, releasing a tool that let anyone transform NT Workstation into NT Server, the company responded in typical fashion. Days later, when employees from his New Hampshire company flew across the country to participate in a Microsoft event, Microsoft barred them from the building. But at the same time, the incident managed to bring Russinovich closer to the software giant. Even as his colleagues were shut out of the company, the head of Windows offered him a job.”
People who know things about software thinking they know things about law (when they do not): a tale as old as time.