Woundup Whistler beta requires product key, IE6 escapes

And Dell pulls plug on Win95...

As reported earlier here in the Woundup, Microsoft has begun cracking down on who actually gets Beta 2. Today, Microsoft announced that beginning with Whistler Build 2419, a product key will be required to complete the installation. This key will work with all versions of Windows, including Personal, Professional, Server, and Advanced Server.

Could someone please tell me how this is going to cut down on piracy? Web sites and the press will still get their hands on it somehow or another, it's just one more long number to copy down when someone burns a copy. I recently sent out an e-mail to Microsoft concerning this issue, and hope to receive a response soon. But 2419 seems to have escaped already anyway.

Internet Explorer 6.0 Build 2403 has been leaked! At Microsoft's request, the file has been taken down from The-Ctrl-Alt-Del.com Web site, but they still have several screenshots which show that IE6's UI isn't much different from IE5.5. The temporary download was only for Windows 2000, and no Windows 9x version, which suggests IE6 will only be available with Whistler, as reported earlier last week.

I received several e-mails concerning the name for Whistler and Blackcomb. Whistler won't have much .NET integration in it, but rather will focus on both getting the consumer more interested in it, and enterprise more trusting of its capabilities. Blackcomb will be fully .NET integrated, and will contain all of Microsoft's Next Generation Windows Service (NGWS), which was revealed late last year. Therefore, that cancels out Whistler being called Windows.NET and Office 10 being called Office.NET. We won't be seeing the .NET names until late 2002.

Late last week I received an e-mail from a Dell PC tech about Windows 95 no longer being installed nor supported by them. "The notice itself said the words Dell 'is required to' halt distribution of Windows 95. However there was some wiggle room that if a customer really wanted it, something could be worked out but on an almost individual basis." Finally, Windows 95 has become extinct like its father, Windows 3x.

Continuing the I-don't-know-hacker-lingo saga, Mr. Mcguire said the following, "Indeed, given that most of your major stories are hacker/cracker related then I would suggest you either get up to speed with the lingo or move into a field that actually interests." I actually don't remember reporting anything about hackers and/or crackers in the Windows Woundup. Thanks to my fellow Woundup supporters, Mr. Ross came to the rescue with: "Yeah, yeah and 'gay' means 'of a sunny and cheerful disposition'. Mr. Maillet would have been inarguably right thirty years ago; twenty years ago, technically correct; ten years ago, plain pedantic." I don't know what I'd do without you guys!

Geo had a nice idea for the Windows UI, "A virtual whorehouse with various rooms containing fish.NET stocking clad babes who, when you double click their breasts, launch Microsoft Office products." Hey, works for me.