Microsoft admits targeting Wine users

Ah ha! So Microsoft admits that they have been targeting Wine users! The funny part is that Wine devs are thrilled to hear it. The reason why is that this proves that MS sees Wine as a real threat. I suppose it is safe to say that this means Wine is doing its job then, huh? Crazy stuff, folks!

Microsoft prioritised making its anti-piracy tool prevent users of Wine, an open source toolkit that allows users to run Windows applications under Linux, from downloading Windows updates, the software giant said on Friday.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet UK it made sure the validation tool used by its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) programme identified Wine users, so that only users are running a genuine version of Windows could download updates and add-on tools.

“As the most popular third-party translation technology in use, Wine was the first emulator to be specifically tested for via WGA,” said the spokesperson. “Microsoft does not knowingly provide copyrighted Microsoft Windows OS files to users of third-party emulators or cross-platform API translation technologies such as Wine.”