Fucking M$

I am trying so damn hard to go legit.  Why can't they just make it easy?

This damned Windows Genuine Advantage BS really pisses me off.  Yes, I know that the copy of XP Pro "corporate" I am using has been compromised.  Yes, I know that the license that I recieved has expired.  You honestly don't need to tell me every ten seconds by opening a bubble pop-up.

I'll toss a clue out there for you M$, there are two reasons people pirate software: 1) Because it's WAY overpriced.  2) Just to see if they can get around whatever anti-piracy crap there is.  Just ask Ubisoft, they got hit with both 1 and 2.

M$ is definitely guilty of overpricing.  Just look at the price difference between Home and Pro.  Then try and find out what makes Pro so much more expensive...   My brand new legit copy of XP Home was bought after much soul searching and I really couldn't find a good reason to drop the extra $100 .

And because they are the big boy, they walk around with a target tattooed to their chest.  I can't help but point out that Win98 was exceedingly easy to install on multiple machines, and M$ did not go out of business.  And M$ became a GIGANTIC corporation with the childishly easy to copy DOS and Windows 3.11.

It's an old story, they are counting every single instance of piracy as a lost sale.  Not the correct paradigm.  There are a good many people that if you magically made it impossible to steal an M$ OS would not buy it.

My suggestion to M$ is to lower the price, that encourages people to just buy the damn thing.  I'll even bet that if it was $40 for Home and $60 for Pro, they would see a large enough increase in sales volume to make up for the reduced price.  The second suggestion I have is to make no attempt to prevent piracy.  And the reason I suggest this method is: PEOPLE ARE PAYING FOR LINUX!!!!  Linux is out there FOR FREE but people will still call up NewEgg, or Staples or Best Buy and drop their hard earned on it.

I will admit my original reason for buying a legit copy was because the version I am running currently was not going to survive major hardware changes (new motherboard), but why couldn't this shit waitTHREE MORE FUCKING DAYS FOR THE GODDAMN HARD DRIVE TO GET HERE????

So now I must do the "build a completely new machine" thing with a blank drive and new motherboard.  Joy of joys.

Please excuse my use of the Franch Language.

Oh, and Windows Genuine Advantage?

The only advantage I can see to having a legitimate copy is getting the stupid bubble to stop popping up.

I bought my legit copy of XP before this cutesy little trick.

My next upgrade will be enough machine to run my games with an emulator on Linux.

Congratulations M$! You really created a future customer with this.