It sure is an annoyance. But you know what? We brought it on ourselves. I know very, very few people who actually bought Windows XP. The few I know actually bought it already pre-installed. And I do live in a wealthy country.

You go into torrent sites and you find zillion of modified versions of XP. Some don't need serial number, some are heavily modified as TinyXP. Some are even live, not to mention the ones that come with thousands of illegal software.

So yes, what Microsoft is doing, is no different from when you buy a DVD movie and have to read all about how piracy is illegal (and often can't be skipped also), while the ones downloading the movie don't have to keep up with that crap. And guess what? The ones downloading Vista illegally don't have to keep up with that crap either.

There are even idiots on the youtube.com teaching how to download and install illegal versions of Windows.

Every copy protection out there is a big failure, in my honest opinion. All the games I buy for Windows has some nasty thing on it nowadays. That is not a problem for the ones downloading the games.

So yes, every company out there is going crazy with ways to stop piracy. I personally feel bad when I have to go to Microsoft.com and prove them that I did not steal Windows through Windows Genuine Advantage checks.

Again, this is all the fault of idiots out there who instead of using free alternative like Linux, steal software.

And I hope they close youtube.com someday too, because it is widely misused by dick heads.

The sad part is, that only the legit users got that because all the pirates had it cracked so it wouldn't do that, WGA is a pretty big failure

Yup, every copy protection is a failure and only annoy the ones that paid for the software. Mod-chips on consoles, cracks for games, WGA bypass programs, programs to change serial number of other programs... it is not possibly to effectively stop piracy this way.

The funniest part though, is when the average Joe and his partner, the n00b Bob, go to a torrent site trying to find a way around WGA and download a virus, install it, even though their anti-virus (which they did not pay for) says it is a virus, then their computers get all screwed and they say Windows (which they did not pay for either) is insecure. Priceless.

But the point I was trying to make, is that you can't trust an operating system that can be controlled by a corporation that isn't entirely trustworthy

I read it. I should perhaps explain that when I got my first computer 2yrs ago it (64bitAMD) came with XP Media edition.

When I read the licensing agreement I checked "don't agree" and could not use my new purchase. I was furious at MS. Imagine buying a new truck and having to agree you won't modify or let an employee drive it home sometimes. No aftermarket stereo, no chopping the frame, no nothing. No driving it offroad or even out of the Microsoft Amusement Park!

I went straight to Borders (bookstore) - 100 mile trip - And bought a bunch of computer books. Paid more than the computer.

But, I learned about Linux and installed it and was very happy to use it.Open source is what computing is really about! I am accessing this site with the "ice weasle" browser, so you can see where my interests and loyalties lie. I also believe that eventually opensource will dominate the industry.

Personally, I have never met a beer I did not like - although blueberry beer came close.

Similarly, I have never met an operating system I didn't like - although apple/mac or whatever you call it came close.

I was given an apple/mac desktop and later an apple/mac notebook - my first laptop! After trying them out I gave the notebook back and took apart the desktop to scavenge parts. Couldn't use the parts, not even the hard drive or the monitor were compatible with any other machines. Talk about proprietary! Yet mac/apple is a religion! When a machine boots I don't want to stare at an apple with a bite out it - I want to see information scrolling up showing whats happening.

Well, the famous apple (with a BIG bite out of it) taught me to appreciate Microsoft (MS) a lot more. So now I continue to fool with it. My wife uses windoze at work - design - so we have it at home. She showed me Quickbooks for my business so now I have in my office. Eventually I expect Quickbooks to be ported to linux, but while MS is dominant I'll continue to fool with it.

Back to the thread, VISTA is more like linux than the rest of windows. You can set it to have no bootscreen - it just scrolls up the info that's being processed. When my first vista booted up I could not believe the desktop background - looked copied in "feeling" from the linux "aurora" background - my favorite.Yesterday I downloaded Knoppix 5.1 from a mirror in Germany and was pleased to see the screenshot was an alpine lake with mountains in photo clarity - copied in artistic feel from one of vista's desktops! This is now my desktop and I really like it.

Of course I don't like MS's policies but most of their snooping is to keep your OS up to date and your machine protected. Most people need that done and it helps defeat crime on the internet - a very good thing.

To sum up, I like linux the most but find vista to be the best windows yet. Don't like so called "bloat"? Then why don't you only use "damn small linux"? I like big and powerful. Yes, my big trucks use more fuel. But, they do more work and earn more money.

It is true. But then again, which company can be fully trusted? Or government? MS is no better or worse than a lot of companies out there. They just happen to be bigger than many...

Very good post Miah. I just wanted to point out that the above is also possible with XP. It can be accomplished by two different ways:

1 - Start >> Run. Type "msconfig". On the "BOOT.INI" tab, check "NOGUIBOOT" checkbox.

2 - Alternatively, you can add the line "/noguiboot" on your boot.ini file.

Unlike many believe, it is possible to tweak the heck out of WinXP. The problem is that it is not very clear how to fine tune Windows as it is tune up a Linux box. But, the majority simply assumes that it is not possible to tweak Windows and say it is not flexible.

My major is IT, so I'm subscribed to MSDNAA by default. For those of you who don't know what that is, MSDNAA allows you to download certain Microsoft products for free, including Vista Business. So, I sat down, downloaded it and install it.

At first, I though my hard drive was going to die because of how much Vista was using it. However, after some googling, I found some tweaks that greatly reduced it. Now, Vista is running pretty smooth and the hard drive no longer has spurts of heavy access. Even the drivers worked flawlessly.

Should Microsoft have kept Vista for a few more months? I think so. However, with a little TLC, Vista is nowhere near as bad as the Microsoft bashers make it out to be.

That may be true. However, at least some of the "Microsoft bashers" tried Vista in it's early release stages, and the problems were so overwhelming that MS offered extended support for XP to those who tried Vista and couldn't use it. But MS is still to blame for that move, mostly because of the marketing hype they invested in it, as well as releasing it before it was truly ready.

As for me, no I won't be buying Vista. I've had nothing but headaches from MS products since Win98, even after all the security patches and bug fixes were installed. I've been happily MS-free for 16 months now, and you couldn't pay me to use Windows again. (But that's not a knock against those who do.) ;)

Cheers

You missed my point entirely, first off, they don't need WGA to update your computer, thats what windows update is for. Second off how does WGA keep your machine protected? Third off, how does it defeat crime on the internet, if you read the article, I'm pretty sure it says that only legitiment users were affected, while the people who pirated didn't get effected, so it does not really do anything. Also, how is vista powerful? and how does it do more work and earn more money? I don't normally care too much about bloat, but when you need 16 gb of harddrive space to play solitare I think thats getting a bit far.

Does Vista still have those hidden index.dat and cookie files? Does one still need to buy a defragger to clean them out?

I will probably "buy" vista at one point, having it preinstalled on a new laptop.. :( I'd love to buy a dell to support their decision of putting ubuntu in their programme, but they don't offer it where I live...

I don't ever plan on buying it. I am happy with linux.

Windows comes with one AFAIK

Sure, it has a defragger - but the nice thing is it does not clean up all those hidden files that most people are not even aware of since they are so well hidden.