Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 7th Sep 2008 20:23 UTC
Probably one of the most hated parts of Windows are its anti-piracy measures - product activation and Windows Genuine Advantage. While most people acknowledge Microsoft's right to implement these measures, many have also been bitten by the measures' shortcomings, such as server outages or false positives. Microsoft blogger Ed Bott has been monitoring WGA since its inception, and in 2006 and 2007 he didn't give a passing grade to WGA ("a big fat F"). This year, the situation has improved somewhat, earning Microsoft a passing grade - barely.
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Member since:
2005-06-29
I've had vastly differing experiences with activation in the past. I've had XP (Pro OEM, legit) allow a motherboard change without a need to reactivate. Then again, I've had it force a reactivation on adding a hard drive controller card (ATA, not RAID) along with a video card, both installed at the same time. I was tempted to simply download a cracked copy (I personally refuse to use the word "pirated" to describe anything that doesn't involve a man with an eyepatch and cutlass stealing goods in international waters). I was tempted, but instead I decided to go back to Unix-derived operating systems since the only appeal Windows held was a wider selection of video games.
Apart from a laptop that came with XP preinstalled, I've only dabbled with Windows when necessary in the past few years. What little gaming I do can be done in OS X and Linux, and I've gotten so comfortable with the workflow on the Mac that I feel lost on a Windows box now. I have yet to find an email program that comes close to the balance of simplicity and usefulness of Mail.app, and I'll approach nirvana when the rest of the Unix world obtains the equivalent of Disk Utility.