h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had a bit of an unintentional dig at Apple yesterday, so I suppose it's only fair to point out some failings of Microsoft.

As I've said, I've been rebuilding my desktop because it's a few years old and has had a fair hammering this last year. When Windows 7 came out, I went out and bought it. Normally my operating systems have come preinstalled on the machine and will last until I buy a new machine. But I was so impressed with the difference that Win7 made to speed and usability that I went out and bought it. And not just for the desktop either. I've also got a laptop and both me and the better half have netbooks. So I bought a single, and a family 3 pack upgrades. Great.
Now, when I recently had to reinstall everything on the desktop because the hard drive burned out, it asked me once again to activate my copy of Windows. Not a problem. This week, new motherboard, processor and memory, well it seemed to determine that was a new computer. So it asked me to activate it again, okay I can do that. It then rejected my licence. I had the box sat in front of me, the shiny sticker saying it was genuine. But it decided it wasn't, and if I wanted to prove it was I could phone a free number. You bet I did.
Five minutes of typing in long number sequences later, I get asked how many computers it was installed on, well it's three. I bought the pack. The single's on the laptop. I dutifully type that in and am told the licence isn't valid for more than one computer.

Argh. I thought I must gave got the boxes mixed up at some point, so I changed the licence key and phoned up again. And again, not valid on more than one machine.

Ridiculous.

So what did I do? I went through the button pressing again and lied, it's only on one machine, honest.

That it seemed was okay, it gave me an activation number that I typed in, and we were away.

I know Microsoft have a problem with piracy, but seriously, if you treat every customer like a potential criminal as I felt, and make it so it's actually easier to install pirated versions, then is it any wonder that people do?

I've not finished upgrading the desktop yet, I want to get a solid state drive for the operating system to sit on. But thats going to mean yet another reinstall,.and I don't actually know if my legitimate, paid for operating system will allow me to install it again.

I should reinstall my Windows but I'm too lazy.

yes but it's that or linux and to be honest all this open sorce stuff is a bit smug for my liking,

Oh it will only take you this long to learn how to use it....
well I dont want to relearn how to use a computer, and all my rather expensive programs work on windows... so no I think I'll skip your free opensource software...

but there are no viruses on linux... tosh utter utter tosh

The 'no viruses' thing is always a matter of perception overtaking fact.

Lots of news reports about viruses affecting Windows-based systems.
No reports of the same happening to OSX or Linux-based systems.
Therefore all viruses only affect Windows-based systems.

I think I'm saving Linux up for the next post

I have nothing to say. I'm just learning.

I've been running Linux for years and I've never had any viruses. I don't have any anti virus software running either and none of the headaches that come with it. I'm thinking about purchasing a new laptop soon. There's nothing wrong with the one I have, but it's a few years old and I'd like a higher res screen. If I do get a new one, I'll make it dual boot able with Ubuntu Linux the default. As much as I love Linux, I must admit I do struggle when I want to install new programs on it. No matter how explicit the instructions I find are, they assume I know more than I do and I'll skip some obvious command line step. I've rarely ever d/led a trz file and managed to get it installed. I really should buy a Linux for Dummies book.

Can't remember having a virus on any of my PCs or netbooks/laptops (windows), since ... since dialup and before, when I was using DOS and err whatever version of windows that might have been... back in the day when the virus came to you on a disc someone gave you The firewall thinggy on the wireless router seems to deal with most nastys, and what makes it through seem to be dealth with by avast and addaware and spibott..

The Stupid Windows licencing thing is annoying; if I recall correctly the licence of the copy with XP anyhow, used to be tried into the Mac address on any network or dialup card in the machine, plus somethign to do with the harddrive and some other bit of hardware... I actually had to buy a new copy of XP at one point when the machine was entirely rebuilt with the possible exception of the case, fans and PSU and probably the optical drives I'm going to throw caution to the wind when I finally get upgraded to 7 and try get a multiple machine/install version, as the four or five XP discs I have laying about can't have been the most cost effective way to do it

Had a similar problem when the PS3 died last month. Many games come with 'activation codes' now that allow you to only use their internet capabilities on one or two machines. So you put the game on the new PS3 you were given to replace the dead one, and you can no longer use the network features. But if you're lucky, you can buy an activation code for eight quid for the game that you already bought and are still only using on one machine...

I was reading just the other day that the next generation of game consoles like the XBox 720 will not allow playing used games.

I find this incredibly wrong. I buy a game, it is mine. If I choose to sell that game to someone else, it is theirs. Why can I not do this? Are we now supposed to be purely renting the software?

Here's the article I was reading. http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/01/xbox-720-used-games/

One word: money.

Guess that puts a lot of people like Blockbuster out of the games rental business too. I won't be buying a next gen console if they take all my rights away.