Why one journalist can't use Vista

[mdlbear]

Microsoft Vista is not an option

What it all comes down to is Microsoft is turning the screw on me too hard. I can't legitimately use its software without becoming a criminal or spending tens of thousands of dollars. If it gives me a truckload of free copies, I will still be spending the majority of my time on the phone with people in Bangalore typing in licence keys to stay legal.

It simply is not worth it anymore, I can't use Vista. Believe it or not, I was pretty neutral on XP, it did what I needed and usually worked in a mostly acceptable fashion. It has been mostly secure because I was not abjectly stupid. I had no reason to switch, but Microsoft has given me the choice of becoming a criminal or going to Linux. In a few weeks, I don't plan on looking back.

Admittedly, he appears to be a hardware reviewer -- not everybody swaps out their motherboard every couple of months, and their graphics card every couple of days. But a few upgrades per year aren't too unusual even in a household like mine where the tendency is to throw a machine into a kid's room and never see it again until the CPU fan dies from an over-accumulation of lint.

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

It's also not true. Vista has almost the same reactivation rules as XP.

Yes, MS did consider something more draconian, but they quickly got the message that doing so would be a big mistake - mainly due to uproar in the overclocking community.

If you have an OEM copy of Vista you can't reinstall on new hardware, but that's the same as XP too...

Charlie's a nice guy, but sometimes he skips a bit on the research.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Don't care if he's short on research or not. He's about to figure out what he's missing, and he's going to broadcast it to the world (warts and all)... this is a Good Thing. (Warts and all? So we know what the heck to fix!)