XP and Vista question

[Bob Warren]

Kay C Lan wrote:

>Was falling into that same dream that Vista had ended piracy and that would
bring the PC world to a watershed moment of deciding to Buy or go Unix. Was
bought back to reality just yesterday when talking to a work colleague who
mentioned he was on Vista. The first 'real' Vista user I've met. He was
enjoying it and only had a couple of compatibility problems. When I asked
him if he thought it was going to markedly reduce the piracy in the local
computer malls, he just smiled. Turns out he's been using a pirated copy of
Vista since day 1!

So apart from the 'developers' on this List who I assume are using legal
copies, 100% of the 'home users' I've met using Vista are using Pirated
copies (you can argue anything with statistics;-)

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Oh dear, that IS bad news. Of course, it all depends on what Microsoft decide to do about it in the future. Will they allow pirating of Vista or not? All they have to do is to get in through the Internet and disable it - and they can probably do it "legally". I know this can happen because I've seen it done with somebody's XP. Of course, the facility in pirating Windows itself says nothing about how easy or difficult it will be to pirate other software under Vista. But I don't suppose it will be too difficult for those with the expertise and motivation to achieve it.

Perhaps in the end, though, this is a healthier situation for Linux. People need to migrate because Linux is a better system than Windows, not only because it is cheaper. So now the Linux people have to try even harder to prove its superiority beyond doubt. Personally, the fact that I am totally free of all those horrible viruses and spyware is sufficient for me to prefer Linux, and I doubt whether the new sooper dooper security arrangements of Vista will be sufficient to hold back the flood for long.

Bob