Hello, this is Microsoft, please bend over... Ok, I'm quite upset at the moment. After a few months of getting a message that my Windows Media Player was out of date, I decided to bite the bullet and download the new version... despite what problems that might bring. I figured that they must have some snazzy improvements - or at the very least, would get rid of that darn message every time I want to watch a video.

I'd like to tell you that everything worked out for the best. I'd like to tell you that everything went smoothly. I'd like to tell you that I'm very happy with the new version. But I can't.

I'm really not in the mood to go into many of the details, but I'll just sum up by telling Microsoft one simple thing... THIS VERSION OF WINDOWS IS INDEED GENUINE!!!!!

I'm very upset. I bought a Gateway a few years back and have been using it for simple computing, video watching and web surfing... that’s about it. I've been tempted to install Linux, but quite frankly could not be bothered... Windows was working fine. Mind you I have the OEM RESTORE CD that came with the PC... but now Microsoft claims that this copy of Windows is not genuine. Bastards! Seriously.

So what do I do now? Well, the way I see it, I have three options.... 1)Try to resolve this with the wonderful folks at Microsoft... 2)Find a crack / work-around to the problem... or 3)Install Linux. The irony is that all three options would probably take an equal amount of time and effort. So what do I do now?

Quite frankly I'm looking at the situation and realizing the irony of it all... Microsoft has spent so much time and effort policing their crappy software, that they are actually driving their clients away. Perhaps a few years ago it was a different case, in which the majority of users really did not have much of an option due to experience or confidence, but today... it’s as easy as downloading a file, burning a CD and turning on the computer.... THAT’S IT.

Geeeeeeeeeeee.... I wonder which option I will choose. Oh yeah, the one that will NOT cause me more problems and headaches in the future. Plus, since Linux is obviously going to be 'the' next OS, I might as well start learning it now. Can't be worse than Windows 3.1, or even DOS... both of which I had struggled through in the past, and let me tell you... the limited exposure I've had to Linux (Ubuntu and xubuntu) has been a lot better than those 'good old days' of computing.

Ok. Fine. That was easy. I now know what to do... install Linux. It takes care of partitioning and everything, so I can keep my Windows until I can transfer all the files and get rid of the old crap...

BTW - while writing this I looked at the Windows 'help' (haha) page regarding the "Genuine Windows Validation'... first off, not much help. Second of all, is gives you 'all' the scenarios in which you’re PC could have 'failed' he test... with one exception - a false positive... or as I am seeing it - MICROSOFT IS WRONG! Well, I guess I must be wrong, cause apparently Microsoft could never be.

Well, on the bright side, I guess I have to thank Microsoft for laying out the red carpet for my journey to Linux. Bye bye Microsoft, hello free-stable-faster Linux. Wait a moment... why had I not done this before?

Labels: Linux, microsoft, OS

  ¶ 6/04/2007 09:38:00 PM