I hate you Microsoft. I hate you so much.

[tenguzero]

So I've already spent over half an hour at work this morning trying to activate MS Office XP for one of the guys out in production. I'm told I can't do it over the internet, because our company has already activated our multiple copies of Microsoft products too many times, plus the production floor doesn't have internet access outside of the intranet, so I HAVE to deal with doing this over the friggin' phone. So at any rate, I've wasted a chunk of time already this morning (it's a good thing it's still early enough to where support calls only come in very infrequently) and after jumping through hoops trying to read this stupid chain of 54 numbers to an automated voice system, I FINALLY get a support rep on the line, only to be told -- surprise surprise -- that Microsoft's system support tools (apparently what they use for administration or something) are currently down.

What? A Microsoft item down? IT CAN'T BE!! How is such a thing possible!? And it's their own systems nonetheless!

Some would say it's because of piracy that companies are forced to go to these lengths (verifications, activation IDs, etc.) to protect their software. Others would say piracy and cracking tools provide relief for those forced to endure this BS. I say it's probably a which-came-first scenario. I do know, however, that if it weren't for the fact that 90% of the games and hardware on the market are designed to work around Windows-based OSs, I would've completely migrated over to another platform a LONG time ago. Mac hardware is too restrictive for me, and Linux is STILL too spotty for my liking when it comes to hardware support.

Stupid Microsoft. They told me to wait a half hour before I called back, because of their "system issues".

[Muscletang]

Switch to Lynix Red Hat

[travis712]

I love microsoft. Xbox, Xbox 360, Xp, now Vista, there great. I want to partition my HD and try Linux some time.

[tenguzero]

Originally Posted by Muscletang

Switch to Lynix Red Hat

Red Hat is pretty good (I was running that for a time before I switched to SuSE to try it out.) I like SuSE as well though (I really like YaST, and SuSE is very flexible in terms of the eye candy factor ) In addition it is now backed by Novell, which is cool. I'm pretty sure SuSE and Red Hat are the two most frequently compared/contrasted in reviews, as they're both leading distros with a solid company backing them.

I guess the thing that kind of gets to me with the Linux distros, is that I simply don't know Linux as well as I do Winblows, so when something goes wrong it's more difficult for me to address it.

Then again, nothing says "welcome to flavor country" like a nice BSOD at 9 in the morning

Or in this case, product activation (silly me for thinking something like product activation would be an easy process.)

[Oz]

The Corporate edition doesn't require activation.

[2strokebloke]

Damn you Gary Kildall!

I wish you weren't dead, you could have saved us from microsoft...

[Toksin]

Originally Posted by travis712

I love microsoft. Xbox, Xbox 360, Xp, now Vista, there great.

Feel free to die any time.