My daughter has 98 on her computer and loves it.  Of course, she's not a software glutton like I am.  All she has on there is iTunes, WoW, and IE7.

. I have IE 7 and ITunes, Tunes is my kids.. I only use it to rip my own CD's .........actually, I'm the only one that uses it since his IPod mysteriously broke

But yet you can steal it with a clear conscience?

I've also never directly paid for an OS however that means I've indirectly paid for an OEM version by having to either tolerate all the "crapware" that hardware folks put on their machines or spend huge amounts of time stripping it off. That plus then only having a restore disk instead of an installation disk. At least I save a Ghost image of the drive for restoration purposes once I've finished "decrapifying" my boot image.

Paying money for a relatively "clean" installation disk doesn't sound all that bad to me but the next time around I'm more likely to go with a custom built PC and get the OS as part of the system bundle which in this case would still be a restore disk but the restore image would essentially be a vanilla OS installation with the only "crapware" being what M$ puts on it to begin with but you get that with a true install disk anyway.

As far as a price for Win 7, I don't really care at this point. Ask me in a year and if it's still the OS du jour than I may consider moving to it then. I went from 95 directly to XP and so far have had no problem skipping Vista entirely. I see no compelling reason to upgrade at this time, but perhaps in another couple of years I might. Who knows I'll probably be able to skip to Win 8 or even 9. Think of all the thrashing I'll avoid.

 and again pal!

Many levels of tricking [ahhh  AKA --> stealing..] the system... WTF? that's like saying there are many levels of murder [well.. man 1, man 2, but that's not the point]

Stealing is stealing pal, warez is a no-no   and it's pretty dumb to make it publically known, that you are/might be/considering/actually--->  doing it.

Sure, I agree, thing's are WAY over-priced, but it doesn't give you/me/the neighbour/the neighbour's dog/ anyone, the auto-right to thieve it because you/we can't afford it

Seriously, where in the world can you honestly say 'I STOLE THIS LEGALLY'?

^Indeed.

An upgrade version isn't tricking the system, it's there for a purpose. You still pay for it either way, whether it's an upgrade or full version. It's just another option.

Well, since you're in Oz, Tailsgirl, perhaps you're not aware of the United States "bail out" program for a bunch of failed banks and the auto industry and now we come to find out they weren't all that honest about their situations, so, I think the banking institutions could probably say they've stolen the taxpayer's money legally.  Which is maybe how people like CommanderAdama can pirate with a clear conscience.  After all, in his 19 years, what has he had for role models?  Our highest level leaders are completely crooked and it seems like if you watch them carefully, they do it by convincing themselves they aren't doing anything wrong, they deserve to be showered with lovely things they don't have to pay for, and the real trick to pulling it off is acting like there is nothing wrong with doing it (a lot of Jedi mind tricks).

You also have to keep in mind that CommanderAdama, at a ripe 19 years of age, probably doesn't have that much to lose (that he can actually see).  I can't pull that crap off, because I have children and a spouse to feed, house, and be responsible for.  I risk a lot more by attempting borderline activities than he does -- people are counting on me to keep this dog and pony show going.  All he has is himself to be responsible for, so if the law cracks down on him...no big deal.  He either gets hung with a big fine to pay, or goes to jail...still no biggy for a 19-year-old -- especially if he doesn't have a GF or other romantic interest.  Just one more institution to do his time at, make friends and enemies, exist another day. (plus, and this irks me to no end, if he goes to prison, he gets health care, and higher education access that he wouldn't get by being an upstanding citizen, because the courts view him as underprivileged which is why he committed the crime, so they'll give him opportunities to redeem his life so when he gets out, he won't be in the same circumstances that led him to commit the crime in the first place).  Be that as it may, jail/prison IS a giant anxiety trip (watching your back 24/7, so you don't get jumped or shanked or...other things).

I don't agree with what CommanderAdama implies that he does, but I do understand it.

I understand it too Karen, and I've downloaded a sh!tlload of warez in my day...   hey, I'm honest about it.. but I've grown up, and out of that, and c'mon, who hasn't downloaded a crack for something.... , but after many a virus, and guilty conscience.. and 15 or so years on... despite being not so well off.. I find it more rewarding to pay for something when I've got the money.... then -->  I OWN it.. legit, and that's the way I want it.

 

I have also raised a son on my own... but that doesn't give me the A-O-K to steal the next OS.

A properly organised XP start menu is twenty times faster and easier to use than a Vista start menu:-

No clicking and scrolling to get where you want. Just one click and a mouse move.

And if you are in the wrong place, simple, just move your mouse - no click, click, scroll, click, click, scroll...

i am a student at my university, and we have discount prizing for students, especially on MS products.  To give you an idea, MS visual studio pro 2008 costs around 1036 dollars canadian.  For us, we only have to pay 106 dollars canadian.  So windos 7 will be peanunts to me anyways, probably less than 50 dollars for me.

I haven't.... have seen/read about too many issues/potential issues to even consider it.

Besides, I have piss-poor bad luck doing everything legit, so I'd be bound to be caught doing something non-legit and have it cost me thrice the price and more.

Not only that, my mother taught me not to steal by frog-marching back to Woolworths for stealing a plastic toy chicken when I was a 4 y/o.... even at that tender age it was too embarrassing, not to mention too scary, to ever contemplate doing it again.

Sadly it's a sign of the times, that the current trend towards leniency within the judicial system filters down though society and far too many kids today are not being disciplined in a way that would help them think twice about doing wrong.  It's like the family I know of who advocated stealing and the like by encouraging shoplifting and taking their kids on night-time raids of Lifeline and St Vinnies charity bins. When confonted about what they were teaching their children, all we got was: "They're just kids, what can the law do to them?"  So, not only were these parents teaching their kids wrong, they were wrongly teaching them that they are immune to the law and there are no consequences to worry about.

It might be considered un-Australian to dob anyone in, but people like this make me sick because the kids suffer and honest society ulimately ends up paying more, so yeah, I and a few others went to the cops... hopefully the 5 years jail they got for the corruption minors under the age of 12 will teach them in future to teach their children well.

 

ROFL.. Is good to see I am not the only one with this memory that still lingers like it was yesterday.. Tho mine was a hot wheel.

Not to start an argument for or against piracy, but it's not about stealing or not, but about the definition of theft, and even so, it's not about legality, but morality. I.e. "Is illegality always amoral?" or "Does copyright infringement equal theft?".

I, for example, can quite easily say "I copied this legally", depending on the circumstances.

Id pay 50 euros. But luckly thanks to my work I get all windowses free with unlimited install. But I probably still stick with XP for half year after Win7 is released. I like my windows simple and clean.