Invitation to the Penguin Club......sent by M$

I was not happy with the way M$ installed WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) behind my back and have it "phone-home" to M$ every now and then. I was further upset by the way they claimed that the WGA is infallible and turned a blind eye to the contrary fact.

See this - Image Gallery: What really happens when WGA attacks
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=112&page=1

Not only that, M$ deemed their WGA so successful that they decide to push the envelop further in Vista. Here's what would happen if Vista WGA thinks your OS is pirate:

"By choosing "Access your computer with reduced functionality," the default Web browser will be started and the user will be presented with an option to purchase a new product key. There is no start menu, no desktop icons, and the desktop background is changed to black. The Web browser will fully function and Internet connectivity will not be blocked. After one hour, the system will log the user out without warning. It will not shut down the machine, and the user can log back in. Note: This is different from the Windows XP RFM experience, which limits screen resolution, colors, sounds and other features."

Source: For Vista, WGA gets tougher
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=148

Combining the fact that:
1. WGA detection is not perfect, some ZD bloggers even suggest as high as 20% false positive rate (among those detected as pirate)
2. WGA will phone home at least once a month for critical patch updates
3. It is unclear whether the WGA will get "improvements" (more intrusive) on XP
4. The grave consequence (essentially a kill swithch) of failing the WGA test

The Penguin just looks more and more attractive.

Hello M$, I have the right to use my own hardware that I paid hard-earned cash for. Just because I have to re-format my hard drive doesn't mean I have to buy another copy of your OS, or spend endless hours trying to communicate with an uncomprehensible tech support.

I think I'll get a CD from Ubuntu to test the Linux water. It can be ran from a CD so it doesn't need to be actually installed on the computer.

For more info, see http://www.ubuntu.com/