Thursday, November 5, 2009

Activation Frustration? Not With Linux!




Yesterday's blog post illicited this comment from an anonymous reader:

"And don't forget... No product activation!

"I was on my way from New York to Germany. When I arrived in my room, Vista informed me my PC needed activation and would only work for the next day (can't remember the exact message). I don't know what triggered this message, as everything worked fine, and Windows was activated months before. Because I was on a business trip for the next 2 weeks, I could not get my laptop working until I arrived back home. Luckily we were able to transfer my importation documents that evening. What a mess!

"Because of this, I WILL NEVER OWN ANOTHER MS PRODUCT! "

My nephew had a similar experience with his friend's desktop.  Although the laptop had Windows Genuine Advantage and was properly and legally activated, the system locked out the user.  He called Microsoft only to get an automated messaging system.  When he entered the activation code, he was told that the copy of Windows was not legitimate and the technical assistance recording hung up.

Ridiculous!

Sometimes, you need to be a wizard or magician in order to open Windows and get it to work!

If you want to avoid this kind of hassle, simply get Linux.

With Linux, you'll have a free, open source system that will never ask for an activation code or lock you out.  You'll have a wonderful desktop environment with thousands of programs and a welcoming and friendly community of users who will help you get up and running.

And none of those folks is a recording.

Get Linux.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post made me laugh. Last weekend I setup Win7 on my wife's work laptop and her netbook (unbelievably, her company writes scripts only for IE6 and MSOffice). The task took several hours nonetheless.

About midway through the upgrade, my wife finally shut me up with a "All right, all right already!" after I went on and on about how simple and fast it is to install or upgrade a Linux machine and how much faster her netbook would be with a distro like Ubuntu Remix. Hilarious!

With Linux, you don't suffer from proprietary limitations and headaches. There is:
-- No activation
-- No validation
-- No serial numbers
-- No license numbers
-- No product IDs
-- No inevitable support call
-- No forced automatic updates
-- No cost to upgrade (I can upgrade via USB or even network)
-- No cost! (you always get the full version)
-- No "family licenses"
-- No redistribution restrictions (I can share!)

I could go on, but I don't envy my Windows friends this month.

vasiauvi said...

You are right but you can't say that Windows is crap!I've used Windows since 2002 till 2008 when I've installed Ubuntu. I have now dual boot an I'm a very big fan of Linux. The problem is for me now that after upgrade to 9.10 my laptop is blocking/restarting very often in Linux.
Now I'm writing from WindowsXP because it's seems that here is OK for now and the system is stable. I will be back in linux after will appear a new kernel, maybe it will work for me.
When Linux it's making problems you can relay in Windows.
And this is telling a VERY BIG LINUX FAN but a newbie.

Have a nice day!

MSzorady said...

VasiUVI,

The point is, Windows is restrictive and closed. Linux is free (as in 'Freedom")and open.

Regarding your problem with Ubuntu, you may ant to read this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/03/karmic_koala_frustration/

Yo may want to consider PCLinuxOS. I use it and it's terrific!:)
www.pclinuxos.com

MSzorady said...

Zaine,

All great points! as I've pointe dout, I run PCLinuxOS. I use their PASS service and have the latest and greatest in updates. Howeer, you're correct. I f I so choose, I can simply instlall all the software I need, and then just keep it status quo. No one is going to hound me to update anything.

Anonymous said...

PCLinuxOS has long been a great distro. It's the only distro other than Fedora that consistently supports more older and newer hardware than any other.

Phil said...

I have been using PCLinuxOS for exactly a year now and it has NEVER crashed. I borked it myself once when I updated from two repositories at the same time ( Yeah....I know......I was a real dimwit) but I restored the entire system and all my apps in 25 mins from a LiveCd I had made. Try doing that in Windows!.
I still need to run Windows as a special Genealogical application I have will not run in Wine and I can't do without Adobe Acrobat 9.0. However i've discovered the joys of Virtualbox and have installed Windows in it plus my essential Windows applications. It now only takes me 20 seconds to boot into a fully functional Windows if I need it !.
Life is really much better with Linux and PCLinuxOS in particular.

MSzorady said...

Zaine,

Yes, I love PCLinuxOS. It quickly became my distro of choice. One of the big reasons is the community. Very friendly and helpful!:)

Phil,

I've also borked my PCLinuxOS system. And, like you, it was my fault. but, I was amazed at how easy it was to restore things and get everything back up and running! I'm glad you pointed this out. It'll make a great blog post! Thanks to both you guys.:)

Debianero Rumbero said...

@VasiaUVI, Ubuntu is Linux but not all Linux is Ubuntu.

Alas, Ubuntu isn't doing a great job to Linux lately.