Microsoft is cracking down on pirating

With the installation of the service pack it will force the user to buy Vista at a pretty reasonable rate:

Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would disable the two primary methods used by software pirates to illegally copy Windows Vista software in the next major update of the operating system.

The world's largest software maker loses billions of dollars to software piracy every year. Microsoft said new features built into Vista are reducing piracy levels by half compared with its previous operating system, Windows XP.

Microsoft plans to improve that one step farther still with changes built into Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the first major update to the operating system, which is due out in the first quarter of 2008.

The company plans to close a loophole that let pirates mimic activation used by some computer manufacturers to install Vista. Microsoft also will clamp down on a method of extending a "grace period" time between installation and activation.

[...]

If a user of pirated software wants to purchase a genuine copy of Windows from Microsoft, they can do so for $89 for the Home Basic version or $119 for the Home Premium version.

Dell Inspiron with XP for $499

If you're looking to avoid getting Vista, you can get a Dell Inspiron with XP for $499. It looks like a pretty decent machine.

InfoWorld's verdict on Vista?

Wait for Windows 7. They're miffed that the service pack didn't clean up the bugs. Shocking! This is Microsoft that we're talking about here.

(via)

BTW, on a personal note: crap! I was hoping (in a wishing on a star type way) the service pack would clean up some of the mess. Now I'm stuck with the bloatware since I bought my Christmas present already and it comes with Vista but only has 1 GB RAM(this seems to be the standard configuration). I'd show you a picture but I can't find it on the Internet. It's a black one of these (mine has a 200 GB hard drive). I decided against the red Vaio because I didn't like the touchpad's buttons, they felt like my daughter's Acer.

Sony VAIO for only $399!

It's normally $799! It has Vista Premium and the following:

* Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core mobile processor T2310 with 533MHz frontside bus, 1MB L2 cache and 1.46GHz processor speed

* 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 memory for multitasking power, expandable to 2GB

* Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media; also supports DVD-RAM

* 15.4" WXGA LCD widescreen display with XBRITE-ECO technology and 1280 x 800 resolution
* 120GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)

I was looking at this computer at the Sony store and thinking about getting it, it's a really nice laptop. The only problem with it is that it should have 2 GB of memory to run Vista properly. The salesperson agreed with me on that. But to upgrade you have to take out the current memory and add two more chips. They didn't leave a slot for upgrading. They know that it would be preferable yet they didn't make it easy to upgrade. And you can't upgrade it online, only at the store. Very dumb!