Vista's so bad no one steals it
 

MICROSOFT sued a bunch of resellers for flogging copies of software they didn't pay it for, the Vole said Tuesday. The company said it filed lawsuits against 21 resellers in 14 states. The lawsuits allege that defendants sold copies of Windows XP and Microsoft Office that didn't have unique product keys.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...sta-bad-steals

Or, perhaps XP is simply much easier to "nick"? ;)

I could have nicked Vista if I wanted, and so can anyone else. I just didn't, which is maybe what the inquirer is getting at :)

There's a difference between nicking it and being able to use that nicked copy normally exactly as if it was legit. ;)

I use a legit version of Vista but I've had so many issues with the DRM locking down the system because it thought it was nicked or the software licensing service screwed itself up that I'd hate to imagine actually trying to use a nicked copy. Vista is simply bloated with DRM services against this.

This is opposed to XP where anyone can use a nicked copy exactly as if it was legitimate and woudn't have to think twice about Microsoft Update or validated downloads or having the OS lock you out of your own computer.

What lead to you being locked out? Was it when validating immediately after install or when using Windows Update? Because as far as I can tell the only time it checks for validity is when doing one of those two things. In which case, turning off auto-update may be a good move so at least you can plan for when it might stop working.

I just bought the Ultimate Upgrade and did the upgrade trick instead of even bothering with pirating it. Didn't seem worth the effort. No WGA issues yet.

You have point there. However note that you mention DRM. That's already one of the reasons I never even bothered.
DRM in music is one of the worst things that ever happened in the scene, imo.

I used Vista Business at my previous job so I know first hand what it's like. That's also one of the main reasons I never bothered to nick it.
But one thing is certain. MS will never see one cent of my money because of Vista and I'm pretty confident that I'm not the only one with that kind of sentiment.

I've had it happen in all sorts of cases, which is what makes it all the more annoying. One install I did not enter a product code because I did not wish to use my key for that specific motherboard. Everything installed great, Vista loaded great. I noticed the clock was way off due to the BIOS clock also being months out of date, which I fixed. I believe this was the cause. I rebooted again shortly after installing drivers and programs, and Vista promptly told me my 30 days had expired and locked me out. That was a very quick 30 days in 1 hour... In this case, Vista locks you out of the entire computer, you cannot access files or anything.

Windows Update, not as sure. This has occured on multiple installations, the Vista Softare Licensing service somehow corrupted itself, so the OS would load and some things would work, but others would not because the OS was disabling features... such as no Control panel, no Admin Tools panel, no Personalize panel, it locks you out of all screens that allow settings or changes to be made. The only way to fix this was to rebuild the product license datastore with the slgr exe, but the keys would need rebuilding after reboots. So even though Vista locked me out of all setting panels and half the programs, it still claimed to be "activated" and legitimate. Best way to describe it, Vista had developed a Dissociative Identity Disorder.

I've been using Vista for about a year now, and I must say I never had one BSOD.
Running fast, stable, fast,....
It does use alot of ram but it seems Bill has done a great job on this OS.
Servicepack 1 made no difference in performance.

Yeah. Well I get plenty of BSODS, most of which directly involve games such as TF2 and could once be attributed to NVIDIA's poor drivers, now no longer the case. The OS is a joke.

I was getting BSOD's in TF2 for a while too. I eventually switched over to Omega drivers and they went away. I still get them in Stalker, but that's just Stalker doing it's thing. :)

I just think nVidia can't write a stable and fast driver for Vista to save their lives. But I guess that's the price you pay for having almost a dozen different cards coming out a few months apart.