In message , Robert Baer
writes:
wrote:
[]
More importantly XP is an abandoned product. If microsoft thought it
was of value they would support it. I never saw an expiration date on
any microsoft product I bought when I bought it. Them killing it at
some arbitrary date in the future is fraud. I can understand not
supporting it but if they refuse to activate it for a paid up
customer, they are the ones in the wrong and a hack is just justice.

Well, then what about Win3.11, Win95, Win98, Win98SE, etc etc ad nauseum?

Those do not require activation. (I don't think the ones before '95 even
involved an installation key.) The '9x series just required
installation, during which the key was entered - you could (technically
though not legally) use the same key as many times as you liked; I
presume it is because sufficient people did exactly that, that they
implemented the activation thing in the first place, first with OSs,
then (after the 2003 version) with Office. [Other products I don't know
- do they _have_ any other products these days?]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Lewis: ... d'you think there's a god?
Morse: ... There are times when I wish to god there was one. (Inspector Morse.)