I find it interesting to go back in time so I read the accompanying article and came across this snippet:

> despite the computing apocalypse that Windows XP's Product Activation features were supposed to ignite, I've never had the first problem with it

At the time, I remember a lot of scare stories about how the Product Activation system in Windows XP would result in the death of user freedom. It didn’t effect me because I was using GNU/Linux (probably Mandrake or Mandriva Linux). When I later got a job in an office that ran Windows XP, I don’t remember XP causing any more headaches than any of its predecessors. If anything, it was even more stable than 2000 which itself was superior to 95, 98 or 98SE.

I also fully agree with the last sentence:

> I do think it's clear that the way we use our computers totally pisses off gigantic, wealthy companies of all stripes, and it was only a matter of time until they tried to do something about it.

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bombcar 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Part of it was that Microsoft was really more concerned with distributors selling computers with pirated copies of Windows, and they basically would activate anything if you were willing to call.

I remember doing it a few times for the "OEM" Windows XP which was cheaper but not supposed to migrate to new machines.

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Anthony-G 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Thanks for that bit of background. That make sense.

I used to think that MS were probably happy with a certain amount of “piracy” (students, voluntary groups, people starting off as self-employed contractors, etc.) because it kept people in their ecosystem (using MS Office and other Windows-only software), helped reinforce the perception of Windows as being the OS for getting stuff done (either work or games) and some of these “pirates” would become future (paying) customers.

	▲	bombcar 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They really were - the biggest things were companies selling PCs with pirated software on them, and larger businesses buying one copy for everyone (where the fabled and famous audits came from). MS was never as big a stickler as Oracle in that regard. Of course, if you were an avowed pirate, nothing even slowed you down.