a) That they would bring out a ‘Lite’ Windows that just handles the basic management tasks and allowed you to add only the extra bits you actually wanted to use, instead of bundling the whole thing in one giant "lifestyle experience" package.
b) That they’d drop the stupid XP protection system. I constantly change and rebuild my computer and the XP thing is a pain in the neck. I bought XP home (OEM) with all the parts to build a computer about a year ago. I installed XP and ‘activated’ it. Some of my hardware and software wouldn’t run with XP so I uninstalled it a few hours later and went back to 98SE.
Recently, I decided that my gear was now XP compatible so I reinstalled it. Of course my machine has changed beyond recognition in that time, so of course it won’t activate now! I haven’t sold the original machine, just pulled it apart and radically changed it – including a m/board upgrade.
I rang Microsoft and the ‘help’ person gave me the verbal equivalent of a disinterested shrug.
In contrast, a 23 year old friend next door had a pirate copy of XP running on his machine ONE WEEK after its release here. No activation rubbish, and with a few tweaks off the net he’s been able to keep it running beautifully, including successfully updating to SP2.
