Vista piracy?

[unixronin]

"Microsoft says Vista's piracy rate is half that of XP."  Duh!  They had to let vendors keep offering XP on new computers because so many people didn't want Vista.  Who's gonna steal it?

Actually, it reminds me of a cartoon in the back of New Scientist some 30 years ago.  It concerned a fictional company that produced "NuFoods" with names like Chisp and Cheem, made from ... well, let's not go there.  The dialogue went something like this:

"Some vendors are actually displaying NuFoods at the front of the store in preference to their own brands."

"They're selling well, then?"

"... Actually, they're hoping people will shoplift them."

Comments

[arasirsul.livejournal.com]

That actually surprises me some-- I would've thought everyone who wanted XP had already pirated it by now, where Vista'd pick up some piracy from the "Well, can it possibly be THAT bad? I s'pose I'll go download a copy and find out."

Of course, Linux's piracy rate dwarfs both. If Microsoft wants to tout great anti-piracy measures, perhaps they need to rethink their strategy...

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Pirating Vista seems to me to be a crime somewhat along the lines of stealing a Yugo. Why would you bother?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of a letter to Car and Driver following a review of the Lamborghini Countach 5000S in which one test-driver commented that you could buy a Yugo for the price of the Countach's optional rear wing. One reader wrote in and replied, "Yeah, but I'd rather have the Countach's rear wing on my livingroom wall than a Yugo in my driveway."

And then there's the Lee fisher story.

True story: Lee Fisher's car broke down in Redmond one day, leaving him stranded. He got it towed to a dealer, but then had to get home and get to work until they got it fixed. So he went wandering around every car rental office in Redmond, looking for a car. Every single office was completely sold out, until he got to the one where he asked "Do you have any cars available for rent?"
"Uh, not exactly," replied the sales agent.
"What do you mean," asked Lee, "'not exactly'? Either you have a car, or you don't."
"Well, you see," said the agent, "we don't have any cars, but we do have this Yugo."

Lee decided that if they "didn't exactly" consider it a car, he "didn't exactly" want to rent it...

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Joking aside, I've heard a theory that Yugos weren't really much worse than any other cheap car of the period (e.g. Chevy Chevette, American-spec Ford Escort, Renault 5/Le Car, early Hyundais). There were two things that really killed them:

1. Lack of parts availability. The factory was located in Sarajevo, and not long after the cars were sold in the U.S., there was this little unpleasantness that went on there.
2. Many of them suffered from lack of maintenance. This happens to many inexpensive cars. Many of the less-well-off buyers who are the target demographic for the Yugo and other entry-level new cars stretch their budgets in order to afford the car payments and fail to budget adequately for maintenance and repairs. Maintenance gets deferred and the car suffers as a result.

[tabbifli.livejournal.com]

There was also a minor issue with leg and head room. They were built more to the average height of a Slavic male - which is about 5'7". This is just above the average height of a Western female and shorter than the average height of a Western male at 5' 10".

Although I understand that they had decent *shoulder* room, and corresponding hip room, most people don't choose to drive with their knees up around their ears.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

That's actually a "feature" of traditional Fiat ergonomics--pedals up close, steering wheel far away. The Yugo was essentialy a Yugoslavian-made Fiat 127.

[tabbifli.livejournal.com]

Heh. Talek and I have the occasional issue with having just one car, after the seat's been screwed up when work's gotten done. I'm usually the one who fetches it, and he always complains that a long-legged broad has been driving the car (this while we're finding the compromise position between his preferred ears & knees driving and my long-legged driving).

Having a Fiat or Yugo would send both of us mad. He wouldn't mind the layout so much, but the lack of headroom would have us both constantly ducking, and I could never get into the darn thing. The last time I comfortably fit into a Fiat was when I was 12, and that was getting iffy (it was too short for my legs back then, too).

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

this is one reason I love my car: power seats with three-position memory. If someone else has been driving it, all I have to do is hit a button and the seats and mirrors return to where I left them. And I'm 5'7" and have *really* short legs, so the seat almost always ends up too far forward for most people.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason I want to trade in the Intrepid against an XC70 when budget permits. (Memory seats, tilt and telescope wheel, most comfortable 4+ door car I've driven, AWD, sane wheel size that doesn't force spending absurd amounts of money just to buy a set of tires, all the winter driving ability I need without having to buy a bloody SUV, large-cargo hauling ability, built-in booster seats, separate climate control for left and right front seats, 3-point belts in all rear-seat positions, hand-operated parking brake instead of a foot-pedal that I can't operate properly¹ — or reach without pain — with my screwed-up left foot ... the list just goes on.)


[1] Currently, I'm forced to use the following parking brake application technique: Hold main brake with right foot, reach down with left hand, depress parking brake pedal as far as I can with left hand, enabling me to get left foot on parking brake pedal, depress pedal as far as I can get it with left foot, transfer right foot from brake pedal to parking brake, push pedal home the rest of the way.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I feel I really should point out that as of next July we won't need booster seats anymore.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

True. But the Volvo's built-in boosters would still let Pirate and Wen see out better.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I hate foot-pedal-operated parking brakes. Damned inconvenient, those. Especially with a manual transmission.

The 3-series I have comes with 17" rims. The latest evolution of the car comes with 18" rims standard with an option for 19". Ugh.

[tabbifli.livejournal.com]

We have an older Contour (our mechanic is frequently heard to comment that we have the best maintained Contour on the planet), which has power seats on the driver's side, but no memory. It's beginning to let us know it's old and getting cranky and would like to be retired soon, so we're probably going to start looking at new cars in the next year or so.

On thing we're both agreed on is, if at all possible, position memory in the seats. I really need to drive a little farther back so my hip and legs don't cramp up, and he'd like to be a little more sitting straight. The really funny thing in all of this is that his legs are a little bit longer than mine are (he's 6'0", I'm 5'10" and frequently wear heels), but I'm the stretchy one.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's beginning to let us know it's old and getting cranky and would like to be retired soon,

Yeah, the Intrepid too. The front suspension is making groaning "I need lube" noises, but Dodge didn't see fit to provide grease fittings. One of the power window servos is all but dead, which requires tearing the door apart. All the door weatherseals have shrunk away from the frame, and the trunk weatherseal is in shreds across the trunk lip. And it's had a succession of niggling electrical problems almost since we got it (the current niggling electrical problem is that the fog lights work when they feel like it, and not otherwise). We won't buy another Chrysler-Dodge car, and in fact I think we're pretty much soured on all the US manufacturers at this point.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of that generation of subcompact econoboxes were pretty horrible. And heck, look at where it came from - it was a big, big step forward over a Trabant.