True, Windows' hardware/driver support database is huge. There really is no dinking around with trying this, that, or the other thing. I have been fighting with an Alpha for weeks trying to get Linux on it. I *know* NT will run on this machine, but what fun would it be to have to baby-sit it all the time because it crashes? While I agree that Windows supports hardware better, it still doesn't take away from the fact that it is a unreliable OS in terms of stability, security, etc. Right, no piece of software is worth $200, especially a buggy one, but $200 is a drop in the bucket compared to some other software packages. I work in a Imaging Facility, and you'd be lucky to get away with less than $40,000 worth of software per server! MS made their billions the hard way, $200 at a time.:) I don't think MS would rather you have a free copy of Windows, they really don't (or didn't) care. They have more important things to do rather than check individuals hard drives. Also, what do you mean by them "pulling their head out of their ass when it comes to NT"??
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True, Windows' hardware/driver support database is huge. There really is no dinking around with trying this, that, or the other thing. I have been fighting with an Alpha for weeks trying to get Linux on it. I *know* NT will run on this machine, but what fun would it be to have to baby-sit it all the time because it crashes? While I agree that Windows supports hardware better, it still doesn't take away from the fact that it is a unreliable OS in terms of stability, security, etc. Right, no piece of software is worth $200, especially a buggy one, but $200 is a drop in the bucket compared to some other software packages. I work in a Imaging Facility, and you'd be lucky to get away with less than $40,000 worth of software per server! MS made their billions the hard way, $200 at a time. :) I don't think MS would rather you have a free copy of Windows, they really don't (or didn't) care. They have more important things to do rather than check individuals hard drives. Also, what do you mean by them "pulling their head out of their ass when it comes to NT"??