Flutterby™! : Windows Vista

Well, I just had my first Windows Vista experience: Jeanne got a new laptop today, was all excited about showing me a language application, pulled it out of her bag, flipped open the top, and although it had been working just fine earlier it was complaining that the license key was invalid.

We tried several times to type in the key from the bottom of the computer, but eventually it gave up and just said "you have to call Microsoft to continue".

So, lest you too get suckered into buying Vista, know that you're buying software that may, at inconvenient moments, suddenly tell you that the system you just, perhaps even a few hours ago, paid good money for, is invalid and your only recourse is to call Microsoft and put yourself at their mercies, with your credit card out and ready.

Or you could buy a system without an OS pre-installed and run Ubuntu.