SOFTWARE RAEG.
So a year or so back a friend gave me his company's version of Windows 7 Enterprise burned to a disk, along with the key.
Recently I bought a bigger HDD and installed their copy on it.
Turns out, their MAK had exceeded its allowed number of activations.
I figure, ah well, you dodge around the legalities of software long enough you pay the price eventually. I did the same routine with Windows XP. So I resign myself to the fact $200 of my money is going down the tubes in the name of an OS I own.
So I go to Best Buy. Which I should have known was a dumb idea. But I go to the software rack and......no Windows 7. So I look at the 3 MOTHERFUCKING SHELVES FULL OF WINDOWS 8 PRODUCTS. And not a SINGLE one of them is an actual full install, they're ALL upgrades. The blue shirt is like "Yeah, lots of people are mad about it." No shit?
So I go across the street to Office Max, which has often had software that Best Buy is too stupid/corrupt to carry. I think it's actually where I bought my copy of XP.
I see a full rack of Windows 7 displays. I take the place holder up to the counter and have a nice little chat with the counter guys about how Windows 7 is so fucking hard to find now, and how fucking LUCKY I am they're still carrying a copy.
10 minutes later a clerk comes out of the back and says "Sorry, I guess we don't have any Windows 7 Home Premiums left. We do have Windows 7 Professional Edition though." I check. It's $40 fucking dollars more expensive. At this point, I'm resigned to just buying it online and waiting several days (luckily I have over 2 weeks left until the end of my current activation, and I have the old OS still installed on my smaller drive.)
As I'm walking out, the same clerk (who doesn't know I've just mentally blown my fucking top) stops me and goes "I guess I don't have Windows 7 Professional in stock either. The only thing I have in stock with an actual disk is Windows 7 Ultimate at $314."
FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.
Fuck you Microsoft. Only fucking hipsters and people with money to set on fucking fire want your stupid, pointless mobile desktop. Fuck you for pulling the plug on the one operating system in the last 5 years people actually like, so you can force us to "approve" Windows 8. You deserve to have another anti-trust lawsuit shoved so far up your ass the text can be seen through your fucking eyeballs. Fuck you Best Buy for dangling from Microsoft's balls like a leech, swaying whichever way they turn. Fuck you Office Depot for having a giant display for shit you don't carry and are never going to carry again.
And mostly, fuck the whole "game" OS versioning has become. Part of me thought that having a job and actual money and trying to use software legitimately was going to be easier than pirating, cracking and subverting the system. NOPE. That part of me is now dead, buried under a mountain of bureaucratic bullshit and greed.
And to boot, I got a no-front-plate ticket today. IN THE PARKING LOT OF MY FUCKING BUILDING. The SOB pulled right in behind me and made me 15 minutes late for work, and gave me a nice $75 ticket for my troubles.