Re: Lost XP product key - before install.

In <MPG.1d6b071f2c9ed96e98a75b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Conor <conor.turton@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In article <slrndg1sm0.777.this.address.is.fake@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Tony
> Houghton says...
>
>> Just because you find something hard to use doesn't mean it's going to
>> be unreliable. No matter how much you prefer MS, nobody can claim that
>> Windows 98 is more reliable than Linux, and you'd have to grudgingly
>> admit that even XP and 2000 aren't quite as reliable.
>>
> XP SP2 is far more reliable than Linux.

Troll.

>> In commercial software "beta" means not working yet.
>
> Bull***. Beta means working candidate with a few bugs.

If bugs don't mean it doesn't work properly, what do they mean?
Admitting the "bugs" in MS software are deliberate are you?

>> In Linux it means
>> there was no marketing department to insist on a "final release" label
>> by a certain deadline regardless of the condition of the code.
>
> No, it means that its not finished.

No software's ever finished.

>> There are some things in Unix that I can't get my head around either,
>> most notably LaTeX and Emacs-Lisp. I use and even advocate alternatives,
>> but I don't go around saying that Emacs and LaTeX are rubbish,
>> amateurish or unreliable, just because I can't be bothered to learn
>> them.
>>
> But you do about Windows.

So what have I moaned about in Windows that I could have fixed if I'd
just taken the trouble to learn something?

>> People have complained about editing text config files? Some of the
>> files have horrible formats, but there's nothing wrong with the
>> principle of text config files, and with a good format and sensible
>> comments, they're an excellent way to configure many programs
>> (especially text editors, where the excuse of not knowing how to use a
>> text editor is even more stupid).
>>
> Trouble is that OSS writers can't/won't agree on a common format so you
> end up with whatever Mr/Mrs X or Y has decided to use for their app.

There are a few monstrosities, but the difficult and important ones
usually include front-ends - often with a GUI. Usually it's just a few
lines like:

option_name = value

and anything beginning with # is a comment.

--
The address in the Reply-To is genuine and should not be edited.
See <http://www.realh.co.uk/contact.html> for more reliable contact addresses.
.