several legit copies of windows 95, 98, 2000, and server 2003

Legit.

With the Microsoft Home Use Program I get through work, XP and Office 2003 are $20 each. I hope Vista and Office 2007 are too!

My main machine has a legit copy of XP.

However, I can't AFFORD XP, and my college doesn't have any provisions for free or even deeply discounted software. Not even through any MSDN stuff.

Seeing as I have to have Windows for a lot of stuff, if I can't obtain a legit copy of XP, I use a pirated copy of 2000 that passes WGA. I don't trust XP to keep passing WGA, so I won't pirate it.

What is this a self-incrimination post? haha..There's been a lot of these on Tech-report lately, first the Music, then this...haha...I think there's an FBI agent or something working for Tech report...haha

I hope all the XP et al pirates rot in hell, as you've made life much harder for the rest of us who are responsible and pay for what we use. Grow up.

And if I'm elected governor . . .

Currently I wouldn't mind buying a copy of Windows with all the bull that I gotta do to get it running. Though considering that one copy is only for one computer and I like to build my own computers so that means I often do switch components often. Not to mention that sometimes I do reinstall Windows.

It just makes more sense to pirate it.

Never owner a single legit copy of windows or anything for that matter besides one or two small shareware apps I found extremely useful and bought. I'm thinking that I might pick up a legal copy of Vista pretty soon though.

voted no. my copy of xp has been gathering dust for a while now
using nlite'd copy of it with sp2, .net, ff, dx, and drivers for all my hardware slipstreamed
took out most of the junk (e.g. backgrounds, cursors, xp themes, languages)
setup all settings i usually do after isntall (e.g. pagefile, theme, registry)
if i need to reformat, just pop in the disk and it's all on auto
come back and i'm good to go

while it's a 'customised' version of xp i've made for myself and i have a proper license, under ms definition it's a pirate copy because it's not officially from ms so it's not legit

Bought it from a guy who did not want it but it was a forced bundle. Thus I am a pirate :(

When my Dell died and I couldn't transfer my copy to my home built shuttle, I wasn't paying for another xp.

I'll leave it at that.

I will continue to buy windows as long as I agree with how they run things. If they start doing things like starforce, I will just pirate it.

Strictly speaking, no. I bought an OEM licence for WinMCE with a hard drive I bought a while back. I'm still running the hard drive but the PC has had its motherboard changed since then. That said, I'm buggered if I'm going to pay another £89 for Windows. I like MCE a lot but not that much.

The poll question is oddly structured. I am running 3 copies of win98se for which I have 2 licenses, and win2k for which I have a license. Therefore I can answer yes...or no...ambiguous. "Poll: Do you run a legit copy of Windows?"
Answer: Yes. Do I also run an illegitimate copy of Windows? Yes. mmm

Question: for all the people who say they pirate Windows because they can't afford it...why not run Linux? Unless you game, that is. And if you game, hey, you can afford Windows, right?

How's this for weird:

I have fully legit copies of four Windows OSes: Win98, Win2k, Winxp and Winxp64, yet my installation is an illegitimate copy of Win2k because of some desired third party features :D

I have NEVER paid for a copy of Windows in my life, except for when I buy laptops. But usually I format the laptop and stick a clean copy of XP Pro on there.

But the recent authentication requirements have convinced me I need to buy. I decided to wait for Vista to come out before I pay for my very first Microsoft OS since I bought DOS 5 what seems like an eternity ago.

All my copies I have ever owned are legit. I could never steal software, doesn't matter who made it.

I used to pirate, I no longer do. I have switched the non legit over to linux, or just use the OEM. Of course for work I use legit.

I would never use my own cash to pay for Windows:period. Work can pay for it, *they do for my home machine) friends/family can buy it for me, but I would never do it out of my wallet.

This may be a good opportunity to post a link to this awesome news bit about the UK debating a dramatic change in its IP laws:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061102-8133.html

Time to scrap the old broken system we have.

I voted no even though I bought a legal XP Pro license for my main machine,

Run a cracked copy of MCE on the DivX box and the rendering box elsewhere in the house uses a cracked Pro Corporate.

I call it "per-user licencing" even if that is bending the rules a bit :)

Wow, I'm quite surprised at the percentage of no's. I'm not exactly well off but shelling out for at least an oem copy of xp doesn't seem too much to ask. We might all ridicule them as M$ but for the majority of us, we wouldn't have a working pc without windows software...

I don't know if MS would agree, but I think my copy of windows is legit. I bought my copy of win2k back in 1999 and I've re-installed it on every upgrade.

I'm going to buy a legit copy of XP when I buy a new and bigger hard drive soon. Realistically, you don't need most upgrades past SP2 for Windows, install a good firewall and a good AV and keep yourself behind a router and use common sense, and you're set for life. But I'd rather fork out the 120$ and avoid the hassles than have to selectively install and avoid updates.

I will give MS this much- they're the first company to make pirates FEEL like pirates. :P

Vista is way too overpriced, so I won't be buying (or using) it at all until XP is no longer supported.

Who needs to pay for Windows when one can easilly grab a WinXP CORP key from work that doesn't need to be activated, EVER :)

Ah the little joys of working in IT :D

Adi

Legit since MSDOS 3.3 and MSDN/Technet baby.

I am running legit versions of windows on some of my machines, my laptop came with XP Pro but it was one of these rubbish licences so when my laptop needed a reinstall it was either a case of buy a new copy of XP Pro or to find other means to install it...

Getting discount licences in software for only 5 copies just isnt offered by the big players in the software world. If M$ offered an upto 5 licence home user pack for say 2 times the price of Vista then this would obviously be incredibly appealing. What M$ keep forgetting is that a lot of their customers have been mislead by companies selling them computers without what i would call "proper" copies of the OS.

My mate - and i dont know why he did this - recently bought a pc from PC World, it turned out that the only way he could safe guard his Windows was to make a system recovery cd with some of the tools provided... they didnt even provide him a repair disc or anything with windows on!

Cheap music for sale online is proving that if there are reasonably priced alternatives then people are prepared to purchase instead of downloading illegally.

I'm using a retail version and a marketing promo copy of XP. The marketing promo copy was free (and came with an MS bobblehead doll), and the retail was $89-ish (?). It's been so long I can't remember. I do know, however, that I've spent $50 for a game that lasted three months, where the retail XP has gone three years. Worth every penny and I don't begrudge them a dime.

Hooray for student discounts!!! (+1 vote yes)

Voted yes.

Personally, I wish Mircosoft would offer a reasonably-priced family/household license, though. That would've been a Vista Ultimate feature worth paying for, IMHO.

Still running the copy of XP Pro I got via the partners program right after release for $40. It even came with a "spangle" lamp. Lamp is long gone, though.