Why I just warezed Visual Studio 2003

I just downloaded a *.torrent for Visual Studio 2003 Professional, despite me already owning Visual Studio 2003 Academic (which is a strict (albeit, minor) superset of Visual Studio 2003 Professional).

The reason: activation. Today was the 12th time I had to activate it, and it's getting intolerable.

VS2003 Academic is the only version which requires activation (presumably they think students would trade the CDs, even though most unis have MSDN-AA or the shop sells it for peanuts).

So I'm switching to an inferior product to avoid activation, I'm glad VS2005 doesn't require activation, but they should know better than thinking students don't change their hardware regularly and/or reformat their boxen.

Explain that, Microsoft

And AndyC: Please don't start your "You didn't pay for the convinence not to activate" diatribe, if "product activation" is a feature (and according to MS's marketing materials, it is) then your argument is non-sequiter.

Release the hounds!

most Uni's don't have MSDN AA nor sell it cheap.  the majority of students don't change their hardware all the time or format. and students do trade cd's all the time.

Activation isn't that much hassle.  it takes a few mins, it's nothing.  i don't believe you have any justification in downloading an illegal tortrent.

Activator wrote:

Release the hounds!

or - Send in the Hounds!

(yes - she aint nuthin but a hound dog but shes a good friend o' mine)

W3bbo wrote:

if "product activation" is a feature (and according to MS's marketing materials, it is) then your argument is non-sequiter.

I concur, owning VSAA doesn't give you the "go ahead" to download a torrent of VS. You just circumvented the structure that Microsoft has in place. Mind you most developers don't constantly reimage their machines....

he's not alone though...  hopefully it adds up

customers + threats/checks/validate x 100        = no customers

just as:

UI + non-customize/"illogical" (haha) / locked    = no customers

If you've installed VS2003 twelve times, that's once roughly every 3 months--assuming it's on one computer. Even for three computers, that averages out to less than a year between installs. If you're having to reinstall that often, you're either doing something wrong (e.g., getting malware), or you're anal retentive. I'm not going to make a moral argument, since I know it's wasted breath, but Jaz is right: it seems silly to come here and justify downloading pirated software to save yourself a whopping five minutes per install. If the issue is around beta software, that could be remedied with a virtual machine and a little foresight. At the very least, I really don't think it's Microsoft's problem if their software isn't optimized for the "w3bbo demographic".

...but when you go to war with your customers... what do you think they will do?

from my experience- activation forgets it's activated.
it's a joke - set to go off all the time (yes they "toned it down") but its still "active"

if vs's activation is anything like vista or all of ms.com - how can you blame w3bbo?  maybe 6 of the 12 times were false ..maybe not... who knows?


*edit

[please validate again to edit]

..you know what.. NO! - cancel - download...

Should have gone to Launch Tour. VS2005. free. Problem Solved.

Then again, some people still hate VS2005 for mysterious reasons. *shrug*

jamie wrote:

i speak from experience when i say activation forgets it's activated.
it's a joke - set to go off all the time (yes they "toned it down") but its still "active"

if vs's activation is anything like vista or all of ms.com - how can you blame w3bbo? maybe 6 of the 12 times were false ..maybe not... who knows?

W3bbo wrote:

 it's getting intolerable.

i was refering to how my activated vista - forgot it was activated (bug in re-check?)  and trashed wireless connect and network - demanding activation - so i phoned and did it.

maybe ill have to call again tomorrow? who knows what evil lurks in the os's of men...

...w3bbo...running vista... now there's a thought

*i am buying new hardware (router/laptopcard / new video to replace 2 pci cards using currently) to finally load vista on main machine (edit: to see aero)

for some reason i picture W not being too keen on whats missing and customization ...could be wrong.  maybe this is the one that gets him to full UI glory ( we know he didnt like luna) 

? 

Mind you, the VS2003 install drove me nuts too. Not because of activation though.

First you have to install it, which takes a long time and since I have the CD version I can't leave, I have to stay there to swap CDs. Then I have to install .Net 1.1 SP1, reboot, install the security upgrade for .Net 1.1 SP1, reboot, install the GDI+ update for VS2003 (this was pre-SP1), install the MSDN update for VS2003. Argh! Not to mention I always needed the VS2002 CD to install it too since I had the $30 upgrade version.

So yeah, I've since abandoned VS2003 for VS2005, which installs a heck of a lot faster, I've got on DVD (so no disc-jockeying) and doesn't require 30 minutes installing various updates afterwards.

Activation doesn't really bother me. I re-install really really often, because of the beta stuff. Not just Vista, which I install clean every new build, but also if I've had a beta version of anything on XP and the final comes out, I reinstall. So I've had to activate XP quite a lot. And it's still doing it, over the Internet, without complaining. Takes all of 30 seconds. So yeah I don't change my hardware all that often (I think the XP key I'm using has seen two major hardware swaps, the XP x64 key none).

Jamie: I've never had a machine mysteriously de-activate. Since it happened to you on Vista, I suspect it's a bug. File a bug report on it, for sure.

Sven Groot wrote:

Mind you, the VS2003 install drove me nuts too. Not because of activation though.

First you have to install it, which takes a long time and since I have the CD version I can't leave, I have to stay there to swap CDs. Then I have to install .Net 1.1 SP1, reboot, install the security upgrade for .Net 1.1 SP1, reboot, install the GDI+ update for VS2003 (this was pre-SP1), install the MSDN update for VS2003. Argh! Not to mention I always needed the VS2002 CD to install it too since I had the $30 upgrade version.