When did computers start coming with "trial only " software???

[CatWoman]

My home computer is about one year old.

I went to my inbox, and got a message that my trial was "over" and that I needed to buy the product from Microsoft.

Same with Microsoft Word, and Excel. They wanted an obscene amount of money for this software.

:wtf:

Fortunately, I found a way around these swindlers.

[billyskank]

1. *cough*

OpenOffice.org ...

:D

[LeftyMom]

3. A geek after my own heart.

:)

[democracyindanger]

2. For about 15 years.

[CatWoman]

4. nope

my first computer came with everything!!

and I bought that one around 2000 or so....

[democracyindanger]

5. Yep.

I remember the first computer I bought in 1992. Loaded with trial version software. I don't doubt that your first computer came with everything, but trial version software isn't anything new.

[CatWoman]

6. well, trial versions suck!!!!

no wonder computers are so cheap - you sink all your money into the software :grr:

[democracyindanger]

8. Yes.

Yes they do.

When I used to buy PCs, the first thing I did was go through and uninstall every piece of trial crap squatting on my hard drive. I'm with you 100%.

[Crazy Dave]

9. Hardware too

I have an HP plotter less than four years old that cost me close to $2000 that is not supported in Vista and there's no plans by HP to update the drivers.

[IronLionZion]

7. Why pay for software?

http://www.opensourcewindows.org/


http://www.opensourcemac.org/

[Donk Yore]

10. I can't figure out how

to get Linux to co-boot.

It used to drive me nuts. Now, I am more accepting.

[IronLionZion]

11. There are detailed how-tos online for the specific version you have

I did Ubuntu and XP dual boot. I wiped the hard drive and made my 4 partitions: 1 for Ubuntu, 1 for XP, 1 linux swap, 1 shared drive for both OSs.

I installed Ubuntu first, then XP. I used the Grub bootloader in Ubuntu to boot XP. I forgot which option I chose for the MBR but it was NOT the default option. Then I mounted the FAT shared drive and it was all good. I'm on it now and it works fine. Easy as pie if you follow the directions.

Have fun with it. I found this on Google:
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2006/05/08/dual-boot-laptop.html