Soffware downloads

My old Dell laptop has finally given up the ghost, and I've had to shell out for a new computer. As usual, I've bought a PC. I hate Microsoft for its agressive anti-competitive practices (click here for a particularly nasty example of anti-Microsoft sentiment); but Bill Gates is donating lots of money to untrendy causes, and I hate Macs even more. I-tunes is just as virulent as Microsoft in its practices, Mac users are smug bastards (needless to say, I except from that generalistaion anyone wise enough to be reading this blog), and the way the GUI (graphical user interface) works makes me feel slightly seasick. I'm glad to see that Windows 7 has largely gone back to the old, staid, largely stable nature of the Windows 'classic' desktops, and the unfortunate experiment with Vista can be safely forgotten.

(I'd link to the original source for the image above, but it seems to have disappeared from the site. Click here for Charlie Brooker's comments on patronising Mac ad campaigns.)

However, there's still the problem that when you buy a PC with Windows installed, you basically get bog all. Works? What the hell is that? And the shop wanted another £100 for the Office software (ok, they knocked it down to £70 when I looked appalled, but that's still appalling).

Anyway, Gerry (who gave me a lift to the shop as my car's off the road) remembered that staff and students of the university can get an educational discount on Windows software. I rang IT services, and you can get Office 2007 for under a tenner. So, for the first time ever I've laid out some cash for downloaded software.

So, this is a post about being good and doing the legal thing. Sorry. I won't do it again.