Re:It is because of piracy... (Score 1)

This is good information. Just this week I was going to put up a copy of Windows 98 SE that I purchased last summer. It's the full retail version, not an upgrade. After being unable to install it initially, I put it on a shelf and installed the usual suspects, Debian GNU/Linux and FreeBSD. To make sure this CD-ROM of Windows wasn't bad, a friend and I installed it on another computer. It installed flawlessly(of course we immediately formatted the drive afterwards). A couple months later, I remembered I had Windows and once again attempted to reinstall. This time I wrote down all the error messages in full, and gasp!, called Microsoft for tech support. After spending three hours on the phone with a technician, he came to the conclusion that it must be my hardware. I told him that this system had GNU/Linux, Free|Open|Net BSD, and Solaris Intel(I'm not kidding) on it at one time. He still thought that it was my hardware and that there was nothing that they could do. He suggested that I email Microsoft's Sales Dept.

If I am able to sell it on Ebay, I still won't get back what I paid originally. It could also be argued that I should have returned it to the store right away after the failed installation.

I am going to e-mail Microsoft about this issue, and if anyone wants to know what their response is, I can send it to /. along with my original e-mail to Microsoft.