Yeah, that'll help the kid...

I fully agree.

Why force the change at all? It seems to me that many Linux people - especially those who just got it working and are still fresh in their enthusiasm - feel the need to convert everybody they know, whether they need it or not. More often than not it becomes some kind of crusade.

I've been happily using Linux since almost five years, never looking back. But I wanted that change. Shouldn't we leave the people who are happy with their Windows installation alone?

What's more, in this case, if staying with XP is not an option (which I doubt), Windows 7 is still more similar to Windows XP than any Linux distro is, no matter how much you try to make it look like Windows.

Yeah, tried that, didn't work. Unfortunately, I recently moved to a new account. On the old one I had a user name - back then no account verification was required to pick a stupid user name.
This is so ridiculous that I'm thinking about finally pulling out altogether.

Just took a look at the instructions mentioned in the summary. Unfortunately you have to verify your account to pick a user name - and in order to do so you have to give them your cellphone number. I'd rather live with the proprietary protocols, thank you very much.

Exactly... looks like Douglas Adams had it right all along:

I knew it :))