Service

I just got off the phone with Donna from the licensing team and pleased she was of service, understood my issue and took responsibility to escalate my issue within 3 business days.

It's a lot clearer to me that the investment of the dollars I put into buying a single license of WinXP is put back into their support organization.

This would not be possible if I did not clarify my commitment and take "me" out of the picture. I shared I am one of many mac users who experience frustration with Windows licensing. We have a commitment to use Windows on macintoshes and have the need to run both operating systems.

Some of us choose to use Boot Camp and some of choose to use Parallels Desktop. The latter most likely wants to use both for various reasons.

I asked for support from Microsoft to support our community.

For me (I didn't say this) 3 strikes and you're out! I've reactivated WinXP twice - they are doing well on the 2nd out - let's see what happens!

I ack Microsoft for an extraordinary level of service and causing me to clear this matter in less than 30 minutes.

Racket

wow - never thought I'd start this page pissed off.

While ago, I made a decision to invest in a license of WinXP for my macbook - I was pretty happy about this - it was the beginning of a new era and really had fun evaluating a virtualization solution.

MacUpdate came along and released a bundle that was too hard to resist - it was a no brainer, get Parallels Desktop at a discount and get 9 other apps free - including MenuCalendarClock which I had set up on my mini I thought wasn't too bad. I didn't act fast and missed the boat on WhatSize - this is an app I actually would have found useful to complement my Toolkit - oh well, you snooze you lose.

Point being - I activated by Parallels desktop and had a sneaky suspicion it was going to complain about activation - ta da! it said I need to resolve this situation in the next 3 days or I'll get locked out *sigh*

I just want to be a power user that is able to use Windows apps on my laptop when I need to - I am legitimately using my Windows license and it may not be in the way it was architected. Microsoft has this way of detecting your "hardware configuration" that is completely fooled by virtualization.

I just want the flexibility of using Parallels Desktop for concurrency and using Boot Camp when I need my macbook to be a full blown Windows machine (esp for 3D applications like Second Life)

ok - this is enough of a rant for now - this is probably not the Microsoft rambling you expected.

I do give the Outlook team kudos to this day!

more later.

ps. the new ribbon on 2007 and the new Open XML format they are forcing everyone to switch too make using Office (and playing with those who use Office) a pain in the ass - I don't doubt people will start flocking to Google Docs and OpenOffice in droves soon!

Windows software

  1. Windows XP - give my macbook a double identity :)
  2. Boot Camp (technically a Leopard 10.5.x "feature")
  3. Parallels Desktop - Coherence sounds like a killer feature to have Outlook running without rebooting.
  4. MS Money - get a handle on my consumer credit debt
  5. Outlook
    • fetch email conversations (and stories)
    • eval GTD Add-in
  6. Groove - be a reseller (with Microsoft support)
  7. Mind Manager
    • put leaves on Thailand mindmap
    • eval Results Manager
  8. Gizmo Project - video conferencing on Windows!

Windows hardware

  1. Windows Mobile (version that supports Skype) capable mobile device (previously Dopod D810 which has significantly come down in price (20%) to 25k)
    • US$200+ in phone rentals (over ~20 days in Tokyo) makes this possibly a wise investment before I go to Japan... I just wish I tried it first hand the past 2 trips - ack! WiFi access is still on the critical path. so many loose ends!