Do you buy your software?

Just curious about how many of you guys have Legit Windows, software and games?

What I do is I download and if good and handy I will buy. I have three computers (mines my sisters and laptop), the laptop came with a legit copy of windows, while I bought Windows XP pro for mine and Home for my sisters, and also bought Small Business edition of Office, and games I try and buy if I like the downloaded version I will buy it, what about u guys?

OS comes with my computer (Dell, IBM etc.)

Software I need my company buy for me.

Games I play I buy from Rogers Video or Blockbuster (previous played).

I use both bought/downloaded software. I generally use downloaded copies of Winblows XP, I bought '95 and '98 in previous years. Its so bloody expensive, its not worth the money to buy as 99% of the stuff in it NOBODY will EVER use, its just there so they can jack up the price. I was thinking about getting a legit copy of XPpro because I can get it for $95 through a vendor promo at our company. But then I'll need to call them everytime I make a hardware change, something I do almost monthly, so for now I'm going to stick with my "aquired" copy...

As for games, I rarely download them, extremely rarely. I usually just play 1 game at a time until I can't stand it, so I always get my monies worth. I'm playing WoW right now and don't forsee a change at all in the next year... Previous to this it was BF1942C from the day of inception, that was one of the best games I've ever spent money on.

Whats the difference between "I never buy" and "I only download"

i have yet to buy anything for the comp other then the hardware.

im not a gamer either. id d/l a game and play it for a week and uninstall it. so i cant justify that one either.

Your poll sucks dude. Where is the option for usually buy, sometimes download. I think most people would fall under this category.

Originally Posted by hagbard

Your poll sucks dude. Where is the option for usually buy, sometimes download. I think most people would fall under this category.

Or usuall download, but sometimes buy. That's where I'm at.

I've bought some software/games. But I do download. Buying Windows and Office alone is more expensive then most computers.

Besides the OS and what comes with it, most of my software are freeware....

No, I never buy software . I'd imagine people coming to this site to 'save' money and 'lowball' aren't the type of people who would spend alot of money on software.

Originally Posted by hagbard

Your poll sucks dude. Where is the option for usually buy, sometimes download. I think most people would fall under this category.

that's me

Didn't took the poll.

Business, I buy. Home I downloaded. Games, 1/2 buy 1/2 download (good ones i buy for sure).

Originally Posted by Bortman

But then I'll need to call them everytime I make a hardware change, something I do almost monthly, so for now I'm going to stick with my "aquired" copy...

There's a lot of misconception about this topic. You're not going to have to call us up every time you change a piece of hardware. The only time you have to call (or do it automatically over the net) is if you change your CPU or MOBO or change a lot of hardware at once. If you do change the CPU or MOBO you have to run a repair install to get it to work correctly (due to the hal.dll file) and then it's part of the repair process where you reactivate Windows.

Originally Posted by Nyte

Whats the difference between "I never buy" and "I only download"

Mooching off your friends vs. taking the time to find that pirated software yourself

I turned around years ago, and I buy now. I get games I know I'll play, gives me incentive to play what I have. And there's a lot of alternatives out there for some software - OpenOffice.Org is a decent suite, for all I use Word/Excel-like apps at home.

It's not that expensive to go legit.

Originally Posted by DennyD

There's a lot of misconception about this topic. You're not going to have to call us up every time you change a piece of hardware. The only time you have to call (or do it automatically over the net) is if you change your CPU or MOBO or change a lot of hardware at once. If you do change the CPU or MOBO you have to run a repair install to get it to work correctly (due to the hal.dll file) and then it's part of the repair process where you reactivate Windows.

Wait until MS decides you've activated your product too many times. Then the fun begins. I've always bought my Windows in the past, I'm not so sure I will in the future (better yet, if Macs provide software I need, I'll jump ship).