In a stroke of genius Microsoft has just turned millions of boxes running pirated Windows into even worse zombie boxes, virus carrying boxes, and worm spreading boxes. Microsoft announced that they will severely limit the way people running pirated versions of Windows can get their security updates -- and may eventually cut off pirated Windows machines from getting any updates at all. I can understand how Microsoft is pissed that there are so many copies of Windows that are pirated out there, but it is just stupid for them to go this route to try to get people to buy a copy of Windows -- it is just a decision made in plain greed. How about this Microsoft: Lower the price on your Windows XP and maybe people will buy it. $299 for a full version of Windows XP and $199 for an upgrade is very steep. Especially when compared to Apple who sells their MacOS X Panther for a mere $129 (full version, there is no upgrade pricing). Red Hat and other Linux distributions come for the price of a download (nearly free). Yea, those OSes have a small share of the market when compared to Microsoft, but they have the right idea. If you price your thing too high, people just won't buy it -- and with software, they'll just steal it. Price your software correct and people will buy it. I am a happy MacOS X user and have paid for my last two upgrades because at $129, that is a steal for an OS as robust and stable as the MacOS X. Microsoft still can't see that they are pricing themselves out of sales -- their stupid activation thing didn't make things better and now this no-upgrades policy is not going to make things better either. The only thing this "brilliant" idea is going to do is create more zombie machines on the Internet that send out spam. Microsoft looks after no one except themselves and this move proves it.