With the dawn of a new Microsoft OS upon us, it seems that not everybody is so eager to jump on the Vista bandwagon. It kinda re-minds me of Windows Millennium, a skinned and crash crazy version of Windows 98. But ask Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer and he'll say that pirates are responsible for the slow sales of Windows Vista.

Balmer had admitted to some financial analysts that the current Vista sales figures are nowhere near what Microsoft had projected. And Balmers reason for the poor sales is laid upon the poor software pirates in China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging market countries.

And the brilliant solution to help fix this problem? Crank up the Windows Genuine (Dis)Advantage feature to thwart piracy. Apparently, there are further measures that Microsoft can take that would make it hacking and cracking life even more difficult for those would be Vista pirates there. I smell a mandatory Vista update coming along . . . one that will either accuse you of being a pirate or will crash you machine.

Sure, there's some Vista pirates out there, and that does detract from the revenues that Microsoft would like to have. But Mr. Balmer neglected to point out that Vista really doesn't really offer much more in the way of features that XP does. And he never mentioned how the Windows Genuine (Dis)Advantage makes the everyday lives of ever day users an absolute living hell. So if Microsoft does decide to crank up WGA in some futile attempt to cull piracy, it might just backfire on them.

Hey, I'm slowly making the switch to Linux, with some interest in buying up a Mac, and will continue to use XP for gaming and gaming alone.