arg. this is why i’m such a huge supporter of open source software. i rolled up a new virtual machine in virtualbox (4gb image, so it can fit on a dvd) and when windows xp boots for the first time i see this :

according to our records, the number of times you can activate windows with this product key has been eceeded. please enter a a different product key, and then click retry. [ screenshot ]

boooooooooooooooooo! that’s such crap. seriously, i promise i’ll delete my current vmware winxp image when i copy all the stuff over to the new virtualbox winxp image. maybe i should use one of the win23k server licenses i have and virtualize that. i really don’t need a virtual machine on my laptop, but it does help me seperate my work stuff from my real life, i can turn off a vm and be disconnected from work vs being alerted everytime evolution gets new mail off my work exchange server.

virtualbox is really easy to use. gonna go figure out what to do with this worthless 4gb image though. my vmware one is still 9gb, and i’m tired of trying to shave it down. i guess it’s time to hit the outlook pst files and filter out all the extra crap.