Dealing Windows 7

So, I get home last night to find a package on my desk. I check the return address and see it is from Microsoft, so I don’t bother putting it into the sink first before opening it because I figure I can trust those guys especially since they let me in their private club recently. But then I started thinking about how maybe it could be like a book of secrets, and perhaps now they are going to finally reveal the details of the cabal and the upcoming takeover of the global financial markets with Microsoft Points.

So, I open it up but keep it pointed away from me, just in case, and out fall eight DVDs of Windows 7. My first reactions was “Wow, how cool that they thought so much of me to send me the DVDs for something that I currently can just download for myself? They must have a budget flush with cash for such things and really love the environment.” Then I remembered that it was quite possible I asked for these somehow so I thought bad for thinking such thoughts about them and wanted to make certain they knew that I was, indeed, happy to receive such a gift.

Sadly, there were no instructions on what to do with them. I mean, did they expect me to want or need to load all eight DVD’s? Am I supposed to open and test each one to make certain they work properly, then return them to Redmond for redistribution? I have three computers in my house, all Macs, should I put in the DVDs and see what happens? Or I am supposed to pass them out to my friends? But wouldn’t passing them out to my friends possibly put me in violation of my NDA? I have no idea. My best guess is that I missed some encoded MVP message in the days or weeks leading up to the package being sent, and that it then self-destructed.

I suppose it could be true that, despite the world being able to download it for free right now, they handed me the DVDs because they want me to pass them out to my friends, just like a drug dealer. “The first RC is for free, but when it expires the next one will cost you“. I guess they think my friends will be eager to download it simply because I gave it to them, or that it is easier to work with because it is already on a DVD and a person wouldn’t need to wait for it to be downloaded and burned to a DVD. I did manage to give it to a couple of coworkers here who seemed impressed but they don’t get out much and are usually distracted by shiny things, like most of us are anyway.

Perhaps I should leave them in the lunchroom in a donut box and see if someone takes them, but I have four left and plan to use them as coasters for the time being because Congress asked me the other day if I had decided on a gift for our anniversary. I figure I can re-gift these as coasters, giving us a nice complete set which we do not currently have, and look forward to another dozen years of wedded bliss.