What?
If you're talking about the period between *purchasing* Windows (usually
as part of a bundle with the computer) and when it goes into lock-down
mode because you haven't registered, I think you're missing the point
of "try before you buy" is that you get to try *before* you buy.
How about <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx>.
Alternatively it is perfectly legal to borrow a Windows CD from someone
and install it. It will work for a time before you have to either
register or uninstall it.
Only if you don't care about accessing your data in ten years time.
The period of the 1980s through to the 2020s (at least!) will be a
future dark age to historians. So many of our historical records are
*already* unreadable, after a mere decade or so. Paper, vellum and
papyrus lasts for centuries when treated well, electronic records
become obsolete and unreadable before you can say "what do you mean we
don't have a computer capable of running the only application that can
read the data file?".
Most applications that handle data that can sensibly be edited in
another application at least offer an option to export the data in a
relatively common format. For instance most CAD packages offer dxf
export/import. The problem is that many applications have data that only
makes sense if it is handled by that application. For instance my CAM
software stores heavily processed CAD drawings. There is no point making
the data format open because there is no other application that could
make any sense of it. If my code was open source you could then use the
data but we have already discussed why that is not practical.
IMHO the greatest threat to long term storage of data is failure to back
it up.
Les
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