I worked in IT for years and delt with activation daily. What a waste of time. Wouldn't it be better for you to spend your time fixing things then dealing with activation? Pirates dont activate Windows BTW, its one less step for them. Do you see the problem? The LEGAL customer has extra steps to go through and has worse experience then the pirate.
bro I have NEVER spent all day dealing with activations lol...it sounds like you've had some bad experiences man. I install a software, I put in the license code, it talks back to the server, it activates, and I'm good.
Like I said, it's not an issue at all for me, it doesn't take me any extra time or effort, it's just part of the install, I've never been down and not able to use any software because of an activation issue, rather it's music or for work....it's just not that big of a deal.
I have friends that are totally against activation too, so I know it's not just you, I just fail to understand it, unless you've had a bad experience in the past regarding activation.
Would I like to be able to just install and not copy/paste or type a long serial number in? HECK TO THE YEAH lol. I'd rather not go back to the days where you had no serials but you just had to leave the disc in the drive lol.
I'm not saying I wouldn't welcome some new system in regards to valid users and how we install/license our software. But I have yet to find one person that has proven to me in any way that activation "hurts legal users" lol. I understand the preference, just not the generalization.