On my PowerBook, I don't need any special PDF writer. It's just a supported output format from the Printer routine. On Windows, I have—up until now—used Visage eXPert PDF. A few weeks ago, probably after a recent Windows upgrade on my wife's (formerly my) XP Pro desktop, when ever I used the Visage print driver, it would work, but opened a very small window, which did not show the controls for saving to a file. So, I could print to PDF format, I could view the conversion, but I could then do nothing with the PDF. So, aside from loving my wife, why should I care?

I do use Windows XP to use QuickBooks, which I use to run my household and business finances. My wife uses it sometimes, as do I, Lately, I use it under VirtualPC on my PowerBook. But, I still need a way to create PDFs under Windows (I e-mail invoices this way). Since the Visage product, which has behaved flawlessly until a few weeks ago, stopped working, I looked for a replacement.

I found CutePDF™ Writer, whose tagline suggests. "Create PDF documents on the fly—for Free!" Those last two words attracted me. I installed it on both my PowerBook (under VirtualPC) and on her XP system. It works great, and I highly recommend it. It requires a PS2PDF converter, and they helpfully provide a download to the GNU Ghostscript converter.

"Customers have been crying out for a tool which could tell them if they have been duped," she [Michala Alexander, head of anti-piracy for Microsoft, in the UK] said.

The topic: Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) as reported in BBC News' website.

My immediate reaction: "Yeah, sure." I am not in favor of software piracy. Not at all. But, I am against lying, as I suspect that no "customers have been crying out for [such] a tool..." Customers have more important, more pressing issues, with Windows. And those who use pirated software in countries where it is common—Ukraine comes to mind—really do know that there is something fishy about the Microsoft CDs they bought at the street market for the equivalent of $5.00 (USD).