…the kind of planet where it’s cool to piss people off for “spiritual” reasons.

What the heck am I talking about? Well, I just read (via Robert Scoble’s blog) that Microsoft are planning to make the pre-wired Startup sound in Vista permanently enabled.
That is - you won’t be able to turn it off.

For me - that’s an instant non-buy qualifier. I don’t care how good this OS is - I ain’t using it in a machine with a soundcard if it makes sounds I can’t turn off.

I don’t care if MS think its a great way to enhance their brand, or if other companies do it -or it’s already enabled on an Xbox 360.

1) I don’t own a 360, Toshiba, or any other brand of equipment that makes sounds on startup that can’t be disabled. (No, my PC BIOS doesn’t beep on start up - it doesn’t have the PC Speaker connected)

2) I won’t buy equipment or software that forces this type of behavior.

3) I disable all sounds, and by default have the volume muted - I don’t like the built in sounds, I don’t want sounds coming from a website I visit unless I enable the sound.

4) I don’t care how loud the damn thing is - if it’s making any sort of sound (even those subtle “clicks” Internet Explorer makes by default piss me off after about 30 seconds of web browsing) that is system generated (not from something happening physically) then it’s getting binned/returned/removed by force.

This actually has me really pissed off that they’re even considering it.

The reasons they’re giving include:

- A spiritual side of the branding experience.

- Letting you know that the sound is enabled and working. (Yeah, great - I really wanted my whole house to know that when I reboot at 4am because I forgot to turn my speakers off)

I’m sure anyone with kids, or who has spent time with kids during a Christmas or Birthday celebration knows that level of aggrivation when that plastic noise-making toy has been beeping once too many times.

Here’s what it boils down to:
It’s my machine, not yours. If I want it to be silent, you’ve got no right to force it to be otherwise.