It was 2 a.m. in 2008, and the only light in the room came from the flickering blue glow of a CRT monitor. Alex sat hunched over his keyboard, the rhythmic hum of his tower’s cooling fans serving as the soundtrack to his late-night mission. He had just finished a fresh install of , and the desktop—with its iconic rolling green hills of the "Bliss" wallpaper—was a clean, empty slate.
By 4 a.m., the Taskbar was crowded with icons. The system tray was a colorful row of tiny squares. Alex clicked the "Start" button—that vibrant green plastic-looking tab—and felt a wave of satisfaction. The machine was alive. It was fast, it was blue, and it was uniquely his.
Alex opened Internet Explorer 6. He knew the risks; browsing the web in 2008 without a firewall was like walking through a rainstorm without an umbrella. His first stop was a familiar Russian forum, a digital bazaar of zipped files and "crack" folders.
Finally, for his "creative" side, he found a lightweight version of and Nero Burning ROM . He had a stack of blank CD-Rs on his desk that weren't going to burn themselves. The Completion