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I'm one of the evil pirates who bought 1 copy of W2K and installed it on 4 or 5 machines. I frequently cull old parts that are laying around and put together new machines, installing that same copy of W2K.

With XP I'd be screwed. I'd need to buy separate copies for each machine and beg MS for permission each time I changed something . . .

Actually, you probably wouldn't. If you were moving from W2K to XP, you would want XP Pro which does not have the same Product Activation crap as the Home edition (IIRC).
Well, you'd not be screwed on that level. As for whether "upgrading" from 2000 to XP is inheritly screwing yourself, someone else can comment.

I stick with 2K because I see no reason to go to XP and I refuse to pay for an MS OS (I got my legal 2K copy directly from MS for free).

If you were moving from W2K to XP, you would want XP Pro which does not have the same Product Activation crap as the Home edition (IIRC).

Um...unfortunately, XP Pro has EXACTLY the same Product Activation crap. But despite that, it is working well for me so far.

Actually, you probably wouldn't. If you were moving from W2K to XP, you would want XP Pro which does not have the same Product Activation crap as the Home edition (IIRC).

XP Pro still has the activation requirement. You're probably thinking of the corporate version of XP, available to large business with lots of machines to administer. Copies of that have already been posted to places like alt.binaries.cd.image.