Posted on 10/13/2006 7:22:58 AM PDT by Señor Zorro
Microsoft has released licenses for the Windows Vista operating system that dramatically differ from those for Windows XP in that they limit the number of times that retail editions can be transferred to another device and ban the two least-expensive versions from running in a virtual machine.
The new licenses, which were highlighted by the Vista team on its official blog Tuesday, add new restrictions to how and where Windows can be used.
"The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once.
The new policy is narrower than Windows XP's. In the same section, the license for Windows XP Home states: "You may move the Software to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer." There is no limit to the number of times users can make this move. Windows XP Professional's license is identical.
Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM.
Vista Home Basic, at $199 for a full version and $99 for an upgrade, and Vista Home Premium ($239/$159), are the two most-affordable retail editions of the operating system scheduled to appear on store shelves in January 2007.
Although the Vista team's blog did not point out these changes, it did highlight others. "Two notable changes between Windows Vista license terms and those for Windows XP are: 1) failure of a validation check results in the loss of access to specific features; and 2) an increase in our warranty period from 90 days to 1 year, which brings Windows in line with most other Microsoft products," wrote Vista program manager Nick White.
Specifically, the Vista license calls out the ramifications of a failed validation check of Vista.
"The software will from time to time validate the software, update or require download of the validation feature of the software," it reads. "If after a validation check, the software is found not to be properly licensed, the functionality of the software may be affected."
Vista's new anti-piracy technologies, collectively dubbed "Software Protection Platform," have met with skepticism by analysts and criticism by users. Under the new program, a copy of Vista that's judged to be in violation of its license, or is counterfeit, is disabled after a set period, leaving the user access only to the default Web browser, and then only for an hour at a time.
Yeah, the ones the warlords will surely be using. If only to light their tents.
LOL, go right ahead, if that's your thing. But that ain't most people's thing, so don't blame us when you get busted.
what happens when some chinese/indian/bangladeshe figures out a bunch of people will pay him $9.99 for a program that will allow them to use powerpoint on linux alla open office/microsoft word
Yeah, or they'll just sell them to the highest bidders ... As per S.O.P. in the Third World, aid seldom gets to whom it is intended ...
Yeah, their market share really crumbled then. /SARCASM
It wouldn't rain on my parade. But I doubt that it will start happening in the U.S., where M-soft would crack down quickly thru the legal system.
There will need to be some accountability, when we start finding them being used for mortar targetting over in Iraq and Afghanistan.
now I see how scary linux is, it is not just a threat to microsoft but to liberty and freedom everywere, were is our elite leftist hero bill gates to save us?
Actually, the holes have had little effect on market share. Until now.
But they will. More people are growing tired of MS's low-quality crap. They're sick and tired of being literal free unpaid delta testers for MS. And MS is in for a rather rude awakening.
That's because Apple has propietary hardware! Anytime you buy a new Mac, you get the OS with it. You are not allowed to build your own system. That is the true BS.
Your cluelessness knows no bounds, does it?
FD--add this one: Iggle accuses FReeper of making warez.
You tell me. You're the mindless anti-Linux bigot using Free Republic (which runs on [...gasp!...] Linux).
I did. Wow. Right for a change. I'm taking a picture!
Wee use MS VS 2005 at work and, while it's the best IDE I've used, I'm not much into IDEs (gimme xterm, make, and vim any day). I know there's Glade, a visual designer for GTK+ (inter-platform GUI library for C++ with bindings for other languages, as well including GTK# for .NET) on Linux and a handful of IDEs.
Is there a possibility that dot-net will become widespread on Linux?
IMHO, yes. Just look at the Mono project or the DotGNU project for a couple implementations of the framework. Both have been attempting to add full support for Windows forms as well. DotGNU actually seems more mature in that respect.
Thanks for the reply. I guess it would be a mistake to assume that Microsoft's dominance of desktop apps would continue for two more decades. That's my planning horizon. Time to think of alternatives.
Difference is that Ghost 10.0 makes an image of your Windows 2000/XP installation. That image is roughly 2-4 gigabytes. Your store that image wherever you like. One good choice is your hard drive is partitioned and you store it on D, your storage partition. A better choice would be on an external USB hard drive in case your hard drive fails
What is in the image I keep? XP + SP2 + 6 of my most often used programs. This image is good for any of my computers that has the same motherboard
Computer administrators love Ghost. They have 100 identical computers that have the same programs installed for the workers. Whenever a computer has severe trouble he re-installs everything a worker needs in a matter of minutes. He need only take that Ghost image (a master image really) and install it on the bad computer. He may have just put in a new hard drive in it or by re-installing with that Ghost image he is at the same time reformatting the funky hard drive
Administrator will probably have his Ghost master image on an external USB had drive.... Can the RESTORE function in XP do all that? NO WAY!
I have never had a problem with Ghost 10.0 and yes I saw the same bad reviews. I have three computers. I have a very good Ghost image for one of them. Still have to do the other two. I'm not happy with XP on the last two because of adding programs, removing programs, plus general sludge and funk after 18 months of an XP installation
SO.... I will reinstall XP + SP2 + all updates + 8 most used programs then make a Ghost image and store it away. So I can make an easy reformat once a year or sooner if I mess it up. AND WITH GHOST this "base installation" will take a grand total of 10 minutes. I will admit that some time will be taken to re-install another 10 programs I like and use.
I have downloaded, burned to DVD and installed the RC1 and RC2 Vista releases. It's slick and functional but I really don't need it. Not for $200 and not even for 50$. XP is good enough. I tested RC2 on a machine with 512mb and an ATI 9250 video card that has 256mb. I could not get the AeroGlass effect. There seems to be search indexing (resource eater!) going on because searches are much quicker than with XP. That is a plus
LOL With Vista I opted to the classic windows look and now it looks more familiar. Like Windows 98 plus much less resources are hogged up by visuals (eye candy). Oh well, back to the future!
Never thought of that--guess I'll have to give it a whirl...
Poor Dell, Gateway, HP, and all the other vendors, they're doomed for refusing to sell Linux on their home desktop computers! ROFL!
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