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.
That's not what I said. I said "Most 20,000 node networks don't run on open source", go back and look. So you've found 1 that might - Google - but if the directory they're using isn't an open source product and proprietary to Google or someone else then it's still not a pure open source network. So you're yet to prove a single one, which is a far cry from "most".
The parent article says " they limit the number of times that retail editions can be transferred to another device". Doesn't sound to me like a processor or motherboard replacements will be affected, that seems to be the hype of those predicting imminent Microsoft collapse.
"What estimate of their number of servers, by whom? Did it break them down by O/S as well? Doubtful since it was an estimate to begin with."
Thanks for the apology. I guarantee there are other grid farms running linux that are huge, they just don't get advertised. Hell, windows didn't even have grid capability till recently and it's crippled and they charge for it. So any serious gridder is not doing Microsoft.
I think the "device" is the CPU. There is no way the operating system can tell which box it is in, only which motherboard and processor it is running on.
That means replacing the CPU will be considered a move. I will only be able to replace the CPU once during the life of the OS. For most people this will be no problem. For me, it will suck bigtime.
"That means replacing the CPU will be considered a move. I will only be able to replace the CPU once during the life of the OS. For most people this will be no problem. For me, it will suck bigtime."
Yup, and what happens with Intel ramping up to four core (with AMD in hot pursuit), all with virtual machines. Oh, Vista will hit the fan with it's licensing as that happens.
"I said most 20,000 node networks don't run on open source and that is still an accurate statement, since most every one of them in existence runs on something proprietary."
The point was never open source, the point is other operating systems that don't have restrictive licensing and drm and other hindrances. Face, Vista is a big ho hum that will hurt Microsoft.
how about memory upgrades?
Swaping video cards?
I think this it to stop the joe average from tinkering with computers and coming up with the next "apple" in their garage.
bump
Ghost (and similar utilities) are a wonderful thing for people who are responsible for hundreds or thousands of computers. To be honest, I haven't used any version of Ghost since Ghost Corporate Ed 7.5, which is still perfectly good today. For instance, when a big company receives a new computer, they need to configure it. If they're on a Microsoft Volume License plan, they need to wipe the drive (if it came with anything on it in the first place), install the OS, install all the patches, apps, utilities, etc. If you've ever set up a Windows XP system, you know that it can take all day just to get one system just right. At that point, you run "sysprep," a microsoft utility that wipes out the workstation specific information, making the system "generic" and ready to install on the network. Then you create the ghost image. For big companies, that image is placed on a server. Then when the company takes delivery on the other 99 computers of that order, they simply plug those computers into the network, turn them on, and begin dumping the image down to the computers. The corporate edition of ghost has a utility known as "GhostCast," which is a multicast utility, which allows you to send 1 image to as many computers as you have network ports and bench space all at the same time. For instance, the last place I worked had enough bench space to ghost 15 computers at a time. It actually took longer to unbox and plug in all the computers than it did to "ghost" the drives.
It's also terrific for making an emergency backup of a system. There have been situations where a drive was about to fail that we were able to same most of the data to an image, and then use a utility known as "ghost explorer" to pull the critical files out of the image.
Mark
"how about memory upgrades? Swaping video cards?"
I've never had to reinstall the operating system when I changed memory or video. Motherboards and hard drives seem to cause problems, however. If I can't mirror the hard drive image, XP doesn't seem to work right.
Upgrading them probably would, replacing them probably not. When I hear the world "replace" I usually think of something being replaced with an equivalent, such as under warranty repair. I don't think Dell will have to phone Microsoft every time they perform a client repair, nor will home users who install replacements either. If you are building several new systems though, and trying to move a single copy of Windows around between them, that could be a problem.
I run Apache for static content
Jboss Application Server (Tomcat Servlet container) for dynamic content
Backend DB is MySql.
Lucene for full text searching
this is great...
Pirates of Silicon Valley-Microsoft steals from Apple.
95% of the software for years to come will be 32 bit code. It will take years for Vista to become mainstream. Beside, this limited license will not work so MS will back down.
Enjoy the movie.
Since it will come by default on practically every home compuer that is sold, how will Microsoft be hurt? Sure Apple will probably pick up a few more sales, but if you're claiming the Gateway and HP's down at Circuit City are all going to be running Linux instead of Visa you're dreaming.
I agree, a solid Unix like OS with lots of apps would gain market share.
I've put Unix on a 486 years ago, very fast, the hard ware is not the problem. X-Windows is not the problem. Don't know why Linux is slow, but I don't think the Unix kernal or X is why.
thx, will do.
Exactly right, Ghost works best for enterprise deployments of the same software setup to multiple identical pieces of hardware. The Acronis image product (and others such as UltraBac and Symantec Live State) allow a single end user to make an image backup of their workstation while the system is still online through the normal Windows GUI, a significant advantage. With optional modules those products will also support restores to dissimilar hardware, so long as the disk drivers are available at the time of restore.
That was one of the best engineered pieces of software for what it did, that I've ever seen.
Mark
And if you need Windoze stuff there is Borland 5.5. You need to register, but it is free.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.