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.
Apple has that, but they're keeping it bottled up to their own hardware. Apparently they primarily see themselves remaining a hardware company, but they should at least consider giving out some bootable "live cd's" with limited functionality such as browser only as a teaser.
Sysprep will allow you to do that as well, as long as the basic HAL is the same. You can have different disk drivers, network adapters, and video boards, and ghost can work just fine, provided you set up sysprep properly, and the aforementioned HAL is the same.
I was actually able to set up a single ghost image for a client once who had Dell laptops and Compaq desktops, and everything worked perfectly!
Mark
I wasn't familiar with Aloha Bob but my application was more for servers. We've turned some massive application server upgrades to new hardware from a weeks long job to a single day.
I'm more bothered by this Japanese company that recently bought the Palm O/S and is now killing it off for Linux.
Aloha Bob was strictly for workstations. It was amazing. It was able to migrate most windows applications to the new system, and would get all the profiles and personal settings and desktops. A really amazing piece of software. It looks like MS has a plan to bundle it with Vista (or make it available for sale only to Vista users).
Mark
I hadn't heard about that, but I don't like the sound of it -- could you be kind enuf to elaborate more, and/or give a link to comprehensive story. Is Palm O/S becoming unavailable. Thanx for any info.
You do like double standards
You still haven't explained in the other post how N Korea can run all those Clusters with NO Electricity.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1717138/posts?page=251#251
How can that be true today. Evidence it.
The Palm OS has officially ceased to be, giving way to Access Linux Platform (Japan).
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/12102006/152/goodbye-palm-hello-access-linux-platform.html
well goody for you. And how long did it take you find all the necessary drivers, etc. And weren't you lucky that Linux even had them.
Isn't this already the case?
Windows XP reinstalls require product activation...this typically amounts to trying to activate on-line (which fails), then waiting in queue before talking to some rep to explain why you need to re-activate, and then typing in a new activation code.
How is that a double standard, when only in your case is it a foreign company and product replacing an American one?
Here we have it folks PROOF that reincarnation is real!!!
May I present to you Golden Eagle...NOBODY can get this ignorant in ONE lifetime.
You see no difference between a Japanese company and an American one? That truly would be ignorant.
Windows XP reinstalls require product activation...this typically amounts to trying to activate on-line (which fails), then waiting in queue before talking to some rep to explain why you need to re-activate, and then typing in a new activation code.
No, I can wipe my harddrive and reinstall Win XP ad infinitum. I have to reenter the authentication code, but there is no limit to how many times I can do that.
And youll notice what I replied to was you aying 'I dont think google runs that many nodes"
I think you would be fine with fedora, just dont run KDE and dont do the default install..
The better question might be just how many linux workstations / servers / desktops have you set up in the past three years?
OK thx, I will give it a try.
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