That's a discounted OEM version only for system builders (no transfers, no upgrades, no real support as in not even Abu to answer the support phone, etc.). Not the same as the "real" Vista Ultimate. As you'll soon find out if you buy it. You're not a system builder, are you?
If you buy it for personal use,
caveat emptor. And read that fine print very carefully.
And you can still buy the more powerful and secure Mac Tiger OS and get five licenses for 30% less. And with Tiger, no sneaky restrictions to screw you later on your 'bargain'.
Fresh from a
new thread at Slashdot today:
Microsoft threatens licence dodgers, Changes of tactics as BSA is called in
Since Ultimate includes Business and Home Media editions, that means holding an improperly licensed copy of Vista may get you an audit from Microsoft. If you refuse, they'll send the BSA and their lawyers to make your life interesting. Maybe your "cheap" copy of Vista will cost more than you think. They're indicating legal action against businesses that have a lower "class" of Vista than you apparently have.
Are you so sure you want to connect to WindowsUpdate now? Oh, yeah, and did you read that fine print where Microsoft reserves the right to delete anything it wants to that it finds on your hard drive
without your permission or even telling you? And they mean anything. And that means they're going to scan your entire machine and look at photos and videos, maybe warez. It'll all go into some nice file they have on you in that new massive datacenter.
Why do you even want to do business with a company that treats you like that?
Microsoft threatens licence dodgers, Changes of tactics as BSA is called in It might be fun to know your licenses are 100% correct, and ignore Microsoft up until the point the BSA hauls you to court. Just sit back until the judge forces you to put up the licenses, then do so.
One example the article gives for Microsoft discovering illegit software is the CAL issue. This is one place where Microsoft's pricing just plain sucks in comparison to Apple. Windows 2003 Server from Dell OEM with only 25 CAL costs you $3,295 ($3,999 retail). OS X Server with unlimited CAL costs just $999 full retail. So buy a few XServes to run your organization and a lot of worries go out the window, and at a quarter of the price.
Of course, even Apple is proprietary. The only way to eliminate the possibility of audits, and eliminate the man-hours to make sure you're compliant with all of your software, is to use free software.