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Vista licensing - will it kill enthusiasts interest ?

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zridling:
Here's a link to Vista's just completed licensing terms. Attached is the Ultimate version's PDF. Page 6, #15 is the point we're interested in.

zridling:
More interesting responses here. We're not alone!

Carol Haynes:
More interesting responses here. We're not alone!
-zridling (October 17, 2006, 04:36 AM)
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Can I suggest everyone shoots over there, registers and makes a comment - the more feedback MS product managers get the more likely they are to change things before VISTA is formally released. Once the EULA is actually in force the chances of getting anything changed are probably minimal so shout now for all you are worth.

NeilS:
As I understand it WGA will be mandarory in Vista - MS have already said that computers that don't pass WGA will have basic functionality disabled in VISTA - I am only surprised it has taken them this long to start doing that. Wait to hear the outcry when the false positives start meaning people can't use their systems at all.
-Carol Haynes (October 17, 2006, 03:53 AM)
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I think we might be at cross purposes here, although it's probably my fault for overloading the term "mandatory".

So yes, I have no doubt that WGA will be mandatory in that it will attempt to phone home whenever it feels like it (although they might limit this to minimise complaints about it wasting people's bandwidth) and, if the activation check returns a "no" answer, they will disable stuff, probably even the OS itself (except maybe Safe Mode).

The other "mandatory" that I was talking about is what happens if the WGA check fails to reach the activation server, due to limited or no internet access (a fairly common occurrence in offices). If MS makes the reaching of the server mandatory as well, then WGA is going to break for a lot of people. I find it hard to imagine MS wanting to go this far, but maybe I just need a more fertile imagination. ;)

Robert Carnegie:
As far as I recall, the licence is for the lifetime of one motherboard.

They can make you do this, if you use their product.

Retail is tedious for them.  They want to deal with PC manufacturers who buy a million licences at a time, or big corporations who buy into their rolling upgrades program - which annoyed a lot of people when no upgrades were rolled, so you were buying nothing.  But they can make you do this.

They are addicted to money, I think.  PC industry growth was sky-high for years and Microsoft revenue soared.  There was never anything like it.  But once everyone has a PC and a copy of Windows, what can you sell them?  How do you keep the money addicts, the shareholders, happy?  Well, you sell a new version of Windows, and you try to get more money from each customer every time.

In this they aren't different from other businesses.  Everyone wants to get money from customers.  But Microsoft has special ways to do it - lock in the customers so that to participate fully in society, to pay your taxes, to draw your salary, to access public media, you have to use Microsoft software.

Home software rental is coming, I'd say.  There may even be PCs with coin slots.

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