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Vista licensing - will it kill enthusiasts interest ?

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Carol Haynes:
Microsoft have announced that Vista licenses will be restricted to a single PC - even if your remove the software from that device and want to install it on a different device.

They have given permission to move the license to one different PC in the event of catastrophic hardware failure but it will be strictly limitied to one move only.

Is it me or does this seem ridiculous ...

Scenario ...
A keen PC enthusiast builds a computer and installs VISTA

6 months later a new supa-dupa motherboard is released - technically they have to buy a new copy of VISTA even if the old motherboard is scrapped !!

Surely it should be the right to install only one copy on one machine - not on one specific machine? Presumably the Windows activation will start encoding things like motherboard identification etc. (it doesn't seem to at the moment) so that if you want to activate it on a different system they can tell it isn't the same motherboard. They can't easily enforce CPU ID as Athlon chips generally don't have individual serial numbers.

Here are a couple of articles that got me thinking ...

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_licensing.asp

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_licensing_reply.asp

What do you think ?

The whole situation strikes me as fine for average box buyer that comes with OEM Vista - but why should people who purchase a bloody expensive product (even at educational prices) be restricted to a single box they built from parts if they want to modify and enhance their system?

On a second note - presumably if you build your own system you are an OEM - how do you go about getting OEM copies of VISTA ?

mouser:
They have given permission to move the license to one different PC in the event of catastrophic hardware failure but it will be strictly limitied to one move only.
--- End quote ---

that's completely unacceptable to me.

Carol Haynes:
I have written a letter to Paul with a third viewpoint ...

I was interested to read the articles by you and Koroush Ghazi on the new VISTA licensing issue.

It strikes me that what MS are now doing is claiming that all copies of Windows a restricted in the same way the OEM copies of Windows have been restricted.

This strikes me as completely unfair. The point of OEM copies is that system builders buy huge numbers of licenses at vastly reduced prices on the basis that they restrict that copy to the particular computer they sell. That seems fair enough. To say to other users that buy a premium at a premium price that they are only allowed to install it on one system - and not even allow you to unistall it and move it to another system is simply ridiculous.

Adobe seem to me to have the right balance here. Sure you have to activate their software to use it (which caused initial consternation to users) but they had the foresight to allow deactivation too. If MS included deactivation in its software (as well as Windows Genuine DISadvantage) there would be absolutely no problem in any of this because people could legitimately decativate their system and move Windows to a different computer. In these circumstances only a genuine hardware failure would necessitate a reactictivation of already activated software and MS could seriously address issues of people simply lying to activate more than one copy.

This approach would have a further massive benefit for everyone - and especially MS. If Windows could be deactivated (and MS Office too) then there would be no need for the legions of bored people on the activation phones as the number of calls would dwindle to a trickle.

I realise you get a lot of email but I thought this was an issue that hadn't been covered in either of the articles you published.

--- End quote ---

It will be interesting to see if I get a response.

Josh:
Please note, the EULA that states that it can only be installed on a SPECIFIC machine relates only to PC's purchased with windows on it. You can move it one time, regardless of situation, with a purchased copy of windows.

Carol Haynes:
But if you read Paul Thurcott's article you will see that Microsoft's intention is that it should only move from one PC to a replacement PC (not just because you build a new PC) and that this will be the exception rather than the norm.

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