Microsoft Will Allow Vista Reinstalls 349
Claus Valca writes "I just spotted over on the Windows Vista Team Blog the news that the Windows Vista retail licensing terms are being revised. Looks like PC home-brew system builders have been let back into the Vista party!" From the article: "Our intention behind the original terms was genuinely geared toward combating piracy; however, it's become clear to us that those original terms were perceived as adversely affecting an important group of customers: PC and hardware enthusiasts. You who comprise the enthusiast market are vital to us for several reasons, not least of all because of the support you've provided us throughout the development of Windows Vista. We respect the time and expense you go to in customizing, building and rebuilding your hardware and we heard you that the previous terms were seen as an impediment to that — it's for that reason we've made this change."
Re:Still Shackled (Score:3, Insightful)
It is amazing how much FUD there has been about this EULA though. The (very incorrect) bit about not being able to run certain versions on virtual hardware is one that keeps coming up.
Combating piracy... huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
So paraphrasing one
I might not understand this sophisticated masterplan, but looks to me like it could only make more running copies "pirated".
I know why they're really doing it (Score:5, Insightful)
How to kill Linux dead. (Score:1, Insightful)
God bless their bleeding hearts. They're just trying to recoupe some of the market they have "given" to Linux, especially with glassy distros like Ubuntu that don't require much skill to setup and use.
Re:Great! (Score:4, Insightful)
You're kidding, right? Support for Windows 98 in almost anything is already pretty much dead and Vista's release will probably mark it's death. DirectX 10 will only run on Vista. Almost all new hardware comes with no (or crappy) Windows 98 support. Unless you're playing games like Oregon Trail and Starcraft, Windows 98 is *not* a gaming platform.
Don't see me complaining about WGA
WGA problems are overstated. I've never had any problems, and I don't know anyone personally who has (except those who got their product keys from what we might call "alternative sources". I won't say they don't exist, but for 99.99% of legitimate users it's likely not a problem.
or stupid, graphics heavy UIs
I love the dualism on Slashdot. First it's, "Windows is finally getting a fancy UI like OSX and Linux! Geez, took the copycats long enough!" The next day the same people crow, "Stupid XP and Vista GUI uses too many resources! I'm sticking with NT 4!"
I suppose if you have a Pentium II then XP's GUI might be considered "heavy", but in any case, you can turn it off.
Re:Er.. (Score:2, Insightful)
You were probably the first to bitch when they introduced the restrictive license, now that they've had a change of *ahem* heart you're still bitching. And if you didn't I apologize. If it wasn't you it was the rest of the anti-MS crowd.
I'm not sure why, but I feel necessary to clarify that I have no particular feelings towards MS love or hate. Beh.
Bye, bye "positive" karma, how I loved thee.
Re:Time is a valuable commodity... (Score:4, Insightful)
In many cases, the actual amount of time required looks like this:
Time to rebuild from scratch is less than 4 hours.
Time to discover root cause is greater than 4 hours.
Each method has it's good points, each it's bad. When it was just me, and I had hours to devote to discovery, that's the root that I chose. Now, with my son, girlfriend, house repairs, etc., it just doesn't make sense to invest that much time in discovery. Besides, it's not like my Win gaming computer is an HA server.
Erh... this is something to celebrate? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's something I expect from my OS. Yes, I'm greedy and brazen like that to expect that.
What's next, MS threatening to take away our ability to run third party software and then suddenly "reallowing" it, and we'll celebrate them as the next messiah for it?
Folks, don't be silly here. The only reason they stepped back was that a lot of people voiced their concerns and said that they will not buy it under those conditions. They don't do us a service by allowing us to use a system we license.
We do them a service by licensing it.
Re:Er.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great! (Score:3, Insightful)
Man, I know! It's like there's more than one person on this site, and they have different opinions! Next thing you know, someone will have one opinion, and then later receive new information and change their opinion based on said information they didn't have when they formed their original opinion or possibly even change it based on personal growth alone! What the hell?!
Re:Er.. (Score:2, Insightful)
so you saying Microsoft is less shit, less arrogant, less retarded less anti consumer fuck faces who screw everyone including your mother for money.(yeah i bet your mum has a windows machine)
Guess what, Microsoft is still all of those things. You dont just support the second worst you try to find the best. Wait what choice do you have? When there is a monopoly like microsoft have, the opportunity cost of not having windows (not being able to play most pc games) is greater than the cost (throwing all of your ideals about open software).
Dammit im ranting again.
Re:Er.. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd say there's a choice, but the best choice is often Windows anyway.
Having said that, Microsoft have never tried to pull the kind of crap Sony did with that rootkit. WGA is less intrusive than outright backdooring and spying on your userbase. And Sony's official line on that right up until they got their arses kicked was "Users don't know what a rootkit is, so why should they care?"
Microsoft has never done anything that evil or stupid. Worst thing MS ever did in my opinion was knifing Netscape. But companies do that kind of thing all the time anyway. From what I can tell, half the people on
Re:Er.. (Score:3, Insightful)
...
d) A convenient reminder that M$ is still taxing the world $40,000,000,000+ per year for a dozen programs mostly written more than a decade ago with the most difficult bits, the device drivers, being written by third parties. M$ marketing and their astroturfers really wish that people would forget that.
Until they remove their marketing keys from general purpose PC keyboards and stop propaganda like Get the facts [microsoft.com] the use of "M$" is a very minor response.
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New game: Spot the lying astroturfer [wikipedia.org] on /.!