Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use

NiK0laI writes "TechWeb has posted an article regarding Vista's new license and how it allows you to only move it to another device once. How will this work for people who build their PCs? I have no intention of purchasing a new license every time I swap out motherboards. '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. ... 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.'" Overly Critical Guy points out more information about changes to Vista's EULA and the new usage restrictions. "For instance, Home Basic users can't copy ISOs to their hard drives, can't run in a virtualized environment, and can only share files and printers to a maximum of 5 network devices."

MSFT business plan

[HangingChad]

Load weapon

Aim at foot

Pull trigger

Profit!!!

Thanks for the heads up

[joshetc]

Now everyone knows we only have to bother with pirating Vista Ultimate and Vista Business.

Re:A good thing

[RLiegh]

Can we take it that you're willing to volunteer for the job of easing window lusers over to *nix? 'Cos I know I sure as hell won't. I like the fact that using *nix gets me away from having to do n00b tech support. I don't want to see that fucked up!

Re:Come on guys

[nurb432]

Not *my* computer.

No f-ing way. And it has nothing to do with staying legal, i dont this garbage anywhere near my house.

A small familiar story about how civilisation died

[A beautiful mind]

"Many years ago this was a thriving, happy planet - people,
cities shops, a normal world. Except that on the high streets of
these cities there were slightly more BSA offices than one might
have thought necessary. And slowly, insidiously, the numbers of
these BSA offices were increasing. It's a well known economic
phenomenon but tragic to see it in operation, for the more BSA
offices there were, the more arcane EULAS they had to make and the worse
and more unreadable they became. And the worse they were to read,
the more people had to agree to to keep themselves legal, and the more
the offices proliferated, until the whole economy of the place
passed what I believe is termed the EULA Event Horizon, and it
became no longer economically possible to build anything other
than BSA offices. Result - collapse, ruin and famine. Most of the
population died out. Those few who had the right kind of genetic
instability mutated into cavemen - you've seen one of them - who
cursed proprietary software, cursed the companies, and vowed that none should
use it again. Unhappy lot. Come, I must take you to the
Vortex."

Re:Two words...

[carl0ski]

I find the Down grade to linux option defametory Your not sacrificing anything with linux I don't

Re:The "Linux" License is much easier on the Consu

[Chosen Reject]

Quick everyone, boycott Vista and buy an Xbox instead!! That'll teach Microsoft not to mess around with us!

Works for Me

[carrier lost]

Personally, I'm all for anything that makes Windows:

1. More expensive
2. Less Useful
3. Less Necessary
4. More Frustrating

Especially if it involves Microsoft pointing the gun at its own foot.

MjM

Re:One thing an operating system shouldn't do:

[carrier lost]

...it ceases to be an operating system.

Haha.

Possible new slogans:

• Microsoft; we take the Operation out of Operating System
• Where Don't You Get to Go Today?
• The Un-OS

:)

MjM

Pain in the ass for small developers

[MauMan]

I keep VM versions of earlier MS operating systems and OSs at different patch levels (eg XP/XP S1/XP SP2) for testing purposes when I release software. I'm glad to see the Microsoft does not want small developers to test for compatibility on home versions of Vista.

I have a cunning plan, milord!

[Somebody Is Using My]

I don't think you all grasp the cunningness of Microsoft's new strategy. It's well known that Microsoft's biggest competitor is... Microsoft themselves. Convincing people to upgrade to their latest-and-greates product has always been an uphill struggle for Microsoft. Microsoft has such a stranglehold on the market that no new product -not even their own- can break that iron grip.

But with Vista, the marketing geniuses at Microsoft have come up with a plan to finally break that viselike grip. If the problem is that Microsoft's marketshare is too big, then there's only one thing to do: convince consumers to stop buying Microsoft products. Only then will Microsoft have a fair chance at breaking into the market that Microsoft now controls.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has utilized this strategy; they tested the waters with WindowsME. However, Microsoft hedged their bets back then with the concurrent release of Windows2000. But WinME proved their tactics had merit; they created such a despicable product that consumers flocked to WindowsXP.

Now, with the imminent release of Vista, Microsoft is betting the entire company; there is no "backup" product to save the day in case the strategy flops, as was Windows2000. Microsoft has put all its eggs in the basket with Vista, and they have worked hard to make sure Vista is something nobody wants. It has only the minimum of improvments while at the same time necessitating obscenely high hardware requirements to make use of those features. Microsoft is also -as this latest development shows- injected their new flagship OS with as many painful ways to restrict the consumer in how he uses the software he has paid for. So not only is it a product nobody needs, not only is it a product nobody wants, but it is also a product that doesn't do anything well. Vista is sure to flop, costing Microsoft billions of dolllars and a significant percentage of their marketshare. Microsoft has even gotten their games division involved; all future Microsoft games will be Vista (DirectX 10) only; when Vista inevitably flops, so will all those games.

And then, when Microsoft is shattered by its own incompetance, that's when Microsoft will swoop in for the kill.*

Devious and cunning. Who says Microsoft doesn't innovate?

* My brain hurts.

Re:That's funny...

[Copid]

I can see where you're coming from, but learning the commands isn't about doing the basic stuff. It's about doing all the other stuff that's only done easily with those esoteric commands.

Re:Two words...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Yes, running a Quake server for your mates at at a LAN is a violation."

Ah, nothing like the smell of artificial limitations in the morning!