Ken Springer said:
I agree, I don't know why a person shouldn't be able to do this.
But, that's our opinion. As it stands, the terms of a EULA is law.
Someone has said in this thread that MS have said you _can_ move an OEM
if the mobo dies.
(For the sake of this discussion, let's leave out a discussion of
whether EULAs are legal or not. That's a different question.)
(Indeed!)
Therefore, you have to (or at least should if you're honest, ethical,
moral, etc.
) obey the law. What if my opinion was I should be
[I too will assume we're accepting EULAs for this discussion.]
Agreed. Although, I'm not so sure the cost of some software is out of
line anymore. I remember paying $5,000 for software and hardware for
my early systems 30+ years ago. With inflation over those years, I
wonder how much money I spent in today's dollars.
Yes, software has, on the whole, come down over the last few decades.
It does seem rather unfair, I agree.
I'd agree that (possibly) most of us that read newsgroups may do it
because of our interest in computers, but I seriously doubt that
perspective applies to the majority of users.
Indeed, but the majority of users wouldn't have bought an OEM version as
a separate item - they'd have bought a computer, which includes an OEM
OS, but its price is not shown separately on the invoice.
And I agree re: only one copy of it running at one time. Just to split
hairs for the purpose of discussion, does "running at the same time"
mean, one copy installed on a single computer, or multiple copies of
the same license on multiple computers, but only one computer turned on
an running at any one time?
It can get complicated! LOL
Or, for MS verification purposes, only one online at a time (-:!
[]
True, but the conditions under which the copies were sold are not
identical. There's always been a cost advantage to buying in quantity.
Yes, but not to the same extent. Most things I buy, if I buy a bigger
bottle/packet/whatever, I expect to pay less per gramme/litre/whatever,
but rarely by a factor of more than about 2, except where the cost of
the packing materials is significant.
Also, if you use the Restore CD or image on a Dell, you'll likely find
the product ID that's on the hard drive does not match the sticker on
the machine. I just learned that a short time ago, and it surprised
me. I think that situation has to do with the buying in quantity, and
that particular product ID is unique to Dell or whomever. The small
guy just can't match the quantity issue.
I think the reason the number doesn't match is that Dell etc. really do
clone their systems - i. e. load lots of hard drives at once, from the
same master OS copy. (I don't think you have to use the restore disc - I
think if you extract the key from your running OS, using Belarc etc. or
possibly even there might be a way just in Windows itself, it'll show
the master key they used rather than the one on the sticker.)
It's quantity and free enterprise.
See above; I don't think the difference is entirely down to quantity.
There's also at least the suggestion that MS apply some pressure to the
manufacturers not to make other than Windows systems: ISTR there was a
time a few years ago that you could get a non-Windows Dell (maybe you
still can?), but not from a lot of the other well-known brands.
I really wish the contemporary computer "world" was like 30+ years ago.
You could go to a store and see IBM, Commodore, Apple, Atari,
Timex/Sinclair, Radio Shack, TI, (who else was out there......), and a
lot of models of each. But, not too many different OS's exist anymore,
compared to then.
(Yes, I liked the BBC [Acorn] one. Quite good anyway, and very
well-documented: every part of the OS code was given in a book, with
parameters etcetera.)
It does seem to be moving back to that situation, though. It used to
be you pretty much had to go to an Apple store to see Apples. PC's
were like trash on the street, pretty much everywhere.
But Apple seems to be branching out, you can now buy them at Micro []
I wish places like Micro Center and Best Buy would set up some Linux
machines, so consumers could have the opportunity to see and evaluate 3
Yes, so do I. (PCWorld in UK.) When netbooks first came out, I thought
the monopoly (or duopoly) was going to be broken: about a third or half
of those (mainly the 7" ones) had a different OS. (It was a Linux
variant, but that didn't matter [and wasn't obvious]: it was pretty tied
down.) But that petered out - I suspect because it was _only_ the
low-end machines, and they were limited (in practice, didn't have enough
storage to load applications other than the basic ones [email, web, and
wordproc, more or less, IIRR] they came with). Linux doesn't seem to be
given a fair crack of the whip - i. e. on comparable machines - by the
main/high street stores.
OS's. Although I don't think, personally, that Linux is quite ready
for the general public from what little I've seen.
That's the trouble (and something of a chicken-and-egg situation): I
_have_ seen so little of it that I can't judge!
