Microsoft to limit Vista transfers

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#1 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:07 pm

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+limits+Vi ... =nefd.lede

Under changes to Microsoft's licensing terms, buyers of retail copies of Vista will only be able to transfer their software to a new machine once. If they want to move their software a second time, they will have to buy a new copy of the operating system.

How evil is this???

This pretty much puts computer enthusiasts like myself up the creek. I like to build my own boxes, and I have a legitimate Windows XP license that I've used on my desktop for many years. I like to be able to move my XP license when I no longer use my old box, or when the old box is so upgraded as to practically be a new box.

Screw it. Vista is looking to be too much trouble. I think I'll have to get a Mac. Seeing as the processing hardware is all the same, it seems to be the best option.

#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:23 pm

Wouldn't it be something if this is what puts OS X in the drivers seat.

christopher_wolf · #3 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:24 pm

Another Licensing annoyance, oh joy.

This is worse than having *5* versions of Vista, even two versions of Windows XP wasn't that great of an idea.

They will probably realize this later on, hopefully before they pull support for XP....Which should be a *long* ways off as it stands.

#4 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:40 pm

Either that or Linux. I just don't have the time or inclination right now to fiddle with Linux. I just need something that works out of the box. It sucks to build a whole new machine, and then be stuck because the software doesn't work with it.

Now with a Mac, there's no opportunity to make a DIY box, but maybe that's a sacrifice worth making.

GomJabbar wrote:Wouldn't it be something if this is what puts OS X in the drivers seat.

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:48 pm

You could always try Thinkpad+OS X, which is getting to be a better and better combination.

#6 Post by **jdhurst** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:52 pm

At this point, I am sticking with XP.

MAC does not support Quickbooks or Netscreen. Can't use it
Linux does not support Quickbooks or Netscreen. Can't use it.
Vista does not support Netscreen and lots more. Can't use it.

I have everything I need now with XP and everything supported. So with XP I stay.
... JD Hurst

440roadrunner · #7 Post by **440roadrunner** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:57 pm

All I can say is, I'm glad I'm getting old. It's conceivable that I'll live "short" enough that I can live out my life with XP and be done with it. I'm certainly NOT going to run out and buy Vista under those conditions.

This is like buying a new car, and having to throw it away when the engine quits.

If YOU the pubic was smart, which you ain't, NONE of you would buy this crap until and if the policy is changes. It's bad enough that OEM systems suffer the fate they do under X tra P utrid.

christopher_wolf · #8 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:04 pm

440roadrunner wrote:All I can say is, I'm glad I'm getting old. It's conceivable that I'll live "short" enough that I can live out my life with XP and be done with it. I'm certainly NOT going to run out and buy Vista under those conditions.

Well...Putting things that way, all the people on this planet right now will almost assuredly never live to see the Sun start to flicker and go out in 5 billion or so years. A bit extreme for an operating system, no?

XP isn't bad and BSD, SuSE, and Ubuntu have been good alternatives thus far.

440roadrunner · #9 Post by **440roadrunner** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:41 pm

well, here's the thing.

I have several computers with XP, one or two was bought used, with legit copies--one was an Emachine with the factory install

HOWEVER, my "main" machine started out with a RETAIL copy of XP, installed on my old 700MHZ Winbloz98 machine.

THATS ONE

I decided to upgrade the new system, and bought a new MB and some other stuff, transfered everything, and reactivated

THAT's TWO

Then I started having some weird errors, BSD's and other annoyances, to make a long story short, I changed around a bunch of hardware AND the mb, and reactivated

THAT's THREE.

I can forsee in the next few years that I might be interested in a yet better motherboard, or

POSSIBLY AN ELECTRICAL FAILURE which will mandate yet some more hardware and or another mb

THAT's FOUR

I don't know HOW many different machines I've had my copy of WIndows 98 on in the last few years (one at a time), at least 4, as I've upgraded machines and rebuilt them. Some of these were traded and obtained used, and one was a power glitch that killed the board.

Now according to Microsoft, I'll have to re-buy the new system just because, say, a motherboard fails.

Now it's one thing to lock a system to an OEM install, but this new deal is pure BS.

#10 Post by **BillMorrow** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:50 am

don't waste so much energy on complaining until the OS is released..

while i do have a legit version of XP - SP2 it just will not load..
keeps going in circles reformatting the HDD and i just do not have the time or inclination to risk a decent load of a less than legit version of XP to call for support to figure ont why the legit version won't load where the other will..

i sure will not bother with vista until it supports all the sorftware i use and if i must upgrade all that software then why bother..

as for OS-X it might be fun to try and load it on a spare HDD on this desktop just to see how it works..
on the thinkpad T60p its slow and does not support all the devices..

linux might be a solution, but i'll wait another year or so before i even consider that..

i hope that M$ will realize that their monopoly will be broken one day and soften the above requirement..

it seems that software publishers have the golden egg..
just keep releasing new version of the same thing and get paid again..

Spif · #11 Post by **Spif** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:46 am

www.ubuntu.com might be the answer for some of you

#12 Post by **jdhurst** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:42 am

Spif wrote:www.ubuntu.com might be the answer for some of you

The big hassle with all of this (as I posted earlier) is that operating systems are no longer supporting the wide variety of software I have gotten used to. I *have* two Ubuntu machines. XP has become the last OS that actually can run everything I want and everything I need with zero exceptions or workarounds. I am not pushing any particular point of view, and would gladly use something else if my software ran on it. ... JD Hurst

snessiram · #13 Post by **snessiram** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:54 am

@jdhurst: Same problem here. I've xubuntu installed on my TP (next to winxp) but when using it I just miss some things like powertab editor, Internet Explorer (I'm into webdesign so I need it to check layouts, although I use Firefox all the time. I know IE4-6 can be run on xubuntu, have it myself, but IE7 wont do), cssvista, bearshare (no limeware isn't as good), video editing (use magix video deluxe mostly on win), audio editing (I don't like audacity),...
Offcourse, there are also things on xubuntu wich I like more than on windows (like faster startup, taskbar, some programs...).

@All: At this point I don't really like Vista. That's because of all the versions, the limitations, my dislike of DRM, the graphical bullsh*t I don't want,...

I've a vmware image of OSX here because I wanted to try it out. Although I didn't had a lot of time to check it yet, there's on thing that I find annoying at this point (don't know if it's changeable): You don't see the program name in the dock (when NOT hovering).

Silvas · #14 Post by **Silvas** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:34 pm

christopher_wolf wrote:Another Licensing annoyance, oh joy.

This is worse than having *5* versions of Vista, even two versions of Windows XP wasn't that great of an idea.

They will probably realize this later on, hopefully before they pull support for XP....Which should be a *long* ways off as it stands.

I wouldn't bet on it being *that* far off...
Considering the moves they're pulling to try to "force" people into upgrading to Vista, it looks like they're really really attempting to shorten the lifecycle on this switchover

The big one being that they've announced that DirectX10 will be Vista Only, no DX10 for XP. So when all th new DX10 games start coming out, anyone who's a gamer and wants to play the newest and greatest games on Windows will have no choice but to upgrade...

There are other things that I've read about that really make it look like MS is trying to squeeze people to upgrade a lot harder than they have in the past, but at the moment I can't think of most of them... the DX10 thing sticks out to me because I play a lot of games

christopher_wolf · #15 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:29 pm

They will pull support for XP if and only if they feel safe enough with Vista's userbase, which is going to take a long time seeing as how most corporations aren't planning to update even a year after it comes out.

In addition to the DX10 thing, OpenGL, if I remember correctly, will be locked at Version 1.4 freestanding and, higher versions, will *have* to go through the DirectX stucture. Talk about pissing off and screwing over game developers and their customers.

Mad-Mike · #16 Post by **Mad-Mike** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:39 pm

I tried the vista beta, I liked it, but it's too gimmicky for me, I just don't see the point in having glassy icons and so fourth.........

The last good Windows IMHO was 2000 Professional, no gimmicks, no having to turn 300,000 things off to save CPU time/speed (well, at least not so many).

As for me, I'm moving in the Linux direction, in a few years, I'm guessing I'll have a few Windows gaming machines, the rest'll all be running some flavor of *nix. I don't game much anyway, and most of the games I like run under linux or have a linux version released for them.

#17 Post by **jdhurst** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:52 am

Somehow, I think this thing is going to backfire.

The XP license on a ThinkPad is an OEM license that lives or dies with the computer. But you can re-install it as often as you wish (F11) and that is within the OEM licensing provisions. In fact, Corporations build models from these licenses and then re-install as frequently as necessary for different builds. And finally, OEM licensing is fairly cheap.

So now, with a Retail (and Expensive) licence for Vista, it is worth less than an OEM license because you can only install it once (or twice - I forget already).

This *will* become an issue. We will have to see how it unfolds.
... JD Hurst

rleo25 · #18 Post by **rleo25** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:01 pm

WHAT OPTIONS DO WE HAVE?

rleo25 · #19 Post by **rleo25** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:03 pm

EASY!!! DON'T BUY THAT VISTACRAP!!!!

#20 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:04 pm

EASY!!! DON'T BUY THAT VISTACRAP!!!![]

So....what are you saying exactly??

rleo25 · #21 Post by **rleo25** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:06 pm

Sorry I don't know how to erease a wrong edited post...

So....what are you saying exactly??[/quote]

christopher_wolf · #22 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:52 pm

jdhurst wrote:Somehow, I think this thing is going to backfire.

The XP license on a ThinkPad is an OEM license that lives or dies with the computer. But you can re-install it as often as you wish (F11) and that is within the OEM licensing provisions. In fact, Corporations build models from these licenses and then re-install as frequently as necessary for different builds. And finally, OEM licensing is fairly cheap.

So now, with a Retail (and Expensive) licence for Vista, it is worth less than an OEM license because you can only install it once (or twice - I forget already).

This *will* become an issue. We will have to see how it unfolds.
... JD Hurst

Wait, so you are saying that people could potentially go OEM more so than buying directly from Microsoft? Wow...That would really be a big shift of power and would probably give alot of said power to the OEMs as the middleperson. Sounds like Microsoft just opened themselves up for some opportune "leverage" from the OEMs.

#23 Post by **jdhurst** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:53 pm

christopher_wolf wrote:<snip>
Wait, so you are saying that people could potentially go OEM more so than buying directly from Microsoft? Wow...That would really be a big shift of power and would probably give alot of said power to the OEMs as the middleperson. Sounds like Microsoft just opened themselves up for some opportune "leverage" from the OEMs.

You just hit the nail square on the head. ... JD Hurst

christopher_wolf · #24 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 7:27 pm

The phrase "Payback for OS/2!" popped into my mind for some reason; I have no idea why though.

BigWarpGuy · #25 Post by **BigWarpGuy** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:21 am

christopher_wolf wrote:The phrase "Payback for OS/2!" popped into my mind for some reason; I have no idea why though.

I was thinking the same thing too.

There are alternatives to Windows; eComStation http://www.ecomstation, ReactOS http://www.reactos.org , Linux http://www.linux.org (IIRC on the URL), and others.

Manarius · #26 Post by **Manarius** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:55 am

The copy of XP I have on my desktop has been activated at least 7 times courtesy of it crashing, hardware changes, electrical shortages, etc. If you activate it on the phone, they may grumble, but they do it.

440roadrunner · #27 Post by **440roadrunner** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:46 pm

Manarus, I believe you are somewhat misdirected.

We are NOT complaining about XP but the new Vista system

We are not referring to "activation" but rather transferring RETAIL versions between machines as one upgrades.

Orevin · #28 Post by **Orevin** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:40 am

So, MS changed the license terms. You will be able to install Vista more then once, but you can use it only on one machine at a time.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/03 ... limb-down/

Microsoft to limit Vista transfers

Microsoft to limit Vista transfers

Me too!

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