Microsoft changes Vista licensing scheme

[christopher_wolf]

http://www.theregister.com/2006/11/03/m ... limb-down/

Finally got rid of that annoying part, thankfully.

[jdhurst]

Yes. My guess is they would not be able to make it legally apply, at least not in Canada.

If you have a computer that has (arguably) mostly the same parts as on purchase, and Windows has crashed enough times (even for user silliness) to make five or six installs necessary, I don't think the courts would permit charging for an extra license when on already existed. (I am not describing myself )

I can also imagine Microsoft going to court here or in the US to get an extra license fee from Joe Lunchbucket, and come out looking like doofuses of monumental proportions. They would appear as a greedy giant trying to rape private citizens for no other reason that sheer unmitigated greed.

I am not in the least surprised that they climbed down. They have already lost credibility and played directly into the hands of those who find Microsoft's business ethics questionable.
... JD Hurst

[440roadrunner]

'bout time, too. What bothers me, is that a company with the kind of influence all over the world that Microshaft has, would come up with a lame-brain policy like that in the first place---

kind of like buying a new car, and after you buy one more set of tires, you have to buy a new car.....

[Thinkpaddict]

I used to think Microsoft Windows was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Since I discovered Linux, I think that Windows is just OK. The amount of crap that they make their legitimate customers go through to use their product is just ridiculous. There is no such thing as an unbreakable antipiracy system, so those stupid measures in the end just annoy the people that do actually buy the software.

[K. Eng]

I used to think Microsoft Windows was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Since I discovered Linux, I think that Windows is just OK. The amount of crap that they make their legitimate customers go through to use their product is just ridiculous. There is no such thing as an unbreakable antipiracy system, so those stupid measures in the end just annoy the people that do actually buy the software.

Yup. I hate product activation. It's not a problem on OEM systems that have pre-activated images, but the retail OS activation is annoying.

[Thinkpaddict]

And Microsoft is not alone. Adobe started doing it also. Not to mention specialty software (3D applications, music production software, etc). To be fair, I suppose that they might be avoiding simple cases of someone burning a CD for his friend or his cousin. As for anyone that tries hard enough, it is quite easy to find cracked copies of any imaginable software. Is it worth it to annoy your loyal customers this way, just to get a few more dollars? It must be, because otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. But that strategy might backfire in the future, when free alternatives just as capable (or more) are also much easier to install.