Windows XP license: how do they get away with it?

isofa

You could always buy a Mac

And if you buy a retail "home" copy of OS X, you can install it on 3 Macs too. All versions are the same, there is no Basic, Home, Premium, Business, Ultimate etc. The OS is the same with all the features and at one simple price point. (There is a server version but that's a different ball game).

(for the record I use both Windows and Mac OS X daily, and own both types of system too, neither are perfect.

BillScarab

So what if Microsoft sell cheap licenses with restrictions or more expensive ones with less restrictions. If I buy a DVD it says I have to pay extra to play it in public. According to the copyright notice I can't even lend the DVD to a friend let alone make a backup copy myself. It's still restricting what I can do with something I've paid for.

If people don't like OEM licenses just buy machines with no OS and then buy and install a retail copy. Remember when you buy Windows you're not buying a copy that is yours to do as you wish with, you're buying a license to use the software. Microsoft charge differing amounts according to the type of use you are allowed

Andy_L

fwor wrote: »

Try this test: We know that Dell sell Linux-based PCs. So go to www.dell.co.uk or www.dell.com and try to buy one. You won't be offered anything other than a M$ OS. Now why is that?

3 clicks
Desktops> for home>Open source PCs(Linux)

Conor_3

fwor wrote: »

Well I may be clueless, as you pointed out earlier, but I managed to get a Hauppauge twin tuner card working with MythTV under Ubuntu without too much trouble. Both the MythTV Backend and Frontend packages are in the Ubuntu repositories - you can add, remove and configure them without even going near a command prompt.

But I concede that there are still a few things that can be "challenging" to do in any Linux distro (or at least any that I've tried)...

THe Nova-TD stick isn't supported. My HV1300 works fine on the desktop. Nova TD support is supposed to be in the new kernel so we'll see with Hardy when it's released. I updated to the new kernel but it broke the sound on my laptop at which point, I gave up and decided to leave that particular task until the new release of Ubuntu.

isofa

BillScarab wrote: »

...If people don't like OEM licenses just buy machines with no OS and then buy and install a retail copy. Remember when you buy Windows you're not buying a copy that is yours to do as you wish with, you're buying a license to use the software. Microsoft charge differing amounts according to the type of use you are allowed

Bill has made a really good point. When I and my colleagues create systems for clients, we grant users a licence to user the system only, not to own it, not deconstruct and use all our years on knowledge to re-engineer and make something else with it. And although we build in good protection, nothing is hack-proof, so have to declare the restrictions clearly in a licence.

There are millions of hours of work in any large commercial software product, be it an OS or application, of course no software company in their right mind, having paid millions of pounds in wages to develop it ,are going to sell it for a fiver for you to do with what you wish - and fair enough, why should they. There are various licences available for this very purpose. There are plenty of alternatives to MS, Apple, Linux etc, and thousands of open source applications too. "You pay your money, you take your choice"

I'm sure if you want total ownership of a piece of software the creating company would put together a pricing structure to enable this, but you'd need a very large bank balance!

Intellectual property, the basis of software licensing, is very different to, for example buying a piece of furniture or any other type of product, where once purchased you can do what you like with it - you have total ownership. You don't with commercial software.

fwor

isofa wrote: »

Bill has made a really good point. When I and my colleagues create systems for clients, we grant users a licence to user the system only, not to own it, not deconstruct and use all our years on knowledge to re-engineer and make something else with it. And although we build in good protection, nothing is hack-proof, so have to declare the restrictions clearly in a licence.

I don't disagree with anything you've said above - I have no problem with different software licence models.

My point was simply that the way they set up the pricing - with an OEM paying a small fraction of what you or I would pay retail - is intended to distort the market and ensure that most people have no (sensible) choice but to buy a PC with Windows on it.

And yes - all my PCs get bought with no OS bundled, because I build my own - even though it probably doesn't save me any money in reality...

isofa

Yeah I agree with you there fwor too. MS have definitely manipulated and distorted the market for many many years.