Windows Vista's Enthusiastic Licensing Restrictions

Vikingod · Oct 16, 2006, 04:10 PM

Source: WinSuperSite
__________
My name is Koroush Ghazi, and I run the site TweakGuides.com. As you can probably guess by the site's name, I like to tweak and tinker with hardware and software. I'm what you might call a 'PC enthusiast': one of those guys who builds his own PC, regularly upgrading it to keep up with the demands of modern gaming. When Paul asked me to write a reply to his Licensing Changes to Vista article I jumped at the chance, given that this issue really affects guys like me. I know from the emails I've received, and from comments I've read by other enthusiasts across the Net that Vista's explicit limitation on transferring only once to another machine in particular has caused genuine frustration, confusion and anger. I'm here to try to put across the enthusiast's point of view, something which both Paul's original article and Microsoft may have lost sight of.

Vikingod · Oct 16, 2006, 04:19 PM

Great article. It was also good of Paul T. to allow someone from the enthusiast community write a rebuttle to his earlier analysis and post it on his site.

Necrosis · Oct 16, 2006, 05:19 PM

I think any one who agree's with this article should remove the RC from their computers. I'm thinking about doing it myself, why should I test it for free?

Vikingod · Oct 16, 2006, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrosis

I think any one who agree's with this article should remove the RC from their computers. I'm thinking about doing it myself, why should I test it for free?

lol, way ahead of you. I agree, I won't test an OS, when I will be treated like this in the future. If you cant do anything else, vote with your time and your pocket book.

mainman · Oct 16, 2006, 07:22 PM

Very good read indeed. This doesn't really affect me since i will get vista for free and will install it in every f'in pc i wan't as will most people. If MS wants to play God, fine by me, just don't expect my hard earned money in exchange.

Mazuko · Oct 16, 2006, 10:58 PM

I figure WinXP will be around awhile. Look at the user generated "updates" for windows 98. It's a product that some fantastic games can only run on, even with the "compatability mode" offered in WinXP. My prediction is that we will see this with WinXP in the future also.

However I also feel that, as again with WinXP, you will slowly see people move to Vista. Why? It's that little thing called "required OS" to run applications. As MS dumps money towards developers to make software to run on their new OS, you will see "gamers" move to vista and keeping WinXP installed on another HDD. I have win98 on a seperate HDD when it becomes absolutely necessary. I have read that Vista won't like having a dual boot system, so we'll use another HDD to do it.

The enthusiast group will find a way. My only opinion based on the whole financial issue is this. Figure 5% of windows users are enthusiasts. Figure that #, according to the article, is about 60-65 million people. Now think about how much money you spend each year on upgrades.

Let's just take a good number and say we each spend about $200 (USD) a year on upgrades. Multiply that by 60-65 million people and you get: $1.2 billion - $1.3 billion dollars USD. That is a HUGE sum of money that hardware vendors are going to lose if all of us switch to Vista.

I don't see this EULA, and remember it is just the EULA talking at this point, really screwing us over.

If they somehow install an application that prevents the reactivation at some point and they do away with the telephone activation feature (for those of us that have activated too many times) then we will see an uprising of the masses on the internet, and a surge in internet courage.

SFOSOK · Oct 17, 2006, 03:23 AM

Now if someone can find a hack that runs Vista games on XP then the new OS shall have an early grave.

Al_Vampyre · Oct 17, 2006, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFOSOK

Now if someone can find a hack that runs Vista games on XP then the new OS shall have an early grave.

Quoted for truth!

I have just re-done my main machine to dual boot with XP and Ubuntu, the vast majority of stuff I use has equivalents that run in linux with the exception of games. So I have a completely clean XP (just AV & Firewall added) for gaming, and the plan is to strip as much out of it as possible to leave it purely as a gaming OS and use Ubuntu for everything else.

I plan on holding on to XP for as long as is humanly possible, there is no way I'm spending that kinda money on an OS upgrade as long as the one I have allows me to enjoy my games. A Vista games hack that allows them to run on XP would be the almost ideal solution for me, the ideal solution would be complete gaming support in linux.

~~bobbytomorow~~ · Oct 17, 2006, 11:15 AM

I have no intentions of buying vista anyway, but does this mean that "borrowed" versions will be feature crippled?

Dyre Straits · Oct 17, 2006, 12:30 PM

That was an awesome rebuttal article!

I'm also of the ilk that likely won't be buying VISTA anytime soon. After all, it took me over two years to finally get XP.

I'll be watching closely how things develop after the final release to the retailers.

Judas · Oct 17, 2006, 08:07 PM

I wonder about those major enthusiast that have to benchmark new hardware, reinstall windows several times over in a single day

Betcha Toms Hardware is going to take roughly 5x longer to get out there VGA roundup let alone motherboard roundup as an example.

Dark Lord · Oct 17, 2006, 08:33 PM

if some one figures out a way to get DX10 working on XP, i dont think ill ever run vista.

if it wasnt for saying dx10 would be vista only, i dont think id have any intrest in vista at all anymore. the OS has gone from sounding like a great os to a restrictive piece of crap.

EcPercy · Oct 17, 2006, 08:51 PM

Personally, I don't see why Microsoft doesn't just allow you to tie your Product Activations to your Live ID. You could then login and see what's activated and if need be deactivate that particular system. This would allow you to reactivate again with the same license.

Oct 16, 2006, 04:10 PM	#1
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	Windows Vista's Enthusiastic Licensing Restrictions Source: WinSuperSite __________ My name is Koroush Ghazi, and I run the site TweakGuides.com. As you can probably guess by the site's name, I like to tweak and tinker with hardware and software. I'm what you might call a 'PC enthusiast': one of those guys who builds his own PC, regularly upgrading it to keep up with the demands of modern gaming. When Paul asked me to write a reply to his Licensing Changes to Vista article I jumped at the chance, given that this issue really affects guys like me. I know from the emails I've received, and from comments I've read by other enthusiasts across the Net that Vista's explicit limitation on transferring only once to another machine in particular has caused genuine frustration, confusion and anger. I'm here to try to put across the enthusiast's point of view, something which both Paul's original article and Microsoft may have lost sight of.

Oct 16, 2006, 07:22 PM	#5
mainman Mr. Nobody Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: OmniPresent Nightwatcher Posts: 5,961 Rep Power: 71	Very good read indeed. This doesn't really affect me since i will get vista for free and will install it in every f'in pc i wan't as will most people. If MS wants to play God, fine by me, just don't expect my hard earned money in exchange. __________________

Oct 16, 2006, 10:58 PM	#6
Mazuko DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Fredericksburg, VA Posts: 1,008 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I figure WinXP will be around awhile. Look at the user generated "updates" for windows 98. It's a product that some fantastic games can only run on, even with the "compatability mode" offered in WinXP. My prediction is that we will see this with WinXP in the future also. However I also feel that, as again with WinXP, you will slowly see people move to Vista. Why? It's that little thing called "required OS" to run applications. As MS dumps money towards developers to make software to run on their new OS, you will see "gamers" move to vista and keeping WinXP installed on another HDD. I have win98 on a seperate HDD when it becomes absolutely necessary. I have read that Vista won't like having a dual boot system, so we'll use another HDD to do it. The enthusiast group will find a way. My only opinion based on the whole financial issue is this. Figure 5% of windows users are enthusiasts. Figure that #, according to the article, is about 60-65 million people. Now think about how much money you spend each year on upgrades. Let's just take a good number and say we each spend about $200 (USD) a year on upgrades. Multiply that by 60-65 million people and you get: $1.2 billion - $1.3 billion dollars USD. That is a HUGE sum of money that hardware vendors are going to lose if all of us switch to Vista. I don't see this EULA, and remember it is just the EULA talking at this point, really screwing us over. If they somehow install an application that prevents the reactivation at some point and they do away with the telephone activation feature (for those of us that have activated too many times) then we will see an uprising of the masses on the internet, and a surge in internet courage. __________________ E-bay feedback: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...me=STRK:ME:UFS

Oct 17, 2006, 03:23 AM	#7
SFOSOK 939 Goin Strong Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Ontario Posts: 7,033 Rep Power: 90 System Specs	Now if someone can find a hack that runs Vista games on XP then the new OS shall have an early grave. __________________ Warning - Explicit Content Preceeding METAL!!

Oct 17, 2006, 08:33 PM	#12
Dark Lord HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI Posts: 5,945 Rep Power: 125 System Specs	if some one figures out a way to get DX10 working on XP, i dont think ill ever run vista. if it wasnt for saying dx10 would be vista only, i dont think id have any intrest in vista at all anymore. the OS has gone from sounding like a great os to a restrictive piece of crap. __________________

Oct 16, 2006, 04:19 PM	Thread Starter #2
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	Great article. It was also good of Paul T. to allow someone from the enthusiast community write a rebuttle to his earlier analysis and post it on his site.

Oct 16, 2006, 05:19 PM	#3
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	I think any one who agree's with this article should remove the RC from their computers. I'm thinking about doing it myself, why should I test it for free?

Oct 17, 2006, 11:15 AM	#9
~~bobbytomorow~~ Banned Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: vancouver Posts: 450 Rep Power: 0	I have no intentions of buying vista anyway, but does this mean that "borrowed" versions will be feature crippled?

Oct 17, 2006, 08:51 PM	#13
EcPercy HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Iraq Posts: 1,535 Rep Power: 0	Personally, I don't see why Microsoft doesn't just allow you to tie your Product Activations to your Live ID. You could then login and see what's activated and if need be deactivate that particular system. This would allow you to reactivate again with the same license.