The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #115259 Message #2466964
Posted By: JohnInKansas
16-Oct-08 - 01:51 AM
Thread Name: Tech: XP Service Pack 3 Conspiracy Theory.
Subject: RE: BS: XP Service Pack 3 Conspiracy Theory.
Foolestroupe -
The EULA (End User License Agreement), at least in the US, clearly gives you the right to transfer the Microsoft OS with the machine on which it was originally (legally) installed. It is a requirement that the installation disk(s) be transferred with the machine. "Server installed" versions should be just as legal, provided that the server accounts for the remaining number of installations permitted at the shop of origin.
Transferring "your" copy of WinXP to a new machine presents some difficulties, under the recent EULA, but has been permitted by Microsoft in some cases, where the original machine can be certified as "dead and removed from service." (It usually takes some "negotiation" to get this accomplished.)
If an OEM builder wants to install a Microsoft OS on new machines that (s)he's selling, Microsoft now insists that the "current OS" be what's installed, and that means Vista at present. For now, the OEM builder can offer the "downgrade to WinXP, but is required (apparently by contract) to get the media for each computer - for Vista and for the WinXP "downgrade" - from Microsoft.
Although as a practical matter, few OEM builders selling Microsoft OS equipped machines have offered alternatives in the recent past, at least a couple now do offer to ship new machines with Linux as the original OS, although most shipments still are with Vista preinstalled.
John