[plug] Windoze XP licence solution

James Elliott James.Elliott at wn.com.au
Mon Jul 8 10:16:26 WST 2002


I suggest, in future, you buy the machine without Windows and save $200 or
more.

We sell computers with or without operating systems.

If you have paid for it and have a legitimate reason for transferring it to
another computer (upgrade;  original computer suffered a nuclear melt down;
or, like you, you want Linux on the laptop) you should be able to.  You
have, indirectly, paid $200-$300 for Windows XP and that entitles you to run
it on ONE machine.  As long as you are not cheating and running it on two
machines then you have not breached copyright.  If Microsoft or the dealer
you purchased your laptop from think they can collect $200, or more,  from
you for a product you cannot use, they are sadly mistaken.  Threaten to sue
them (only costs you $40 for a summons to be issued but does enormous damage
to their credibility and credit rating).  I did that when I upgraded,
legally to Win 98.  My OEM MS Office would not load on my new, non-oem Win
98.  After getting nowhere, and being told by the MS Help Desker that
nothing could be done about it I said I wanted to speak to a decision making
boss because he/she needed to know that I was on my way to the courthouse to
organise a summons and Microsoft would then be listed with CRA - he went off
to speak to the boss and after quite a while, came back and said "this is
what you have to do to install your Office 97 on Win 98 ............"

With people like Microsoft who play hard and think they have it all their
own way, sometimes you have to play hard too.

Regards

James Elliott
Ravensthorpe Computers
ABN 34 305 232 710
Tel:   08 9838 1043
Fax:  08 9838 1049
Cell:  0428 39 6052
E-mail:  James.Elliott at wn.com.au
Australia Post:
PO Box 228, Ravensthorpe WA 6346
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Ringer" <craig at postnewspapers.com.au>
To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: [plug] Windoze XP licence question


> >
> >
> >>On a spare computer I installed windoze XP from the CD i got with the
> >>laptop. After I couple days I cannot use windoze XP because I have not
> >>registered (cannot login).
> >>
> >>My question (and I did not read the XP licence):
> >>
> >>a) If I register XP on this computer, can I later remove XP from this
> >>computer and install and register XP on another computer?
> >>
> >>
> >
> >No. IIRC, the MS licensing restricts you from moving machines like that -
> >altho I dont know where the line is drawn with upgrades
> >
> >
> Actually, this isn't _always_ true: I've encountered PCs shipped with
> retail windows licences that _do_ allow this, but 99% of machines come
> with OEM windows licences that may only be used with the machine they
> were sold with. *sigh*.
>
> >>Why not install Debian everywhere and be done with it?
> >>
> Not always practical, sadly. In my case I still use win9x at home for
> the odd times I want to do some gaming, and to use my windows-only
> scanner. Aggrivating but there's nothing to be be done about it so far.
>
> On the other hand I get by very well with nothing but Debian at work :-)
>
> Question for the list btw: now that the woody security infrastructure is
> in place, does anybody know what's holding up the release?
>
>




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