Saturday, February 18th 2006
Microsoft: Upgraded Motherboard = New Windows Licence
Microsoft recently made a change to the licence agreement saying that a new motherboard is equal to a new computer, hence you need to purchase a new Windows licence.Here is what Microsoft has to say:
Source:
Aviran's Place
An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a "new personal computer" to which Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required.The reason Microsoft gave for this term is that:
Microsoft needed to have one base component "left standing" that would still define that original PC. Since the motherboard contains the CPU and is the "heart and soul" of the PC, when the motherboard is replaced (for reasons other than defect) a new PC is essentially created.Microsoft sent a memo to its OEM partners asking them to enforce this new policy, every time they upgrade a computer for a client.
35 Comments on Microsoft: Upgraded Motherboard = New Windows Licence
And to say i was ready to become a "legal" WinUser and buy the soon to come vista, well, i was thinkin about it but thx Ms you just saved me some cash..
If games came out on linux I would have left Winblows years ago...
blargh.
Im buying a macbook. last straw, microshaft. Don't expect me to buy vista or anything afterwards.
You know neither Linux nor MacOS will get the same amount and/or quality of games/drivers in the foreseeable future than the M$ platform, so there's nothing we can do when M$ decides to give their users the shaft...
Geez and to think M$ has been found guilty in court of forcing us PC users to use only their products time and time again, and yet M$ continues to force these new "policies" down our collective throats, goverments are supposed to protect us consumers from companies like M$, but even goverments seem unable/unwilling to do anything :mad:
What did they teach at economy class at Bill Gate's school? the Borg way???? (as in "resistance is futile":twitch: )
/end rant
Apple switching to PC hardware will now make coding pie. Its based off of unix, a programmers sandbox these days.. Opengl games like doom 3 and games like UT are easily ported and with the x86 hardware, performance will stay on par with PC's..
I see apple being able to put a nice kick into microshafts pants soon..:)
o yes and cliffy B :rockout:
Ok, go ahead and download a cracked version of MacOS, then try to upgrade the motherboard, processor, video card, memory, HDD, and what not, then try to buy the latest games and download the latest drivers and patches for MacOS, after that you can come here and tell us all how well did that go... :rolleyes:
The point is, for us, "legal" PC users who keep changing our hardware on a regular basis, M$ is leaving no further option than to suck it up and keep buying some security hole riddled POS operative system from them everytime we change a piece of hardware, or give them the shaft and use a cracked version of windows (without the latest security patches btw, M$ now requires a working CD key to download an use them :()
Right now Linux is not an option from the drivers/gaming point of view, but hopefully coercive policies like the one M$ is trying to promote (and others like the DRM schemes embeded to Windows Vista), will drive more attention to the Linux community from computer enthusiasts in the near future, it's just that I don't see that happening before Vista hits the shelves...:shadedshu
jeez... is there no end to this?
shocked and outraged dosent even begin to describe how i'm feeling about all of this...
and yes, this definantly *will* push more people towards piracy.
My point was, Linux and mac os x are still around. perhaps os x requires apple hardware.. my point was, Apple's Powermac desktops should be on their way which will add an intertesting spin to the world of Macs Vs pc's.. it'll be basicly desktop hardware running a unix based OS thats commercially supported...
and with Core duo's, I can see the overclocking community being able to thrive much better than it used to, using macs. If you think linux isnt an option for gaming, you obviosuly dont use it.. it may still be a pain in the butt, but for certain types of games, it is making leaps and bounds.. World of warcraft even plays.. it may not have "all" games, but damn.. considering most games are made for windows, Id say thats pretty good.
While your arguement has a point, microsoft probably doesnt give too much of a crap about the "enthusiast" community, rather dell customers, home users, and BUSINESSES.
6million people, maybe 1million are "enthusiasts".. probably less... assuming they had a single license, thats less than 1/6th. theres businesses with hundreds if not thousands of licenses, letalone people with multiple licenses...
I dont think a few whining overclockers are going to change their minds.. ;)
The volume license copies are quite nice, however, because they dont have any activation check.. rather it just accepts the code... and isnt much more.. ;)
Damn, M$ are screwing us over and sadly, theres nothing we can do...
The people that bash macs are usually people that have never used or owned one...
They may not be the fastest, most tweakable, but.. dang.. the OS is just awesome to use.. :respect: There isnt a single thing you cant do within mac os just as effectivly or more effectivly than on a mac.. the only obstacle now is tweakability.. and overclocking..
But anyway...
By your logic you expect everyone of us to either buy incredibly overpriced (but very aesthetically apealing) prebuilt systems made with hardware we can buy for a lot less money elsewere (and you know that's what the new x86 Macs are going to be) or, just phone Apple and say "please send me a developer version of your latest OS to the following address..." cause last time I checked, legit copies of MacOS only shipped with Mac computers, talk about dumb ideas...
Granted, the migration to x86 architecture will boost Mac sales, but don't expect ppl outside certain niche markets to start using Mac platforms for things like hardcore gaming and OCing any time soon... Also, last time I checked, MacOS requires software to be devoloped specifically for that platform, you know, software like games and drivers (for the tenth time...), sure Jobs said current x86 programs can be emulated under MacOS, but do you know what emulation does to performance? so much for all that "performance will be on par" crap... or do you really expect the modding community to start compiling drivers and patches just as soon as they are released for our current platform? dream on...
And about using Linux for gaming, you got that right, no I don't use it, and so doesn't the other 99.99% of gamers out there, as I told you before, I hope M$ coercive ways, will finally cause enthusiasts, average users and software companies to direct their attention to Linux (or any other viable OS option), it's just that it won't happen overnight, at least not before Vista arrives, but I certainly hope it happens during Vista's lifecycle (I for one don't see myself buying new copies of it everytime I switch mobos...)
And finally getting back to topic... Of course M$ doesn't give a crap about "enthusiasts", or all other consumers for that matter, M$ only cares about making the greater amount of profit from all of us, I see you finally get my point, and as long as goverments and big corporations like HP, Dell, and many others doesn't start looking for other OS options, M$ will continue to use the same dirty tricks for a long time to come, to once again, bully us consumers into to paying the price of admision once they decide to release another shiny new (and once again security hole riddled) OS, and believe me, I REALLY wish it would be any other way... I know we as consumers also have the power to make things better to a certain degree... if only I could keep myself from playing games like BF2 or AOE3 or FEAR, or so many other games...
And they wonder why people are turning to piracy just to get that frikken thing to install. :mad: