The “Break it Down” Blog

The Register has a great 3-page piece on the upcoming EULA (End User License Agreement) that will be in Windows Vista.

If you don’t have a lot of time, click the link, load up the story and skim the bolded portions of it. Some of the more interesting features are:

• Benchmark results can only be shared if they follow strict non-real-world settings specifically from Microsoft
• Home Basic/Home Premium will not allow you to use the virtualization feature (this is actually in the EULA)
• If you use Enterprise/Ultimate and do use the virtualization, you are not allowed to run/open/view/play any copy protected material in the emulated instance. So forget installing iTunes on your virtualized Windows desktop to listen to the music you bought — Interesting note is that installing OS’s to test your websites also falls under this category of things that are not allowed, as the art or content may be copywrited… rock on Microsoft
• 1-time transfer. If you buy Vista, say for $400. Install it, it runs slow, so you buy a new machine and install it on that… that’s it. You can never install that copy of Vista on another machine. If you want Vista on your new gaming rig a year or 2 later… guess what? You get to buy another copy.

I think these changes make a quote at the end of The Register article incredible accurate:

To paraphrase what my fifth-grade teacher often told his rambunctious class, “Beware the wrath of a patient user base.”

With all the competition on the horizon from Apple and Linux (SUSE, RedHat, Ubuntu) I just don’t understand the mindset that Microsoft has… they no longer control 99% of all installed machines on the planet… I’ll admit it’s like 90% now, but I’d say half of those installs wouldn’t have a problem moving from Windows to Mac or Linux if they needed to, while the other 50% may be locked into the Windows platform for a time as small as a year and as big as 10 years.

Isn’t the idea to attract more bees with honey, instead of setting them on fire and then taking a shit on their ashes? Either way, I’m glad Microsoft makes it easy to move away from their monopoly. If they still retained the same transfer license that was in Windows XP (but undone by the later checks they added in SP2, even though it was still in the EULA that a full transfer unlimited times was acceptable as long as the original copy was removed), that would go a far way to not making people so nervous.

I imagine a huge chunk of users won’t think this is a big deal, and then about 1/3 of them will rip their hair out after they get a new computer for Christmas either this year or next, go to install Vista and bammo, they can’t transfer it. Merry Christmas, pony up $400 more dollars so Microsoft can keep making subpar software.