Friday, November 03, 2006

Microsoft changes Vista license terms

Bill42 pointed this out to me, excellent news:
There's good news out of Redmond today for anyone planning a Windows Vista upgrade in 2007. Bowing to intense feedback from the enthusiast community, Microsoft has modified the license terms for retail versions of Windows Vista to allow end users to transfer a retail license from one computer to another, or to upgrade an existing computer without fear that they'll be locked out until they purchase a new license.

The rest of the article:
Microsoft changes Vista license terms | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Update: Cory Doctorow points to an article that points out the things that are still broken about the new Vista license, all good points. The following is the part that concerned me:
SecurityFocus's Scott Granneman details more damning restrictions in the Vista license. When you unwrap your copy of Vista, you "agree" not to publish damning information about the OS -- benchmarks, security vulnerabilities -- except under terms dictated by Microsoft (and those terms can change at any time).

This is a piece of software that comes with a gag order.


Granneman covers other ways in which the Vista "agreement" takes away the freedom you'd assume you'd get when you shell out your hard-earned dough for a product. The key here is that Microsoft, and innumerable others, have elevated the user license to a high art. Practically every vendor now believes that it can turn a sale into a "license" just by putting a sticker on the package that says, "by opening this box, you agree."
Boing Boing: Vista license improves, but still broken

--MissM

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