Important! Before buying VISTA, read this...

Quote:

Originally Posted by brokencrow

...what a nightmare. Can anybody REALLY figure out M$'s licensing
anymore? I'm working for a small multinational outfit with plants in
Germany, the US, Great Britain, and from what I see, NO ONE in our
org has a handle on the licenses. They only thing they do is refer
me to someone else. I'm constantly go from one person to another
to another just to see if I can do a FrontPage install (for instance).

I spend more time determining the legality of an installation than doing it. It's ridiculous...

Hmmm, I will give it a shot:

1. Corporate (bulk) licences.

You buy the right to install an OS or application on "x" number of machines. If you need more you just "top up" your licence.

2. Retail Licences.

These give you the right to install the software on any one machine at any one time. You can move it from machine to machine, provided that you remove it from the first machine.

3. OEM licences

These are for one machine that has to be "new". They are not transferrable from one machine to another, even if the second machine is "new". I have always found MS to be understanding and helpful in the case of genuine repair situations involving OEM boxes.

A potential problem will be that the DRM will try to prevent you installing two OSes on one box in a dual boot scenario. In that case you can use a virtual machine environment (unless it is Vista Home Edition:().

This is "legal" because you have bought two OSes to run on a "new" machine. Typically this might be to provide support for both OSes from one workstation; or for educational/study purposes and the like.

Mostly, I would expect these situations to be covered by "bulk licences" anyway.

brokencrow, you have my heartfelt sympathies old chap..........I recall a situation with multiple sites, multiple corporate aquisitions/mergers and the like. It took me about 4 months to sort out the software inventory, licencing, versions and whatever. If you let your inventory management slip it is a real PITA!:eek:

In reality, I don't expect that the "general public" will have much grief, as they will tend to buy a new machine with the software already installed.

The people I see losing out are the "enthusiasts" who are constantly changing and experimenting?

Just my £0.02 :)