What's Bill Gates up to now???
 

Hi all,

I don't keep up with all the current PC talk so I amazed to discover the following.

A PC will now be sold with a Windows Operating System Software Licence, which will remain with the PC until the PC dies. You may not transfer the licence nor will you be able to purchase Windows independantly. This will be enforced in the not to distant future.

How will this work for upgrades etc?

Is this an attempt to stop the pirating of software?

Anyone heard the same or is this old news?

I am not on the "I hate Windows / Bill Gates" bandwagon, he has made my computing life a dream for which I am greatful ..... BUT ...... I must be doing something wrong, each time I have tried a Gates type sales manouvre I get "Who the hell do you think you are ....@#$% off". Wish he would write a sales manual.

If someone had a decent OS available right now do any of you think Bill could find himself starting to lose sales. I probably have the wrong end of the stick but HOW THE HELL DOES HE MANAGE SUCH DICTATORIAL AUTOCRACY.


WILL THE BIG WHEEL WILL TURN WHEN DOORS AND "GATES" WILL CLOSE?


Phew....that feels better now......


Cheers
Andrew

Well, the world is deciding wether or not they like this new way.
It is easy for them to do this, why? Well, first of all it is their
product, whether you like it or not. So they have the right to
make the licensing any way they want them within the bounderies
of the law. If you do not wanna play this ball, get Windows 2000
professional and play with that for as long as you can.

Now on to how this is supposed to work. You are allowed to
upgrade your PC. If you do not change to many things at one
time (changing your mother board + cpu + ram will not work
for example) the Windows version will continue to work. If it
fails to work you need to contact Microsoft, explain them what
you did and if they think you are legit (which they probably will)
you get a new activation code to continue. You will not be able
to transfer the license to a completely new machine. New
Windows licenses will be sold per machine, so they belong to
that machine and that machine only (unless you upgrade in
small steps).

And yes, this is done to reduce piracy (which will not work,
because all the pirates use the OEM Corporate editions of
the Windows products which do not have such protections
built in) as well as to have a better grip on cash flow?

Hope this explains some. There are some excellent articles
on the Internet if you want to know how this will work exactly.

Then again, there is always Linux- and it's FREE! Kiss my @$$ Bill Gates!!!!
Just a thought,
Keith

Linux is Unix based, just like Mac OS X. If it bothers you that much, look at the Apple site. They have new ads running on PC users who have switched to Mac. I don't want to start a platform war or even suggest the Steve Jobs is a Saint. However, OS X is the best selling Unix based software, and Macs have some advantages in the creative computing fields.

Jeff

Let's keep it a bit civil Keith. Ofcourse there is always Linux,
but did you try video editing on it? It has no Premiere, it has
no After Effects, Commotion, LightWave 3D etc. Ofcourse there
are other applications. But for something as video editing
I prefer the commercial application with there huge library
of plug-ins etc. Have I mentioned audio applications with their
specialised audio hardware boards?

I must say that I have very little to complain with my windows
2000 video system. Works like a charm. Ofcourse there is
something to say for every platform be it Windows, Linux,
Mac or whatever.

I was thinking, is it even possible to buy a Macintosh without
the Mac OS? Or to copy it from one system to another? I think
the Mac license is for that system and that system only too, and
I can garantuee you too that you are paying for that OS (even
when it is included with the system).

An interesting idea from a point that Jeff bought up; both OSX and Linux are indeed based on a Unix kernel, so I wonder if it&s possible to write an package to get FCP to work on Linux. That would be something.

To answer some questions as to why there are no serious multimedia tools available for Linux other than Gimp, I spoke some of the crew from Macromedia a few years ago at the launch of FLash 5 and they said they'd love to see it but as long as Linux is free and the code is open source it will never happen. Companies like Macromedia and Adobe spend millions of dollars developing applications and they're not about to give their code away.

It's a shame there's not some good MMsoftware for Linux, it's the best of both Mac and Windows worlds, the configurability of Windows with the stability of Mac OS.

An interesting idea from a point that Jeff bought up; both OSX and Linux are indeed based on a Unix kernel, so I wonder if it&s possible to write an package to get FCP to work on Linux. That would be something.

To answer some questions as to why there are no serious multimedia tools available for Linux other than Gimp, I spoke some of the crew from Macromedia a few years ago at the launch of FLash 5 and they said they'd love to see it but as long as Linux is free and the code is open source it will never happen. Companies like Macromedia and Adobe spend millions of dollars developing applications and they're not about to give their code away.

It's a shame there's not some good MMsoftware for Linux, it's the best of both Mac and Windows worlds, the configurability of Windows with the stability of Mac OS.

You can't buy a Mac without an operating system. OSX is the standard now. However, OSX can be disabled and run in a command line Unix mode if one desires. Linux can also be installed, but little or now software. It is easier to copy files and folders on a Mac than a PC. You just click and drag and drop onto another drive, even the operating system folder. I told a PC friend how easy it was and he couldn't believe it. He said something about registers etc on PC's and he lost me.

The Mac experience is more like buying a car, it's a complete package. I don't have the wheels from a Ford, the transmisson from a Buick, engine from BMW in my Oldsmobile. Reliability. One vendor, one package, reliability. But the world is a better place with more computer platforms. Wintels force Apple to be more innovative and progressive. The innovations trickle over into the PC world and we all win.

Jeff