Re: XP OEM - Interesting conversation with MS employee


"T. Waters" <@$%$%#^@jdjgkl.com> wrote in message
news:eFGjU5cVFHA.2984@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> VWWall wrote:
>> Bruce Chambers wrote:
>>> Woody wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> from what Mike Brannigan , an MS employee and frequent poster , has
>>>> been saying of late is that it's up to the oem to determine when
>>>> the original machine is no longer the original machine . definately
>>>> a major retreat from
>>>> earlier interpretations of the ms oem eula .
>>>>
>>>
>>> No, that's no "retreat." That's what the official policy, as
>>> stated by Microsoft employees, has always been.
>>>
>>>
>> If I buy a keyboard with my OEM WinXP Pro x64, as one purveyor has
>> been offering, can I change anything on the original computer on
>> which I installed the OS as long as I use the same keyboard?
>>
>> Even stranger is the fact that the keyboard is not even included in
>> the hash function used to indicate a change in OS installation.
>>
>> Am I missing something here?
>
> Virg, the keyboard has nothing to do with it.
> The consensus within this group leans towards the power cord as the
> irreducible essence of a "computer." (;-)

You are incorrectly assuming that one has to buy hardware to buy a copy of
Windows XP OEM. I have three installed that I bought without hardware. In
the *USA*, one has to buy hardware. In Europe, one does not and in Spain,
where I live, you will be very hard pressed to even be able to *find* a full
retail copy. It would seem to me that instead of saying that an OEM can only
be installed on one computer -- without defining what "one computer" is --
they should say it should not be installed on two computers simultaneously,
although for private use, it's monopolistic and a rip off to expect that a
family should have to buy a diffeent OEM for each computer.

Alias


.