Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Will Allow Vista Reinstalls

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the yay-for-logic dept.

Claus Valca writes "I just spotted over on the Windows Vista Team Blog the news that the Windows Vista retail licensing terms are being revised. Looks like PC home-brew system builders have been let back into the Vista party!" From the article: "Our intention behind the original terms was genuinely geared toward combating piracy; however, it's become clear to us that those original terms were perceived as adversely affecting an important group of customers: PC and hardware enthusiasts. You who comprise the enthusiast market are vital to us for several reasons, not least of all because of the support you've provided us throughout the development of Windows Vista. We respect the time and expense you go to in customizing, building and rebuilding your hardware and we heard you that the previous terms were seen as an impediment to that — it's for that reason we've made this change."

4 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. Er.. by E+IS+mC(Square) · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looks like Microsoft has just discovered this PC and hardware enthusiasts group?!

    1. Re:Er.. by bfischer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why don't you repeat "M$" in your message a few more times to show everyone how 1337 you really are.

  2. What the heck is going on? by revery · · Score: 4, Funny

    First Microsoft partners with Novell to support Linux and now they are responding to a request regarding a license change in an all too human way, with normal human words and everything. It reminds me of an old Dilbert strip:

    If aliens kidnap and then impersonate Steve Ballmer, is it a bad thing?
    It depends on the aliens...

  3. I know why they're really doing it by quizzicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think Microsoft woke up to the fact that "PC and hardware enthusiasts" provide billions of dollars worth of free technical support to friends (read: anybody who finds out that you're good with computers). This is something we'd be markedly less willing to do if we didn't use Windows ourselves.