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Microsoft Slugs Mac Users With Vista Tax

An anonymous reader writes "Mac users wanting to run Vista on their Macintosh, alongside Mac OS X programs, will have to buy an expensive version of Vista if they want to legally install it on their systems. The end-user license agreement for the cheaper versions of Vista (Home Basic and Home Premium) explicitly forbids the use of those versions on virtual machines (i.e., Macs pretending to be PCs)." Update: 02/08 17:50 GMT by KD : A number of readers have pointed out that the Vista EULA does not forbid installing it via Apple's Bootcamp; that is, the "tax" only applies to running Vista under virtualization.

9 of 661 comments (clear)

  1. Surprise!!!...not by alshithead · · Score: 0, Troll

    This just in from the "cutting off your nose to spite your face" department...

    What is the point from a business perspective? The result is to potentially kill off an entire (albeit smaller) market segment. Any self respecting Mac user will just chalk up another strike against MS. I see yet another nail in the coffin for MS. Until they try to embrace *nix and Mac users they are strangling their apps market by ensuring that non-Windows users will go anywhere except MS.

    --
    I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
  2. Re:And Apple makes it easy to run OS X? by hjf · · Score: -1, Troll

    MS said, "bring the hardware and we will (somewhat) embrace it". Apple's strategy has been to own both the hardware and OS. Microsoft's strategy has been to (mostly) allow all comers. I really can't say which philosophy is better.
    What the fuck, dude? Last time I checked, Bill Gates was the richest men in the world. Steve Jobs wasn't anywhere near. So considering that, I'm pretty sure that MS's philosophy is much better.
  3. Re:Coherence changed my life by jt2377 · · Score: -1, Troll

    what kind of retarded logic are you trying to pull? for fuck sake, even Dell fucking sell Linux loaded with Dell PC, fucking fry's sell linux pc and even fucking WalMart sell linux pc for awhile. are you a fucking dumbass? typical retarded slashdot poster. you're paying for the Apple's tax every fucking time you buy a Mac. unlike PC where you don't have to pay MS's tax. there are thousand shop on and off line who is happy to sell you just the fucking hardware. fuck! my IQ just drop 50 point trying to explain this to a dumbass like you!

  4. Re:Apples moves into VM by Perseid · · Score: 0, Troll

    As much as I would like to agree with you, you are wrong. At least in the US.

    You do not buy Vista. You buy a license to use Vista. The EULA is a list of terms under which that license is valid. The concept of the EULA has been tested and upheld now in numerous lawsuits in numerous states.

  5. Re:Why not? by Scudsucker · · Score: 0, Troll

    And a Service Pack does not come with many added features ? I mean compare Windows XP SP1 and SP2 and you will see a major difference.

    Nope. Bug fixes and a firewall do not count.

  6. Re:Apples moves into VM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Please state exactly which part of the anti-trust case judgment forbids Microsoft from locking their OS to specified hardware.

    I wonder if you'll be singing the same tune when Apple's unquestionably superior OSX rules the world in however many years' time and they start screwing their customers for a bit more license revenue.

    PS, signing your posts is retarded. If I was remotely interested in whatever username you pulled out of your arse I'd look in your posts' header.

    LoB.

  7. Re:Apples moves into VM by beckerist · · Score: 0, Troll

    Under common law both sides have to benefit for an agreement to be valid

    This statement is so utterly wrong on so many levels... At the very least, give me a reference to back this up. You can't, and I know you can't because I just spent the last 30 minutes looking up "common law" (which generally applies to BRITISH COLONIES...)

    How is this INSIGHTFUL?

  8. Re:Apples moves into VM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Huh? You don't COPY such software, IT INSTALLS ITSELF. How would that act of script-driven installation be characterised in law, as some kind of attack against your HDD?

  9. Re:you're missing the point by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 0, Troll

    "You'll see OS X Server with virtualisation and unlimited installs of the OS on that VM in the very near future, I'm sure."

    No doubt; just like we're going to see an upgradeable mini-tower RSN.

    They don't allow it at all, and have announced no plans to ever allow it. As far as I'm concerned, the criticism stands until it's actually been announced.

    "So, you have to buy a Mac, but you get practically unlimited installs. Not so with Microsoft."

    This is why I specifically say "with respect to virtualization" in my post. We can go round and round in circles over whether or not getting any hardware you like beats unlimited installs on a very narrow range of hardware, but the question of virtualization is very simple; Apple doesn't allow it.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.