Franki wrote:
>
> I am not sure I understand this,,,
>
> If what I understand is right, its pretty ridiculous...
>
> correct me if I am wrong..
>
> Microsnot wants resellers to send then copies of any quote requests for
> systems that don't want an OS included??
> Does this mean that soon, upgrading your processor will invalidate your
> license? is that the next step? at what point is a system a new system?
>
>>>>>>>>>> snip
Franki:
You make a lot of good points, but I want to focus on just one of them
-- hence the severe editing -- that has bothered me for quite a while:
If I keep upgrading my PC in bits and pieces, when does Microsoft say
that it has become a new computer? Evidently the local computer store
feels that installing a new motherboard or new HD makes it a new
computer, because those are his conditions for selling me an OEM version
of Windows Whatever. While I don't agree with that, in my pre-Linux days
I might have been tempted had the urge to buy new hardware and upgrade
Windows ocurred at the same time that I had the funds to do all of this.
The scarier part, though, given another posting on this thread about MS
changing the terms of the license after the fact, is what they might say
in the future. Two scenarios:
1. "Sorry, Bubba, but when you bought that upgrade from MSDOS 4.0 to
5.0, we didn't really mean that you could actually do it. Please remit
$11,847.15, which is the total retail cost of every new version of every
piece of software that we've written since then that we've decided that
you should have bought. Additionally, send a separate check in the
amount of $832.16 as damages for the disparaging remarks that you are
purported to have made in a bar in Traverse City, Michigan, at 1:15 am
on Friday, September 18, 1993, about MicroSoft Bob."
2. "Did your MicroSoft Mouse get all crudded up, Bubba, and you replaced
it with a Logitech? And you didn't buy the latest version of Windows
2XXX? Be informed that our lawyers are going to be all over you. Even
Johnny Cochrane can't get you out of this mess. If you don't fork over
everything you own to us immediately, we'll sic the IRS on you, too.
That will be followed by boils and such. Oh, did we mention the
locusts?" (Yes, I know that the term "upgrade Windows" is self
contradictory. No flames, please.)
Regards,
Carroll
