I'll "sell" every machine to my brother. Who will then donate them to me. Sorted.
so for people who wait to upgrade their whole pc in one go and include a new oem OS in their next purchase, this has little value
which brings it back to just having support from MS
Meh, no way am I going to shell out over £100 for a shiny DVD. It's just not going to happen.
I'm willing to bet that MS don't share in that view. Given the choice, I have little doubt they'd rather people use OEM versions than not bother buying it at all.
Where as this is probably true - some money is better than no money it is not the point.
If you transfer OEM from one machine to another, borrow a friends copy, use an MSDN copy in the wrong environment, download your OS from the web - in all of these cases you are running an illegal OS.
A lot of people don't seem bothered by this, so they might just as well take the cheapest option and simply pirate.
There is no point buying OEM and then replacing the motherboard and transferring the OS - you are just as illegal as somebody who pirated.
So any self justification just because you once bought an OEM license needs to be forgotten.
so for people who wait to upgrade their whole pc in one go and include a new oem OS in their next purchase, this has little value
which brings it back to just having support from MS
Slightly OT but what is the license for MSDN:AA? I am always changing OS versions on my various machiens or using them inside VM's for various research.
I'm kinda glad I stuck with XP now... Still, I'll be interested to see how Window 7 is priced.
It seems it's not the first time this confusion has arisen.So this effectively means that OEM software is not for use by the vast majority of users here
*Awaits MS bashing*
Burnsy, if you have access to the OEM channel, could you check out the Simplified OEM Licencing page and see if it's still up?
"OEM system builder software packs are intended for PC and server manufacturers or assemblers ONLY. They are not intended for distribution to end users. Unless the end user is actually assembling his/her own PC, in which case, that end user is considered a system builder as well."
It's different for Apple though as they will always recoup costs from their overpriced hardware.
I'd sooner pirate it than pay full retail price for buggy Microsoft software, Vista wasn't even worth the OEM price I payed until they brought out SP1 and even now it's still not as fast or bug free as XP.
I'd say the OEM version and it's non-ripoff price has gone a long way to reducing piracy among "Hobbyists".