Comments on: Vista is ready for download

By: koti

koti — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 17:09:24 +0000

can u tell me what are the requirements

By: MrPuck

MrPuck — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:38:06 +0000

The download is great. It doesn’t matter if the drivers aren’t there.

By: Dav

Dav — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 06:36:04 +0000

I have it installed in my lap. Final version.

By: mhm

mhm — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:28:24 +0000

By: Jamie Blair

Jamie Blair — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:27:49 +0000

Mackenzie,
You obviously have no faith in Microsoft’s anti-piracy safeguards. If they do what they say they can do, expect to have your cheap, early version suddenly require you to call the Microsoft tech group to validate your copy.

Before you install, I HIGHLY recommend reading through the new EULA; shocking how locked down they wanna make it.

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:33:04 +0000

Here’s the question, which I think almost–but not quite–came up in a prior thread.

If subscribers to TechNet and MSDN get the full version now, what keeps someone from subscribing to TechNet now at $349 and getting an early, and cheaper, copy of Vista?

I understand the license terms require that subscribers “may use the evaluation software only to evaluate it,” but that’s extraordinarily vague. Let’s say someone has his own website, or could easily go out and get one. Would simply posting periodic reviews of how things are going, problems that have come up, issues with updates, that sort of thing be enough to comply with the license? It certainly could be read that way.

I also don’t see anything that specifically requires the software be uninstalled if the TechNet subscription lapses, and I doubt that would be in the Vista EULA (though I haven’t read it as carefully as the TechNet). The argument would be that letting it lapse removes the TechNet EULA, thus any software licensed through it, but it’s not obvious from the EULA. Maybe there’s some case law out there that sheds some light on it, but I’m not going to spend too much time trying to find it.

Then there’s the enforcement problem. There are some obvious problems for MS there, even if we read the licenses at their most restrictive.

So, save $50 on Vista Ultimate, get it now instead of two and a half months from now, get a bunch of other goodies in the process, the why don’t more enthusiasts go that route? It’s something I would consider if my school didn’t provide students licenses for Windows (and Office) for free.

By: evilkat

evilkat — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:04:44 +0000

Ed, can we expect a review of the product from you now that the final version is out and all the NDAs and what nots have surely expired ?