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Simon Robert wrote:
Yes it is transferring it, as the VirtualBox machine is classed as a completely separate PC. It's the same as how you can't run multiple copies of Windows under the same license at once. Of course it doesn't mean it can't be done, my Acer specific copy of Vista Home Premium works in VirtualBox without activation, but it doesn't make it legal as technically VirtualBox isn't an Acer PC, it's a virtual machine (which I guess passes some of the code from the BIOS through to the virtual machine).On Fri, 2010-01-29 at 19:31 +0000, Rob Beard wrote:Simon Robert wrote:Because it's a business presumably, it's not as if it's a home user who would get away with it. It only takes the Business Software Alliance (who I hold in the same regard as PRS) to investigate and make an example of the nursery, i.e. fines, plus the cost of a license to boot.why worry about the terms of the licence. Install virtualbox and use the licence number on the side of the machine or the side of the dead machine. if you need to find a new copy of windows borrow an install disc or download a copy from pirate bay. It's not like you've stolen a copy as the licence would otherwise be unused.I don't think we should be promoting piracy on the list, even if it's only technical piracy (I know it's silly that you can't transfer the license, but that is Microsoft, if you don't agree to the EULA then don't use it, same as if you don't agree to the GPL, don't use it).There is also the fact that a lot of the time, the license keys on the side of the machines don't actually work. My wife has got an IBM Thinkpad with XP Home, when I came to reinstalling it from an OEM Windows XP Home disc, it wouldn't accept the key, despite the fact it was a legitimate key which was stuck to the machine. Nowadays the majority of pre-installed machines have a mechanism where the BIOS is locked into the copy of Windows, there are some exceptions however such as when my Dad upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 and HP sent a valid key which he had to use to activate Windows. In the odd cases where they key is valid, chances are Windows is already activated to a specific hardware set and changing the hardware will require re-activation and a bit of explaining to Microsoft.Yep, with the beauty of having a trial version available, if it does work then Â34 is going to be cheaper than a one off copy of Windows.There is quite a lot of educational software for linux, but the stuff they're used to is probably not among it. There is edubuntu which might be worth a look. So linux and wine is an idea, or linux and crossover office. Crossover Office has a trial version and may well run stuff wine won't, or would be difficult to set up with wine. You could try both and might at the end find that crossover is worth Â34 (maybe if you contacted codeweavers, who make it, they might cut you a deal seeing as what you'd be using it for). Crossover is really easy to use. Maybe edubuntu with crossover installed.It's a shame it's over in Exmouth otherwise I'd have happily gone over with my laptop and given the stuff a try on Wine.Robif its the same machine is one actually transfering the licence? If I need XP, but don't have a disc and then download it from pirate bay and use the licence on the box (I've done this a few times and it's worked) isn't it legal as its the licence that's been bought, not a particular (identical) instance of the software?
Now if you have the Retail Boxed/Full Boxed Product, i.e. the product with box and CD bought from a shop such as PC World etc (not a copy which is for distribution only with a new PC) then you can transfer the license.
So if you could get hold of a copy of Windows XP (I believe they were labelled as 'For PCs without an operating system') then this could be transferred. Problem is, originally for XP Home it was about Â100 so not many people will have gone out and bought that, they would have probably bought the cheaper OEM copies (which are tied to the first PC they are installed on).
Gets worse with Vista, as far as I know there is a catch in the EULA which says Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium can't be install in a virtual machine, for that you have to get Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. I'm not sure if it's any different for Windows 7.
Rob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html