Jupiter said:
"as an MVP I'm lucky, there are no licensing issues such as the normal
user would have to endure"
What kind of an MVP is that?
The Microsoft MVPs, are bound by the Exact SAME license as everyone else.
If you think otherwise, you are very much mistaken.
"What he refers to is the fact that..."
That is not what was said.
What was said:
"And not a single one will run on Vista. Or at least with *your*
graphics card or *your* sound card."
You and he are not saying the same thing at all.
Well congratulations, you are even more obtuse than I had anticipated.
IF you can bear to put yourself in the position of an ordinary retail
purchaser of Vista you would consider the following:-
Installing Vista on a machine begins with the "Activate Windows Now"
option already selected. It is likely that the average user wants to get
on with the task and will leave this option selected - and this assumes
they even understand fully what it means which I do but you apparently
don't.
After the install hardware issues occur - as detailed by the OP in this
case... it does not play well with "Your" hardware.
However IF the user purchases new hardware he will most likely have to
reactivate, no big deal but more hassle.
Since I have an MSDN subscription this is not an issue for me but is a
different concept for many users. I have some free activations for use
while testing, the ordinary user has one!
Now, if you think this is the same agreement an ordinary user gets then
it not me who is wrong but you. Personally I think MS play quite fairly,
however the activation issue is potentially intimidating for some
because it implies "Guilty until you prove yourself innocent" to a lot
of people. That may be right or wrong, but it is the impression some get
that is the issue here and which in the end will cost MS sales.
Next you made this statement
"You and he are not saying the same thing at all."
but only after editing my original comment so that indeed it did not say
the same thing, in fact you edited it so that it said virtually nothing.
What the OP actually said was clear enough in meaning, due to the fact
that he placed some words in quotes... again here it is:-
"And not a single one will run on Vista. Or at least with *your*
graphics card or *your* sound card."
Now, I have at least one machine that passed all the compatibility
checks but still won;t run Vista, or at least it wouldn't until I
replaced the graphics card, which nevertheless was listed as compatible.
As an MVP I am aware that even MS cannot get things right all the time,
and as an MSDN subscriber this hardware issue was not a real problem for
me, but in the ordinary user's place both could have been a monumental
nuisance, therefore it is my belief that it does nobody any good for
people just to take the attitude that "I've had no problems so it must
be the user's / hardware manufacturer's problem". This is not a good
approach and not the least bit helpful to the less knowledgable user, in
fact it's likely to put them off using these newsgroups for the purpose
they were intended.
So in future if you want to throw licensing issues in people's face
please try to get a grasp of reality and when you quote "What was said"
then do so in a manner that preserves the context instead of
deliberately trying to mislead the reader.
