More about BGInfo

Regarding Mark Gibbs’ Gearhead column on the odd quirk in the BGInfo licensing: This may be a direct result of the use of BGInfo in a package of tools called the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows and is based on Bart’s pre-installation environment (BartPE). Microsoft has Windows PE but requires that you have Software Assurance or a number of other very restrictive conditions before you can use the software. BartPE is a freeware product that was designed to give people the opportunity to create a bootable CD that loads a pre-installation environment that can run a variety of software. This project is a very useful tool for data recovery or anti-virus/malware cleaning. The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows project expands on BartPE by gathering freeware products, testing them for use and designing menu interfaces for them. BGInfo was one of the added tools being used to report back information about the system being serviced. Since the programming that creates the pre-installation environment is an end-run around the Microsoft Software Assurance requirement to get this type of product, you can see why they have chosen to use the creative terms in their licensing in order to keep this “free” tool from being used where it was. Currently the Ultimate Boot CD has had to remove the BGInfo tool from the project due to the line Gibbs quoted.

Ray Heidbrink
Owner
County Computer Consulting LLC
St. Louis, Mo.

Bad ad

I was disappointed that you ran the advertisement section on VoIP applications (Dec. 4, page 44). While the application probably is valuable, it does not require VoIP to accomplish it. We were successfully doing similar applications using ANI and DNIS almost 15 years ago. While I am a big fan of VoIP, the ad section itself is extremely misleading.

Richard Gladstone
Vienna, Va.

Virtualization and EULAs

Regarding Mark Gibbs’ BackSpin column, “Hell yes to virtualization!”: The issue with the Vista End User License Agreement (EULA) clause about virtualization is that a EULA is a rotten legal invention, because you can't negotiate. We need a way to opt out of a clause without negating the whole EULA. That's how we handle contracts for other computer services. Just because there are a million copies being sold and each has a EULA shouldn't preclude us from exercising our legal rights.

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