More about BGInfo; Bad ad; Virtualization and EULAs
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.
I can see that the EULA needs certain basic protections for the vendor. After that, you should be able to suspend installation while you send a message to the vendor (and the vendor’s lawyer) saying you don’t want to exclude virtualization and would they strike that please. They might take 24 hours to respond, but that’s OK.
Peter Thornton
Annapolis, Md.
Microsoft has no choice but to restrict virtualization. A virtualized machine install could be moved from computer to computer, exactly what Microsoft has been working to stop. This is not about piracy protection; this is about increasing revenue. How else do you keep growing a company Microsoft’s size and keep the stock price moving? If they don’t show revenue growth in a near-saturated market, they risk losing the growth stock price/earnings multiple. They would love to force people to buy a new operating system with every computer and force recurring fees with software as a service for Office.
Microsoft’s “protect the consumer” line is just as much corporate babble-speak as the whole idea of a Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). The only advantage was Microsoft’s. While I pine for the days when computer users successfully boycotted products installed from copy-protected floppy disks, WGA and its ilk have tamed the masses. Microsoft will get away with this. Feel fortunate that they aren’t making you buy a license for each processor core.
Jack Hoxie
IT administrator
Stan’s Lumber
Twin Lakes, Wis.
What do you get with Vista Business and Vista Ultimate, that you don’t get with the cheaper versions? Advanced backup, non-crippled networking and support for older software. If a business plans to run Vista on VMware under Linux, it probably makes no sense to pay higher prices for these additional features. Vista Home Basic is perfectly adequate for almost everything needed on Windows installed on VMware; the underlying OS (probably Linux) will take care of networking and backup.
So the real purpose of the EULA clause is to improve the Microsoft cash flow from business users. If you or I install Home Basic on VMware, with Linux as our underlying operating system on our home computer, Microsoft will be happy to sell us a copy at full retail price and close a blind eye to our illegal activities. But if, say, an insurance company were to buy 10,000 copies of Home Basic and install them on VMware, running the underlying hardware (and the network and servers) with SUSE Enterprise Linux instead of buying each person a copy of Vista Business and running the network using a whole slew of server licenses, Microsoft would be losing a lot of money. That’s when you’d see the full force of the Microsoft legal department in action.
Les Denham
Vice president
Interactive Interpretation & Training
Houston
