On 5/5/2014 3:14 PM, Doug wrote:
On 05/05/2014 04:48 PM, Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:
On 05/05/2014 01:08 PM, John Andersen pecked at the keyboard and wrote:
On 5/5/2014 6:47 AM, Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:
Run Windows in a VM and get rid of the headaches or run linux in a VM in your windows install.
A LOT to be said for this approach, I haven't found dual booting to be a satisfactory solution for over 10 years.
Still there is a problem if you want a linux machine on which you occasionally need windows. Your existing Certificate of Authenticity will probably NOT work when you install windows in a Virtual machine.
I have never had this issue with running M$W in a VM. I always used the COA that was on the machine. As far as I am concerned if windows is running in a VM on the metal it came on it is legal. /snip/
I'm almost certain that you can legally run ONE copy of Windows (that you obtained legally) on any machine, whether it came on that machine or not. You just can't copy it and run it on an additional machine. You are not licensing a machine, you are licensing a copy of Windows. IF you don't have a real install disk, I'm not sure how you would do this, but so long as the software only runs on one machine, it's legal. (If it is not possible to install the software on a machine because you are trying to run it in a VM, that would be too bad, but I wouldn't count on MS to help you do it!)
I'm no lawyer, but that's the way I've always understood the license.
--doug
Guys, this isn't a legal issue I'm addressing here. When you buy a laptop with windows pre-installed, you don't even get installation media these days. (You get a recovery partition at best). So when you want to move that windows OS into a virtual machine, you have to special order a disk from the hardware vendor to install in your VM. Then you try to install that disk using your original COA, only to find out that the disk is further trapped out so as not to work if the hardware doesn't look pretty close to the original. In a VM, it won't look the same. So you run out and borrow someone's installation disk who bought a commercial boxed set, only to find out that your COA won't work on that version either. I've been through this several times with lap tops. I've take to just using a MSDN key and installing an MSDN version of Windows in the virtual machine after I install linux. Also... when buying laptops, I just put the original hard drive on the shelf. (I always buy the smallest they offer). Then I pop in the size I really wanted from commercial sources, and install Linux on that. Because if any warranty issue crops up and they find you had Linux installed you've just about got to threaten legal action to get them to honor the warranty. Easier jut to pop in the original disk and send the machine in for repair. When the warranty expires, you have a spare hard drive to do with what you want. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org