[ Thanks to Douglas
D. Darnold for this link. ]
“Regardless of the philosophical aspects of the debate, one
thing is certain: Unless businesses buying Windows on new PCs
take the right precautions, they could be compelled to pay twice
for the operating system.”
“Depending on how you re-image your machine, Microsoft wants to
charge you twice,” MacDonald said. “And they’re actually using this
in contract negotiations with clients… The practice of
“re-imaging” PCs is a common one, including doing so using software
provided by Microsoft with its Select volume-licensing program.
MacDonald says that until recently, Microsoft treated that as an
acceptable practice.”
“This is a way to generate additional revenue,” he said.
“Microsoft uses changes in licensing terms and conditions to
increase the amount of money organizations pay for their products,
while ostensibly keeping list prices flat. This has been a
consistent strategy for years, but this is just a very odd twist on
that.”