Preinstalled Windows: AARGH! I can't get it off!

[Robert L Krawitz]

   From: "Jerry Feldman" <gaf at blu.org>
   Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 10:56:46 -0400

   If a PC shipped with Windows preinstalled, can you remove the OS and 
   install Linux instead? Well, no, according to Microsoft. A somewhat obscure 
   Microsoft site aimed at helping schools deal with donated computers flatly 
   states: "It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems 
   remain with a machine for the life of the machine."

   http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25085.html

As described in the article, what it really means is that Microsoft
doesn't want you installing that copy on a different machine.  I'm
sure they're happy to confuse people into believing that they aren't
allowed to install Linux on the box, but I don't see how they could
forbid you (and enforce) from wiping the disk and installing something
else.  Wiping the disk doesn't make a copy, and so it's hard to see
how it could constitute a copyright violation.

-- 
Robert Krawitz <rlk at alum.mit.edu>      http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/

Tall Clubs International  --  http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2
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"Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works."
--Eric Crampton