[LINK] Microsoft EULA

[Howard Lowndes]

On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, Gordon Keith wrote:

> On Tue, 17 Sep 2002 22:04, Malcolm Miles wrote:
> > On Tue, 17 Sep 2002 18:55:15 +1000, you wrote:
> > >"Windows' newest patches -- Service Pack 1 for Windows XP
> > >and SP3 for Windows 2000 -- contain new license language that
> > >gives Microsoft the right to silently revise your operating system."
> > >
> > >(http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/08/26/020826opwinman.xm
> > >l)
> > >
> > >This upsets many companies whose PCs can't be allowed to morph
> > >at will.
> >
> > Any company worth its salt will turn off auto-update on its PCs.
>
> Actually the license says nothing about auto-update. The license grants
> microsoft the right to update your operating system at their
> discretion.
>
> Turning off auto-update just disables one possible vector for microsoft
> to exercise the rights you have granted. If it was effective then it
> could be argued that you are violating the license agreement.

This is the way I see it happening:

SP1 (XP) and SP3 (2000) have been released with the carrot of a few bug
fixes, but also with an unacceptable EULA.  SP 1/3 doesn't itself do any
of the nasties that the EULA now permits.

I now expect to see SP 2/4 released in short order with another raft of
even nicer bug fixes (and there have been plenty of bugs to fix recently),
but it will not be a cumulative SP, ie. it will not contain SP 1/3, and
will indeed need SP 1/3 to have been previously applied, and of course the
EULA agreed to, otherwise it will just refuse to apply.  SP 2/4 and
subsequent SPs will be cumulative and will all have the nasties that the
EULA permits.

So the choice is either:
Apply SP 1/3, agree to the EULA, and then you can apply subsequent SPs and
their bug fixes together with the forced nasties
or:
Decline SP 1/3, and the EULA, and stay in the buggy bad lands forever after.

M$ commercial blackmail.

-- 
Howard.
LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people
Contact detail at http://www.lannetlinux.com
"Flatter government, not fatter government." - me
 Get rid of the Australian states.

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