Re: [school-discuss] From Microsoft: A Guide to Accepting

[TJ Miller <tjmiller@datc.tec.ut.us>]

Kyle Hutson wrote:

>
>OK, I'll bite. Why is this humorous, and what misinformation?
>

Probably because the donator is somehow required to include OEM disks 
with the machines no matter what... they are in reality two seperate 
components. Let me explain - if someone donates 20 PC's to my school, 
but doesn't include the OEM software with them, no problem - I can just 
as easily use the site license I have for (insert OS here) and 
re-install... when the license comes up for renewal, include the donated 
machinery in your inventory as the price is evaluated. If MS were to 
have made both hardware and software, then yes I could see where the 
requirement fits. In cases of Sparc boxes and Solaris, I would certainly 
be scrupulous about maintaining the set, since both hardware and 
software are made by the same entity... Sun Microsystems in this case. 
Same goes for HP hardware with HP-UX... But OTOH, Microsoft does not 
make PC's (last time I checked, anyway), so they therefore have no legal 
right to determine what happens with the hardware... just the software.

Also, what if I were looking to use the boxes as Linux machines? I'm 
certainly not going to turn down a pile of donated computers just 
because they don't come with the therefore useless OEM disks.

I guess I would also like to see this law stating that I have to accept 
a PC only if it has the OEM disks, especially since in all cases, I'm 
going to flush the hard drive anyway no matter what OS will eventually 
go onto it, if for no other reason than to 1) avoid any actual license 
troubles with the BSA, and 2) avoid importing someone else's virii and 
misconfigurations onto my networks.

Regd's,
--
TJ Miller jr
http://ww2.datc.tec.ut.us
"VI VI VI - The Editor of The Beast"