OK, so it looks like I might have been misinformed (er… wrong :)) by stating that the basic versions of Vista can’t be installed on VMs. That’ll teach me not to read the licencing details properly myself! It looks like it was a slight misunderstanding of the terms and structure that MS used in stating the rules. I won’t go into the details myself since Ed Bott has already done it for me. So, MS haven’t shot themselves in the foot in this regard, but they still seem to be doing it in other ways.
One of those ways, which is now 100% confirmed, is that you can only move your installation of Vista to a different machine (read: different hardware) once and once only. Again, this is confirmed courtesty of Ed Bott. Instead of being able to reinstall when you buy a new mobo, and then reinstall again after you buy a new CPU, you may well have to fork out for another Vista licence due to the hardware change. What a lovely feature!
Yesterday’s chat (via previous post on Vista) with Bryce got me thinking about what other peoples’ thoughts were regarding the whole stance MS are taking with Vista, and during my searches I found this post by Chris Pirillo (a long-time MS user) which covers his views on said topic. It’s quite an interesting read 
He also took a bit of time to post on his blog after writing the article to cover some other points, again well worth reading. It’s good to see another long-term MS user with the balls to speak out loud and say that Macs are becoming more appealing by the day. I agree with him when he says that MS isn’t really making this a difficult decision to make.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Macs, partly because I never had to use them and Windows was familiar, but as time goes by I’m rethinking my position. I keep saying that there’s not enough software out there for me to make the move to Mac (and Linux), but not I’m thinking that I need to make the switch and become one of the developers that can help sort that problem out 
So, sorry about my stuff up, but it doesn’t really improve my view of Vista by much anyway!
October 17, 2006
I dunno, I’m not sure this can’t be handled in other ways too. If there’s not enough software on Mac (or Linux) for you, then you can hardly complain about Windows XP. I personally think it’s been quite a big success as an OS in the last few years, which, incidentally I think is the reason MS are (over)hyping Vista with their infamous marketing machine. I’ve been actively using Vista since the early betas and they were terribly unstable (as expected), but I’m very happy with the stability of RC1 so far (except it keeps deactivating my video card after sleepmode) - but - in my opinion, it still doesn’t do the fantastic job that I think XP does in all areas. Call it new, call it whatever, but the fact remains, regardless of it’s shiny exterior and spiffy tranparency I still can’t rely on it as my 24/7 OS. XP can do this - even if it is just plain Blue.
Anyway, after all that, I’ll end the way I started…vote with your dollars. Don’t buy the frickin’ thing until they’ve sorted their sh*t out! Boycott Vista and use XP until they realise that these “baby steps” towards big corporate bullying (and make no mistake that is what their EULA is heading towards) will not be tollerated because regardless of their financial status, we hold the bucks that put bread on their tables…
October 17, 2006
You’re dead right, I can’t and I won’t complain about XP. It does everything I need it to, just like it does for you. I’ll continue to use my XP licence long after Vista has been released - and I’ll probably continue to use it long after support for it is pulled.
Top comment Rob!
October 27, 2006
MS clarify the re-activation issue.