Microsoft Slugs Mac Users With Vista Tax

An anonymous reader writes "Mac users wanting to run Vista on their Macintosh, alongside Mac OS X programs, will have to buy an expensive version of Vista if they want to legally install it on their systems. The end-user license agreement for the cheaper versions of Vista (Home Basic and Home Premium) explicitly forbids the use of those versions on virtual machines (i.e., Macs pretending to be PCs)." Update: 02/08 17:50 GMT by KD : A number of readers have pointed out that the Vista EULA does not forbid installing it via Apple's Bootcamp; that is, the "tax" only applies to running Vista under virtualization.

older news

[DaMattster]

I just know I am going to get modded for this. Please be gentle. I believe Chairman Gates, when asked about why he wasn't allowing low end copies of Vista to be run virtually, his response was akin to, Consumers do not have the knowledge or technical expertise to run Vista in a virtual environment. Please! I think his statement was English for "You need to pay more money to us in order to do that."

Re:MAC users who want to run Vista Home

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say every ethernet user on this planet is a MAC user. Dunno how a RTL8139 would handle Aero, though.

Re:MAC users who want to run Vista Home

[rwyoder]

Tell me again why a MAC user would _want_ to run vista on their MAC?

For the same reason I bought Mercedes and then went to all the trouble of installing a Yugo engine it it.

Dear Microsoft

[teamhasnoi]

Thanks, but no thanks. Vista will not be finding a spot on my Mac, nor my PC. I'm not even going to bother downloading the free, feature-added "Vista: Pirate Edition".

I expect my hardware to work for me, not for you.

Re:Summary incorrect.

[Yvan256]

Exactly, hasn't this been reported about 17 times already on Slashdot?

You must be new here.

Re:And Apple makes it easy to run OS X?

[robinsonne]

"I never understood why when Apple locks you out no one really complains That's not a lock, it's a feature!

Re:Why not?

[djh101010]

Aren't Mac users apparently proud of paying through their teeth for everything?

(snip of blah blah blah) Oh, how little you understand us. It's _fine_ if you don't like Mac. But I can't help but wonder what, if any, direct personal recent experience you have with them. It may surprise you, but many Mac people who don't like MS, are intimately familiar with their products. The opposite, oddly enough, rarely seems to be true. It's OK if you enjoy your Windows systems. Really. That's just fine. But when you then go on to speak of that which you either don't understand, or choose to misrepresent, well, it goes into "give it a rest, wouldya?"

Yeah

[Infonaut]

Exactly, hasn't this been reported about 17 times already on Slashdot?

Like you said, it's *only* been reported 17 times.

Re:MAC users who want to run Vista Home

[93 Escort Wagon]

"Other Mac users may need to run Windows-only software like Microsoft Project or games that are only available for Windows."

Yes, exactly. Like for me it's Microsoft Paint.

Hi, I'm somewhat new to Slashdot...

[IronTeardrop]

... isn't there some editorial process here that is supposed to filter out obvious stupidity?

Re:Summary incorrect.

[cdrudge]

Yeah. It's called the off road package. If you want a bare minimum vehicle, go with a stripped down Cavalier. If you want to upgrade to all sorts of luxury features, you are going to have to pay more to get a Cadillac.

Re:MAC users who want to run Vista Home

[Anonymous Coward]

finally, we can buy a Microsoft product that can be installed on the network!

Re:Summary incorrect.

[mfh]

You must be new here.

He missed it the other 21 times?

Macs are *pretending* to be PC's?

[suv4x4]

Macs pretending to be PCs

Funny, and I thought nowadays Apple sells PC's pretending to be Macs.

Re:Apples moves into VM

[wfWebber]

So, just to clarify, if I want to run it on my Mac, I will have to pay for it? Now there's a wild concept.

Re:Summary incorrect.

[MrAnnoyanceToYou]

No, the implication is that reporting something important fifty times with slightly differing results is the mean average as far as Slashdot is concerned.

Re:MAC users who want to run Vista Home

[cibyr]

Call it: "write once, test everywhere"

It's better than the old "write once, debug everywhere!"

Re:MAC users who want to run Vista Home

[amorsen]

Some folk think that the best editor ever was the original vi.

ed is the standard text editor.

Re:Apples moves into VM

[cheater512]

Yeah thats with XP. This is NEW Windows Vista with 20% more EULA.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Apples moves into VM

[C0rinthian]

Under common law both sides have to benefit for an agreement to be valid, and in the case of an EULA you get nothing.

You get permission to use their software. Although many here would not consider it a benefit...

Re:And Apple makes it easy to run OS X?

[ostermei]

Everything is either explained in plain English or implemented so intuitively that it doesn't need an explanation. You can't possibly tell me that it is the same scenario for Windows.

There is one very common task under Windows that many users perform daily (multiple times daily, in fact) that is, quite possibly, the most intuitive computing task around!

One of the major benefits of a Windows machine is its customizability, right? So the standard Windows user likes to have control over his machine. If anything were to go wrong with an application as he's using it, however, he may briefly consider switching to an alternative system (such as a Mac, or this "Linux" thing he's been hearing about lately). Finally, however, he decides to stick with Windows, as he knows all the software he's purchased for Windows won't work on a Mac or under Linux and the last thing he wants to do is have to delete all that expensive software.

See? It's all very logical and intuitive!