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An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thi

An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thing and not have to fuss so much about compatibility? Almost every recent Mac can bootcamp Windows now, and Linux can also dual-boot, or else maybe install it to VirtualBox. That's also why I've stopped updating my Crossover for $40 every year or two. Basic laptops and desktop boxes are so cheap these days that it becomes a question of whether your time is worth fussing around with compatibility software.

viraptor 11y ago
Just a personal thing, but I'd pay extra to run the one or two windows applications on linux rather install windows. Just because of system maintenance, security, licensing, privacy, etc. reasons.
e12e 11y ago
I'm not sure it's entirely clear what you can use an OEM Windows disk for. Isn't that just for new hardware? And that's at least 50/vm if I understand things. The thing to compare reactOS to is probably a datacenter licensed copy of Windows server. Productivity applications will (mostly) run in Wine - I don't think anyone expects ReactOS to be a viable alternative to bare-metal Windows install for gaming.
- coderjames 11y ago
  Exactly. The Windows "OEM" or "System Builder" edition is only valid for computers that are sold on to the final end user. They aren't legal for personal use by the original purchaser. [1] [1] = http://www.howtogeek.com/197232/microsoft-is-misleading-consumers-with-windows-8.1-system-builder-licensing/ http://www.howtogeek.com/197232/microsoft-is-misleading-cons...
  - terinjokes 11y ago
    Interesting. I bought Windows 8 System Builder and used the "Personal Use License". Some point thereafter I upgraded to Windows 8.1. I'm sure I agreed to the new terms of use (after all, I wanted to get back to my computer), and was suddenly breaking the license. Wonderful.
  - blisterpeanuts 11y ago
    Can't you sell yourself the system? The OEM edition is intended for system builders, and you have to provide the device drivers separately, but that seems to be the only difference between the home/business distro and the OEM one.
gnrme 11y ago
Microsoft is dragging its users into the cloud. Something like ReactOS would let people live within the Microsoft environment without the baggage of the cloud. A personal computer rather than a glorified cloud terminal.
carbocation 11y ago
The reason I like R rather than Stata (actually, there are many, but the initial reason) is that I can run R on as many computers as I have access to simultaneously without worrying about license compliance. When I submit 1,000 jobs to a compute cluster to process genotyping, I don't worry that I'm violating a license. When I sold my business that used R as a core tool, I didn't worry that I had enough licenses. I think that is a valuable reason to actively prefer free as in beer and free as in liberty over even inexpensive but proprietary.
superuser2 11y ago
OEM pricing only applies if you have receipts for desktop components. To put Windows in a VM costs a good bit more.
codinghorror 11y ago
Grey market keys can be had for way less than that, if you are comfortable with grey markets -- where keys being provided to countries being charged way less are resold to consumers in other countries.
13of40 11y ago
Even if it was $200, you get about as much mileage out of a single-machine license for Windows as you would out of, say, a hard drive or a video card, and you don't see anyone complaining about having to pay for those. I think people even understand that most of the price for those items goes toward paying employees and keeping the lights on, not physically building the device. What gives, people? What gives?
- venomsnake 11y ago
  Well. I OWN the video card. Until the licence purchaser have more rights over what to do with the software and resell it, it is not worth the money. Also my video card don't have 6 screens of privacy settings that I need to turn off at first boot.
restalis 11y ago
Windows 10 was offered for free (as upgrade) and there was a good reason why that cookie was free! I don't want it for the same reasons.

viraptor 11y ago

Just a personal thing, but I'd pay extra to run the one or two windows applications on linux rather install windows. Just because of system maintenance, security, licensing, privacy, etc. reasons.

e12e 11y ago

I'm not sure it's entirely clear what you can use an OEM Windows disk for. Isn't that just for new hardware? And that's at least 50/vm if I understand things. The thing to compare reactOS to is probably a datacenter licensed copy of Windows server. Productivity applications will (mostly) run in Wine - I don't think anyone expects ReactOS to be a viable alternative to bare-metal Windows install for gaming.

coderjames 11y ago
Exactly. The Windows "OEM" or "System Builder" edition is only valid for computers that are sold on to the final end user. They aren't legal for personal use by the original purchaser. [1] [1] = http://www.howtogeek.com/197232/microsoft-is-misleading-consumers-with-windows-8.1-system-builder-licensing/ http://www.howtogeek.com/197232/microsoft-is-misleading-cons...
- terinjokes 11y ago
  Interesting. I bought Windows 8 System Builder and used the "Personal Use License". Some point thereafter I upgraded to Windows 8.1. I'm sure I agreed to the new terms of use (after all, I wanted to get back to my computer), and was suddenly breaking the license. Wonderful.
- blisterpeanuts 11y ago
  Can't you sell yourself the system? The OEM edition is intended for system builders, and you have to provide the device drivers separately, but that seems to be the only difference between the home/business distro and the OEM one.

gnrme 11y ago

Microsoft is dragging its users into the cloud. Something like ReactOS would let people live within the Microsoft environment without the baggage of the cloud. A personal computer rather than a glorified cloud terminal.

carbocation 11y ago

The reason I like R rather than Stata (actually, there are many, but the initial reason) is that I can run R on as many computers as I have access to simultaneously without worrying about license compliance. When I submit 1,000 jobs to a compute cluster to process genotyping, I don't worry that I'm violating a license. When I sold my business that used R as a core tool, I didn't worry that I had enough licenses. I think that is a valuable reason to actively prefer free as in beer and free as in liberty over even inexpensive but proprietary.

superuser2 11y ago

OEM pricing only applies if you have receipts for desktop components. To put Windows in a VM costs a good bit more.

codinghorror 11y ago

Grey market keys can be had for way less than that, if you are comfortable with grey markets -- where keys being provided to countries being charged way less are resold to consumers in other countries.

13of40 11y ago

Even if it was $200, you get about as much mileage out of a single-machine license for Windows as you would out of, say, a hard drive or a video card, and you don't see anyone complaining about having to pay for those. I think people even understand that most of the price for those items goes toward paying employees and keeping the lights on, not physically building the device. What gives, people? What gives?

venomsnake 11y ago
Well. I OWN the video card. Until the licence purchaser have more rights over what to do with the software and resell it, it is not worth the money. Also my video card don't have 6 screens of privacy settings that I need to turn off at first boot.

restalis 11y ago

Windows 10 was offered for free (as upgrade) and there was a good reason why that cookie was free! I don't want it for the same reasons.