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On Thursay 02 May 2002 23:11. you wrote:
The "sanctity of contracts" in common law countries, which has a constitutional sanction in the US, was mentioned with respect to the right of a given user to run its copy of Windows in a virtual rather than real machine, irrespective of a clause aiming at forbidding him to do so. Now, further food for thought in this respect has brought by a recent article published by The Register, where the following can be read: 'If a PC shipped with Windows preinstalled, can you remove the OS and install Linux instead? Well, no, according to Microsoft. A somewhat obscure Microsoft site aimed at helping schools deal with donated computers flatly states: "It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine."' If I understand the view above of the doctrine of the "sanctity of contracts", such a clause would be valid even when contained in the EULA of a given OS. "By purchasing this licence" or "By making use of this product, the user undertakes not to remove in any case, once installed, the OS from the PC to which it is applied. Furthermore, the user shall not make use of any other OS on any hardware belonging to, or used by, himself". What about that? [PWBunce] this came from an italian lawyer
A quote from SuSE 8.0 Personal Basics handbook: Installation:- "Partitions with Microsoft NT file systems (NTFS) cannot be reduced by Linux. This is default on Window NT, 200, and XP, but if you have selected FAT32 during the installation of one of those operating systems, SuSE Linux can resize the partition. If you have a computer with any of these systems on a single NTFS partition, the old system will be irrevocably deleted when you install SuSE Linux -- Linux will format the entire disk. To keep Windows, abort the installation or re-install Windows later on a seperate partition with your original software." (pp18 Important Tips) SuSE's default installation is clearly aimed a US users (US language, keyboard etc). So if what has been said about William G's dictate is correct are SuSE asking US users to break the law? Or do their lawyers (if thay have any) know something we don't? Keith -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.