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Rob Beard wrote:
that is more or less the only reason i dont use linux all the time is my online game looks terrible and very laggy.Terry Hill wrote:LOL, I wouldn't call FAST, how I see it, probably a quick e-mail probably suggesting that if he is giving away copies of Office and Windows which aren't legit then although he feels he's doing everyone a favour, he could end up in trouble and that maybe he should look at OpenOffice, and maybe Ubuntu/Mint/PCLinuxOS etc.That's good. There's a guy on the Torbay Freecycle who often advertises PCs, funnily enough they seem to come with Windows XP and Office 2003. Either he's loaded and giving away legal copies he's paid for out of hisown pocket or he's doing something naughty.Fair enough. I guess the choices are: a) Leave him alone.b) Contact him and ask if he needs help with licensing and/or installing linux.c) Call F.A.S.T. (but don't tell them about that hooky copy of manic minor on a c90 I bought for 28p from that bloke outside john menzies with the dog on a bit of string).Then I guess if it continues, it would probably be worth notifying the Freecycle admins so they can have words.<snip>I mean, what he is doing in general (i.e. rebuilding PCs and giving them away to people who could make use of them) is great, but if he's givingawaypirated copies with them then he is leaving himself at risk and possiblyothers who get the PCs with dodgy software on them.If he's installing pirated copies of windows then you'd think he knows his game. Mind you, I did once meet a chap in a computer shop in Bideford whom had just had his entire setup confiscated and was facing some fairly steep legal issues. He'd been pirating and selling PC games and software, and had been sticking those little gold address labels on them with his name, address and telephone number on. So people could get back to him when they wanted more.<Face meets palm>There's one thing selling dodgy games but putting your name and address on them? That's just plain stupid!Now I'm not saying I was whiter than white when I was younger, but now I tend to just buy games when they're reduced lots. A friend of mine who has an XBOX 360 pirated 99% of his games, then was found to have a modified console and was kicked off XBOX Live. Like a few people I've read comments from, he's gone out and bought a PS3 in protest (can't work it out myself, not sure what he's protesting against, he wasn't making any money for Microsoft by pirating his games, and now he's paying for games on the PS3!). The only reason I've modified consoles in the past is to run homebrew (such as XBOX Media Center on the original XBOX) or to run Linux.Now we've got a PS3 I'm kinda lucky with the fact that my brother in law also has one and I've borrowed a load of his games which will keep me going for the next 12 months probably (considering I have little spare time anyway).True, but the likes of Mint are fairly similar to Windows XP anyway and it wouldn't require half as much time setting it up with all the extra software and security updates (okay, I know Mint would require security updates, but chances are he could just install it, install the updates and be done).Perhaps the PC's he advertises came with the software in the first place. Personally I have two licenses for XP, one for office 2003 and a full license for a Dreamweaver suite that I'm not using, and I gave away two licenses for XP last year. Once I get around to reinstalling my compaq lappy, I'll have another spare license. As far as I understand it, if you've got the label then you've got the license (although correct me if I need it, I've never attempted to keep up with the mechinations at Richmond).That's what I thought at first, but I gave away some old computer bitsrecently and he e-mailed me asking if he could have them (as it turns out I'd already let someone else have them). He said that he builds PCs fromold bits and then gives them away.It would be sensible to give them away with linux on, but then he'd have the nightmare of which window manager? which distro runs on this gear etc etc. Not such an issue, but to a "windows man". . . I think he'd just stop giving PC's away. Assuming that he is installing a pirated version of windows on them, that is.Yep, I believe in the olden days when XP first came out you could transfer licenses (in fact I personally think you should still be able to), but hey, that's Microsoft for you, protecting their shareholders at their customers expense.Now the problem is with the Microsoft OEM EULA, the license is tied into the hardware, so building a PC out of bits doesn't really count unless it was already tied to key components such as the motherboard (the licences are tied to things like the motherboard so if it is replaced, it is classed as a new computer). Not to mention with Windows activation, it ties the softwareinto more than one component and you're only allowed to change so many components without having to re-activate. So too, if you're giving away software which is an OEM version, unlessyou're giving it away with the complete machine you are in theory breakingthe EULA.The label is attached to the machine, the licence 'dies' with the machine,so if the machine is disposed off, blows up, whatever, then the licence becomes invalid. It can't be transferred.On the other hand, if it's a FULL retail boxed copy (i.e. something you'd get from the likes of PC World) then you can transfer the licence to someone else (or another machine) as long as everything is transferred over and acopy does not remain.I didn't know that - when I've activated windows on the telephone before they just seem to ask how many PC's are running that copy of windows. Then give you the code to activate windows. Thanks for the info though, I'll have to be a little more careful (not that I plan on using my windows licenses for much longer)I don't think it's just the network card. From what I have read on the subject, they consider the motherboard to be the 'computer'. If you change the motherboard for an identical model (or practically identical model) then they are okay with it as they consider the computer is being repaired. But if you change say the motherboard, CPU, and memory then they consider this to be a new computer which needs a new license.Mind you, I don't think that any of the licenses arent actually running on the wring boxes, although the bits inside might have changed a fair bit. I guess thats a grey area really. I mean, who would buy windows if they had to get a new copy because they'd upgraded thier network card or something?Nope, in fact there isn't anything she does on the PC that she can't do on Ubuntu, she just prefers Windows.I know, I don't like it either, but it's what Microsoft specify.It annoys me greatly because when I eventually upgrade the wife's PC, I'llhave to buy a new copy of Windows 7 for her (as her current Windows 7upgrade is now allocated to her OEM copy of Windows XP, so it too becomes pretty much an OEM copy of Windows 7 which can't be transferred). If she'd got a full retail boxed copy of XP and then upgraded that to Windows 7 thenas a whole it could be transferred to another PC.She play World of Warcraft too then? It's the only thing that stops me running Linux on my two favorite PC's.If you need a WoW fix then maybe this might help (mind you, I don't know how well it works, I've never played WoW, nearest I've got is Diablo 2)...http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft_functionality_on_Wine Rob
in stead of using my gt 8800 card its like running on 64 mb card. alex the not so noob -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html