On Mon, 4 May 2009, Jochem Kossen wrote:
It appeared more people were confused by the text, and both Microsoft and Samsung have explained that the terms mean, that if you use a different operating system than Windows with this drive, you need to get the appropriate license to use said different operating system.
Possibly, but you need to get the mentioned license _from Microsoft_, as is written in the license: "...may require an additional license from Microsoft."
"Hybrid Disk Drive products are licensed for use only on devices that deploy the Windows VISTA Operating System as their principal operating System. If you or any other party install(s) an operating system on the computing device that is not Windows Vista, the use of this Hybrid Disk Drive may require an additional license from Microsoft. For further information, please contact Microsoft."
It seems we are no longer buying hardware products, we are only buying permissions to use them - almost everything contains some form of firmware or microcode now. You never _own_ that code built-in in your hardware, you are only a licensee, thus you are bound by the license to use the firmware. Crazy, really crazy world! I hope that such licenses are illegal, illegal in every country.
Regards, David
