Hi Ed As a builder and supplier of computers I purchase OEM copies of XP etc Office etc Nero CorelDraw etc etc. I can either show it in the price or build it into the price and pretend I am giving it away free. As I build to specification I show each individual component and the price I want to sell that component , building in a bit of extra profit to cover warranty and cost of delivery and building for example. The OEM software is shown at the cost price to me. I.e. I don't make any profit out of the software. Anyway if I did it would make the final price to far away from what can be purchased elsewhere. The reason I am given for supplying the software at a much cheaper price is that this locks the end customer into Microsoft etc software. With the advent of Office 2007 this has become more complicated. We have had to purchase CD,s/DVD,s with the full Office 2007 and the Student and Teacher versions, in the UK this is approximately £6.00 each. We are required to install these on all computers sold, giving the end user 60 days to trial the product. At some time during the trial the end user can opt to purchase in which case I purchase a licence for the user (in this case OEM) which comes in a DVD case with no CD/DVD in it just the product key. If the product purchased is less than the full version the only those programs purchased can be used, the others cease to work properly at the end of the trial period. Incidentally I have had problems with this as until I have uninstalled those programs the correctly Licensed programs have had hiccups (Keep asking for the product key etc). All creating extra work which comes of my bottom line.
As far as Hardware is concerned it used to be that purchasing a new motherboard or other significant part of the computer entitled you to an OEM license. This changed some time ago. Now I can only supply OEM with a new computer or a complete second hand computer to which I may have replaced with new some of the components. I.E. I am supplying a computer to a new client. However I get computers in for repair every week, and when I replace a significant component or a number of insignificant components then the computer will ask to be reactivated. Also if I am repairing computers where the manufacturers have issued a recue disk, not an original CD, I will try and do a repair using one of my CD's. This usually requires a reactivation procedure. This consists of ringing an 0800 no and entering numbers from the screen. Sometimes I am transferred to a human operator (who because of their Nationality I find difficulties in understanding them) sometimes you just key in numbers to answer the questions. One of the questions is "Has a new Motherboard been fitted" I am told by a colleague who also builds computers that when he answered yes to a Human operator she said OK and asked why and then proceeded to give him a new number. If I have fitted a motherboard of the same type and manufacturer then I am not asked to reactivate. Hope this explains how OEM works. In Man-wai's case I think it could be worth going the new motherboard way as long as the IBM is a standard case and will take his preferred motherboard. Another alternative would be to try and locate a similar motherboard (perhaps pulled from a scrap IBM same model) I have done this often in the past. If he has already built up a new computer (Case Motherboard Hard Disk etc) then he is entitled to an OEM license anyway. In the past I have purchased second hand Hard Disks where my client's has a p.c. board fault, replaced the printed circuit and rescued the clients data. And then reversed the procure placing the data onto the new/second hand hard disk. (Using Norton Ghost in both directions). Cheers Peter Peter Hart Computers -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ed Leafe Sent: 22 October 2007 12:46 To: ProFox Email List Subject: Re: [NF] About OEM WinXP -- continued On Oct 22, 2007, at 7:40 AM, Man-wai Chang wrote: >> They can say whatever they want. If you have the legal firepower to >> challenge them, be my guest. > > So were there court cases related to the OEM license? What are their > results? I don't know; I've never looked into it. All I know is that the law is set by who can afford the most attorneys to generate the most paperwork, not by who is right or wrong. > After all these conversation, OEM license is just like renting a > software ... but the rent is paid once only. It's actually a kickback to the manufacturers to get them to pre- install Windows exclusively. -- Ed Leafe -- http://leafe.com -- http://dabodev.com [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
