I was looking around for a Windows XP Pro for my new PC at home and I was checking out the prices and I fell upon an offer: Buy Windows XP Pro OEM and get a free mouse. And the price seemed reasonable so I checked it out. To my surprice I found out that an OEM version means that you can only install it on one machine, and then the OS is bound to that PC. I called Microsoft and asked what happens if I buy a new CPU, ram, Graphics card, network card etc. will that affect "my PC" ? They told me when we say bound to the pc we mean the motherboard. If you get a new motherboard you will have to buy another copy of Windows XP. If you get a faulty motherboard, or if your motherboard gets an error and you'll receive a new board which is similar, you'll have to buy a new copy of Windows XP. Also I was told that besides this you also have to activate your Windows XP after installing it. If you regularly reinstall your system you will eventually reach the (is it 5 or 10?) and you can't activate your Windows XP anymore, and you will have to pick up the phone and get in line with Microsoft and activate it by phone somehow by typing in the digits of your serial number. So I asked, what do I do if I'm the kinda of guy who doesn't wanna be bothered with all these money-scheme-details, and Microsoft told me that I should buy an FFP version of Windows XP. And I asked, what's that? Oh it's a version of Windows which you are allowed to reinstall as much as you want on whatever machine you want to as long as you only have the OS installed on one PC at a time. And I said, that seems like my kind of version; what's the price? It's about the double the price of the OEM version. So I asked; okay. Why is that? What's the difference, I mean on the actual CD, is something different, like Windows Media Player has been removed or ? No, it's the exact same, just more expensive and a different license. Oh..... thanks for clearing the up, I guess. So I ask myself; how come Microsoft has problems with piracy when you have to buy a new version of Windows each time you change your motherboard? "I know you already bought your car, but you have to pay for it again because we changed your radio, see?" .. is that what we can expect from Microsoft when Windows Vista comes out? If so, I think I might just stick with Windows 2000 and a good firewall, Firefox & Thunderbird.
