Comments | dr_bob: I feel dirty,,,,

dr_bob

I feel dirty,,,,

Nov 02, 2008 21:15

I have a bright new shiny (Macbook). In order to interact with the rest of the world, I want to be able to dual boot it to Windows. So does anyone have any spare XP intallations they'd be willing to give me? Since clearly, everyone's upgraded to Vista by now. Haven't they?

Comments 7

bateleur November 3 2008, 07:18:10 UTC

Interestingly, the appearance of Vista will make it harder to get XP install keys. XP is now no longer sold with new machines, so any Windows users who don't want to use Vista will have to find a spare key whenever they get a new pooter.

Best source of new keys is institutions with a Windows site licence. When they buy new pooters these will often come with a licence each, which they don't need because the site licence makes them redundant. Employees can often persuade the IT dept to let them use one. (This is completely legal, since the licence is paid for.)

dr_bob November 3 2008, 10:01:12 UTC

Interesting approach. I might try asking, but unfortunately the site license agreement we have here allows unlimited installs on college owned machines that come with a previously installed system. And college is also not recommending Vista upgrade yet, so not too many spare XP licenses...

bateleur November 3 2008, 10:40:45 UTC

but unfortunately the site license agreement we have here allows unlimited installs on college owned machines that come with a previously installed system

Sure, that's always the way. But the point is that the "previously installed system" probably came with its own key, which the institution doesn't need because they have a site licence. No disc. But the disc is meaningless. You can borrow an XP install disc from anyone (it's not illegal). The thing you need is the key.

undyingking November 3 2008, 09:17:38 UTC

On past form, I shall upgrade to Vista only when the next version has come out. Or when I get a new PC that unavoidably has it installed.

undyingking November 3 2008, 09:18:08 UTC

(But you're welcome to one of my Windows 2000 or Windows 98 licences!)

smiorgan November 3 2008, 09:44:37 UTC

In order to interact with the rest of the world

What part of the world are you having trouble with? You can solve even games/ms office problems with Codeweaver's products - no need for Windows. And I doubt you'd have many problems with networking either. Of course, if it's special windows-only software then that's different

(And I haven't upgraded to Vista. I do run Ubuntu Studio on my PC at the moment (alongside XP) and it's ace, video card works and everything. But that's not really relevent)

dr_bob November 3 2008, 09:58:02 UTC

Actually I need to run some bits of software (mostly work-related) that are windows only. I was just harking back to earlier (nastier) times.
Although the problems I just had converting a Mac powerpoint file to a pdf and retaining page size (1 metre squared) makes me think that having access to the rest of the world's norm is sometimes useful.