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I don't get Microsoft. Most companies would be looking for a way to persuade more people to use their product. Not Microsoft though who are busily giving people reasons not to use their latest and greatest. I guess the only real explanation is that they're happy with the market-share they have (i.e. most of it) and see no reason to be greedy for more.
Anyway, this time it's due to Vista's virtualization licensing. Summary: forget it unless you want to fork over the big bucks. That means no Vista on Parallels or any other hosted computer. Registered Microsoft developers do get an out: there's a Microsoft supplied virtualization engine as part of MSDN that allows multiple concurrent Windows sessions on the same physical hardware. That's not really much of a market segment to protect though since developers already have the right to use quite a few licensed copies of the operating system as part of their subscription.
As it stands, the decision has all been gussied up as a way to protect the user. Funny that, "We want to protect you" (unless you pay as much more money); yup, buy the really expensive versions of Vista and the licensing no longer includes this restriction. Either Vista is secure, or it's not. Coughing up more money doesn't magically fix the core. Somehow methinks Microsoft is playing games here.
I own a copy of XP Pro specifically for running compatibility and heritage programs on my Macbook. While Windows is not my primary operating system, being able to use it remains important to me. Truly, I don't like where this is going.