VMWare / Wine

[Eberhard Roloff]

Michael R. Head wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 10:57 -0500, Jeffrey F. Bloss wrote:
>> Derek Broughton wrote:
>>
>> In short, if a piece of software lists "Microsoft Windows xxxx" as a
>> requirement, like almost every piece of Windows software does, it
>> implies a *legally owned* copy of that software. It doesn't even have
>> to be installed, IOW Wine is "legal" (the reason the topic came up), but
>> to run almost any Windows software legally requires ownership of a
>> Microsoft Windows license more current than Windows 95... for a couple
>> reasons that have to do with Microsoft's EULA changes starting with
>> Windows 98.
> 
> I don't think I buy this argument (without a snippet of a EULA from some
> third party software that explicitly states that it is required to run
> on Windows). Certainly the any warranties and guarantees (which were
> shaky in the first place) go out the window (so to speak) when running
> on a non-Microsoft version of Windows, but simply specifying on the box
> that a program requires (or, more to the point _specifies_) windows
> doesn't strike me as having any legal force requiring a Microsoft
> implementation of that specification/requirement. 
> 
> Even if the EULA of a third party piece of software claims that it
> requires Windows, I'd still not be totally convinced as EULAs are
> notoriously weak.
> 
> 
E. g. the EULA for IE6 states:

"NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALID EULA FOR ANY
 "OS PRODUCT" (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION,
 MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98, MICROSOFT WINDOWS NT 4.0,
 MICROSOFT WINDOWS 2000, MICROSOFT MILLENNIUM
 EDITION, MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP, OR ANY OTHER
 MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEM THAT IS A SUCCESSOR
 TO ANY OF THE FOREGOING OPERATING SYSTEMS) YOU
 ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO INSTALL, COPY, OR OTHERWISE
 USE THE OS COMPONENTS AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS
 UNDER THIS SUPPLEMENTAL EULA."

(cited from http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/)

okay, this is not "third party" but you have to agree on it, before you
can install and use ie6, be it on wine or anything else.

regards
EbR