VMWare / Wine

[Eric Dunbar]

On 27/02/07, Eberhard Roloff <tuxebi at gmx.de> wrote:
> 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.

Which means that you should only be using IE 6 under WINE if you have
a COA for one of the aforementioned OSes (mind you, Win 98 and NT 4
COAs are now being thrown away so it's not hard to lay your hands on
one).