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Starting next year, PC makers won't be shipping dual-boot Windows desktops, as a result of a change Microsoft is making in its OEM licensing terms.
Currently, some OEMs offer customers a choice of Windows versions?say, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP?and allow users to select one upon first booting their new machines.
Microsoft will no longer offer dual installation but will offer downgrade rights in Windows XP," confirmed a spokeswoman for the company's licensing division.
"Previously, with dual install, a customer had to pick just one of the two operating systems and then stick with the one they chose. With downgrade rights, a customer can install an older operating system and move back up to Windows XP whenever they choose," the spokeswoman added.
Why is Microsoft instituting this change, other than the obvious reason that it wants to move more users onto Windows XP? The Microsoft spokeswoman did not respond to that question by the time this article was published.
Some OEMs say Microsoft is claiming dual preloads foster more piracy. Microsoft repeatedly has cited software piracy as the reason it believes OEMs should not be permitted to ship "naked" PCs upon which users could load their operating systems of choice. It's unclear if, under the new "downgrade" provisions, Microsoft will allow PC makers to preload any new machines with Windows 2000. A number of companies are in the midst of major Windows 2000 deployments and have professed they have no interest in moving to Windows XP.
"Change costs me time which costs money," said a weblog commentator, explaining why organizations may not want their users moving wholesale to the latest Windows release. "If you are a company that has standardized on Windows 2000 you may well NOT be ready to have XP-and not want the support burden of mixed platforms. So even though you can set internal standards, MS can still tell your vendor 'We don't care.' "
Microsoft's Windows preload policy was a key issue of contention throughout the Department of Justice vs. Microsoft antitrust proceedings. In more recent months, some users - primarily individual consumers and developers - have been opting to go Windowless all together, by buying Lindows or some other Linux variant preloaded on new PCs.
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