Does it make sense to Ban Windows Vista on VM?
October 17, 2006 by Milo Riano
Filed under Computers
You are looking forward to purchase your Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium which are the two most affordable retail versions of Windows, and if you are a developer like me, you’d like to use VMs to ensure you could install, re-install and experiment with various development tools without worrying of any possible crashes, performance draw backs or re-formatting of PCs. Whether you’re a developer or not, VMs can significantly help you to restore broken environments in a few minutes. Furthermore, average home users who doesn’t have the technical savvy to install and fix environments may greatly benefit from VM, all they need is to ask someone once to help them get their base OS and VMs in place and their all set.
The license released by Microsoft says you are not allowed to install the system in virtual machines using Home Basic and Home Premium licenses. However, Vista is allowed to be used in VMs using Vista Ultimate and Vista Business. I haven’t confirmed whether virtual machines refer only to VMware or other Micosoft VM vendors (I seriously doubt and think Ms Virtual PC is included). I suspect that VMs include Microsoft’s Virtual PC, and If so, I don’t see how it makes sense. Windows Vista should be able to detect the same hardware license configuration hosting you’re VM and its availability should also be present in Home users as well.
One scenario I am thinking about is Microsoft allowing “ONLY” Ms Virtual PC in Home users as long as they purchase separate of higher VPC premiums to shoulder the cost for Home Users. On the other, other VM vendors wouldn’t like that idea and may add to Microsoft’s list of Monopolistic accusations.
In the end, I would like Microsoft to standardize the usage of VMs across all versions of Windows since everyone is entitled for better productivity gains.
I am using Virtual PC on my home computer this very minute to test Firefox 2.0 RC3 to ensure all the extensions I use work in Firefox 2.0
I am a home user, perhaps I am “more technical” than some home users however I would still like to be able to do this with Vista Home as I can with XP Home.
I have played with the Vista betas and while it is nice it isn’t a must have, at least for me, and without being able to use it in Virtual PC just means I will not buy it. I will not purchase the more expensive version just so I can use it in a VM when XP does all I want.
I guess I am a minority though so I guess Microsoft does not care about us. Is a shame.
Update – I don’t think I made this bit cristal clear so …
While Vista isn’t a “must have”, for me, I would purchase it anyway as it is sort of a hobby for me, however if it is unable to do everything XP Home can do I see it more of a downgrade not an upgrade. While I would have purchased it the day it was released, without being able to use it in a VM, I will no longer do so. Infact I had planned to run Vista in a VM for the first few weeks to ensure that everything worked as I wanted before switching over for my main install. Guess thats no longer an option :(
I am a big fan of VPCs and I would definitely hope the Home edition can be installed in VPC. I mess up my environment too often too irritating already and VPC has just solved that problem for me.