Microsoft has added a new type of license agreement for Windows 8, in addition to the OEM and retail Upgrade licenses that we have seen in the past. This new, Personal Use License, seems to be taking the place of the full retail versions of previous operating systems.
OEM licenses were never intended for use by individuals, and each copy has always been tied to the computer on which it is first installed. That particular type of license has not changed. OEM versions of Microsoft operating systems were always popular with people who build their own computers however, as they were significantly less expensive.
The retail Upgrade version of Windows 8 is also basically unchanged, since it requires a previous installation of an approved Windows operating system, and is not tied to any particular computer.
No, the real difference in licenses is found in the Personal Use version of Windows 8. For the first time, Microsoft is acknowledging the use of their operating system by home builders, and are allowing Win 8 in separate partitions and in a virtual machine.
Here is the text from the EULA for this version of Windows 8:
PERSONAL USE LICENSE (SYSTEM BUILDER) FOR WINDOWS 8 PRO
We do not sell our software or your copy of it – we only license it.Under our license, we grant you the right to install and run that one copy on one computer (the licensed computer) as the operating system on a computer that you build for your personal use, or as an additional operating system running on a local virtual machine or a separate partition, subject to the restrictions outlined under “Are there things I’m not allowed to do with the software?”
Microsoft is also changing their selling strategy, going straight to the consumer through downloads and direct sales rather than going through retail channels. This will allow lower prices for Windows 8 than what we have seen in the past for Microsoft operating systems.
You can read more on the story at ZDNet
