Reseller Selling Standalone Windows Media Center Software

[James Fee]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1675356,00.asp

"At least one vendor is selling OEM copies of Microsoft's new Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system online, possibly exploiting a loophole in Microsoft's contracts. Houston, Tex.-based Directron is selling the OEM edition of Microsoft's software on its web site for $129.99, as well as the accompanying remote control for $43.99. That's substantially less than the $299 Directron is charging for the retail boxed copy of Windows XP Pro. Microsoft executives said Tuesday that they do not plan to sell versions of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 at retail. For the first time, however, the software is being made available to legions of "system builders," white-box makers who can purchase copies of Microsoft's OSes through special programs. Directron, however, appears to be using this loophole to sell the software directly to consumers. An ExtremeTech analyst was able to successfully purchase the Windows Media Center Edition 2005 software as a standalone product from Directron. "

I can't begin to understand Microsoft sometimes. Windows Media Center Edition is as important to PC's today as Windows 95 was almost 10 years ago. Holding this back from consumers who want to either upgrade their existing PC or build their own just hurts the whole platform. I should be able to go down to Best Buy, and purchase MCE 2005 (with included remote) in a retail box. Sure OEM versions are available, but they don't distribute the OS to the maximum amount of consumers. Currently, most MCE PCs are higher end products that don't have broad appeal. To me at least, OEM's have dropped the ball and are not promoting the platform enough. MCE 2005 should be the cornerstone of PlaysForSure, but for now it is out of reach for most people and that is just too bad for all of us. Microsoft needs to either pressure OEM's to build a greater variety or products or sell MCE 2005 directly to the consumer.

[James Fee]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1675356,00.asp

"At least one vendor is selling OEM copies of Microsoft's new Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system online, possibly exploiting a loophole in Microsoft's contracts. Houston, Tex.-based Directron is selling the OEM edition of Microsoft's software on its web site for $129.99, as well as the accompanying remote control for $43.99. That's substantially less than the $299 Directron is charging for the retail boxed copy of Windows XP Pro. Microsoft executives said Tuesday that they do not plan to sell versions of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 at retail. For the first time, however, the software is being made available to legions of "system builders," white-box makers who can purchase copies of Microsoft's OSes through special programs. Directron, however, appears to be using this loophole to sell the software directly to consumers. An ExtremeTech analyst was able to successfully purchase the Windows Media Center Edition 2005 software as a standalone product from Directron. "

I can't begin to understand Microsoft sometimes. Windows Media Center Edition is as important to PC's today as Windows 95 was almost 10 years ago. Holding this back from consumers who want to either upgrade their existing PC or build their own just hurts the whole platform. I should be able to go down to Best Buy, and purchase MCE 2005 (with included remote) in a retail box. Sure OEM versions are available, but they don't distribute the OS to the maximum amount of consumers. Currently, most MCE PCs are higher end products that don't have broad appeal. To me at least, OEM's have dropped the ball and are not promoting the platform enough. MCE 2005 should be the cornerstone of PlaysForSure, but for now it is out of reach for most people and that is just too bad for all of us. Microsoft needs to either pressure OEM's to build a greater variety or products or sell MCE 2005 directly to the consumer.

[Zack Mahdavi]

Newegg is also selling WinXP MCE 2005 along with the remote. The only condition is that you must purchase hardware with it, although the type of hardware is not specified.

[Jason Dunn]

Very interesting indeed...

[Felix Torres]

Originally Posted by zkmusa

Newegg is also selling WinXP MCE 2005 along with the remote. The only condition is that you must purchase hardware with it, although the type of hardware is not specified.

This is not a exactly a new state of affairs; all Windows versions (except WMC, until now) have long been available on these terms.

And yes, most vendors require a hardware purchase with the OEM OS.
My experience has been that not all vendors *check* for the hardware purchase, though. ;-)
Especially online...

Still, given that qualifying hardware usually includes Hard Drives, CPUs, motherboards, and video cards... Well, if you're rebuilding your OS, chances are you'll be upgrading the hardware, producing what is in effect, a whole new computer.
Hence, MS makes no noise over the practice.

The licensing for the generic OEM versions of Windows is actually more *liberal* than the licensing terms for some (all?) of the Windows copies included with pre-built hardware, which are usually tied to the motherboard; hence swaping a motherboard on a system for a major vendor technically voids the license (again, MS rarely makes a fuss, but you need to talk to a human to activate the OS), whereas white-box Windows will activate online even after a mobo swap.

You just have to be careful reading the fine-print on the license.

This particular approach is well suited for WMC because this is *not* a casual install; you need to know what you're doing to get a full-feature Media Center PC up and running, so it is not (yet) a product that a typical consumer could buy and take home, but which *can* be installed by somebody with enough savvy to build their own boxes.

[James Fee]

Originally Posted by Felix Torres

This particular approach is well suited for WMC because this is *not* a casual install; you need to know what you're doing to get a full-feature Media Center PC up and running, so it is not (yet) a product that a typical consumer could buy and take home, but which *can* be installed by somebody with enough savvy to build their own boxes.

Maybe, but it should be easy enough for anyone. If Microsoft really wanted, they could get the driver situation figured out, but they don't seem to really want to go that route. Its too bad, because MCE really could be one of those "life changing" devices.

[Zack Mahdavi]

Yeah, I'm perfectly happy with Snapstream BeyondTV. It works really well currently, and the system performance is quite good. There's no media features right now, but that will be coming shortly.