[Distutils] Call for information - What assumptions can I make about Unix users' access to Windows?

[Ben Finney]

Steve Dower <Steve.Dower at microsoft.com> writes:

> Ben Finney wrote:
> > The restrictions of the license terms make MS Windows an
> > unacceptable risk on any machine I'm responsible for.
>
> Just out of interest, which restrictions would those be?

It has been a long time since I bothered to read any of the numerous
license texts from Microsoft, so I can't cite specific clauses. From
memory, unacceptable restrictions include:

* Restricting the instance to specific hardware, instead of leaving it
  up to the recipient to run the work they paid for on any hardware they
  choose.

* Forbidding reverse-engineering of the OS to see how it behaves.

* Forbidding collaboration with other recipients to discover how the OS
  behaves.

* Refusal to disclose the source code for the running OS to the
  recipient.

* Forbidding the recipient from getting their choice of vendor to make
  improvements to the OS and collaborate with other recipients on the
  improvements.

* Arrogating control of the running OS to a party other than the license
  recipient, including the ability to (at Microsoft's sole discretion)
  deny applications to run, and to disable features of the OS.

* Arrogating data collection to Microsoft and undisclosed third parties,
  tracking broad classes of activity on the OS and sending the logs to a
  server not of the recipient's choosing.

> Does this prevent you from creating a VM on a cloud provider on your
> own account?

If I need to accept restrictions such as the above, I don't see that the
location of the instance (nor the fees charged) has any affect on these
concerns. The risks discussed above are not mitigated.

> If the licensing is a real issue, I'm in a position where I can have a
> positive impact on fixing it, so any info you can provide me (on- or
> off-list) about your concerns is valuable.

Thank you for this offer, I am glad to see willingness expressed to
solve these restrictions. I hope you can achieve software freedom for
all recipients of Microsoft operating systems.

Until then, the risk is too great to anyone to whom I have professional
responsibilities, and my advice must continue to be that they avoid
accepting such restrictions.

-- 
 \            “Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.” —Edsger W. |
  `\                                                          Dijkstra |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney