MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US
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Thank you all for the suggestions.
This is for students in Guatemala. I don't know that it is all one school, as there are kids and extended family of various ages.
I am now leaning toward installing Fedora on these machines. I just switched to Spanish; Castilian, Guatemala to test here in my office and it looks easy.
So, Fedora 27, LibreOffice, VLC, and GIMP and we should be good.
I have suggested to my local contact to drop off a laptop and I will install everything and show it to her.
Any other words of wisdom?
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My first thought would be to use Linux. Do you know any educational software that might require Windows?
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What age of students? What kind of stuff will they be learning? Might be lots of other apps to consider.
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@black3dynamite said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
My first thought would be to use Linux. Do you know any educational software that might require Windows?
There is lots, and lots that requires a Mac. But very unlikely that expensive, proprietary apps would be in use in CA when donated computers are being used.
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Educational apps when using Fedora.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Education/AppsSome of them are probably outdated but its good start.
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@scottalanmiller said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
What age of students? What kind of stuff will they be learning? Might be lots of other apps to consider.
That's a critically important question. It's worth noting though that @Scott has said it'll be a mixed user group, from older people to younger.
At the moment what computers (if any do they have) is there an OS that they are already using?
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Here's another list of applications that a school in Pennsylvania are using when deploying Ubuntu laptops to their students.
https://technology.pennmanor.net/linux-software-for-schools/ -
@black3dynamite said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Here's another list of applications that a school in Pennsylvania are using when deploying Ubuntu laptops to their students.
https://technology.pennmanor.net/linux-software-for-schools/That is a pretty impressive list of software.
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Thanks again for all the help.
Client still wants me to "clean up" Windows machines.
Can anyone point to a relevant MS document that prohibits this regarding Windows and/or Office?
I want to help, but in the right way.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Thanks again for all the help.
Client still wants me to "clean up" Windows machines.
Can anyone point to a relevant MS document that prohibits this regarding Windows and/or Office?
I want to help, but in the right way.
WTF are you driving at? A license is a license. It is tied to the hardware unless it was a VLSC license.
Almost all hardware purchased in the US is purchased with an OEM license of Windows.
Reinstall Windows, install your software, and be done.
It is totally untrue that you have to use some fucked up OEM's install media to reinstall Windows.
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@jaredbusch Whoa man no need to get all worked up.
I am here asking if there are specific issues that prevent one from donating machines from the US to Guatemala, I'm not looking for a fight.
I am looking to help people in the proper way and am asking people who obviously know more than I do.
The following has been offered in this thread and I'm just looking for clarification:
"Reinstallation or imaging of the computers can easily put you out of compliance."
"Windows is the complication here, a LOT of it. It makes everything harder, both technical and licensing."
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
"Reinstallation or imaging of the computers can easily put you out of compliance."
What jared is driving at, if you have a recovery partition, or the OEM recovery media, reinstalling the OS to "factory" is perfectly fine.
It's when you're asked to do other things, such as install X or use a non-OEM or imaging solution that would put you out of compliance.
So long as there is a license affixed (or embedded) with the laptops you should be fine.
But you have to take into consideration what changes you may be asked to make to the installation. If no changes are made, but simply restoring to factory, you should have nothing to worry about.
PS @JaredBusch is a grumpy old bastard.
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@scott You already rejected the answer to not deal with licensing.
Beyond that, there is nothing more to care about than what I listed. A license is tied to the hardware unless it is a VLSC license.
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@dustinb3403 said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
What jared is driving at, if you have a recovery partition, or the OEM recovery media, reinstalling the OS to "factory" is perfectly fine.
No Jared is not.
i never said jack shit about imaging. No one did except you.
@Scott asked about reinstalling. You can reinstall the OEM licensed version form any media you want. You do not have to use a recovery partition nor the OEM provided reinstall media.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Thanks again for all the help.
Client still wants me to "clean up" Windows machines.
Can anyone point to a relevant MS document that prohibits this regarding Windows and/or Office?
I want to help, but in the right way.
The "right" way is Fedora or Ubuntu.
The "getting credit while not actually doing what's the most helpful" is to just reinstall Windows fresh and run updates.
The "truly lazy" but still okay way is to just reinstall Windows and not run updates.Those are the only three valid choices, really.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
"Reinstallation or imaging of the computers can easily put you out of compliance."
Who said this? Reinstallation has zero compliance risk.
Imaging is not related and certainly will put you out of compliance.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
"Windows is the complication here, a LOT of it. It makes everything harder, both technical and licensing."
Not with the OEM install. Just do a clean install of Windows per the OEM license attached to the hardware and Windows is fine. Essentially useless for someone in Guatemala, but fine to give to them.
There really is no concern about sending clean Windows machines to anywhere in Central America.
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@jaredbusch said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
@Scott asked about reinstalling. You can reinstall the OEM licensed version form any media you want. You do not have to use a recovery partition nor the OEM provided reinstall media.
Exactly. It just has to be manual installation, not an image.
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OK simple question then.
@Scott are you an OEM? Do you build and sell desktops?
Since OEM licensing are only supposed to be sold to OEM businesses and not individuals who should purchase the Retail license this would, by definition mean he has to restore to the OEM that came with the hardware, if he isn't an OEM.
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@dustinb3403 said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
OK simple question then.
@Scott are you an OEM? Do you build and sell desktops?
Doesn't matter here as the OEM is already purchased and applied (technically this is an assumption, but a really safe one. @scott hasn't actually said that such licenses exist, but it is a really, really likely situation.) You need to be an OEM builder to acquire the OEM licensing for the initial build. But any owner (or responsible IT tech) for said computer can install the software as often as they like, because the license was already applied by the system builder.
