Slam62 said:
you can istall xp home oem on any machine you like whenever you like, its much better than retail and you dont have to buy any hardware with it.
I am assuming that you've read through the whole of the OEM license to make that decision - the one where you say it's better than retail?
It is just I personally cannot see how it is better than retail - maybe you are spotting something I'm not?
Anyway, the part of the OEM license which maybe a problem to many is that the license cannot be trasferred and this means transferred from the machine it is first installed on.
If this is a brand new build from say Dell or wherever that means the license remains with that machine for ever more.
If you are building your own machine and then install OEM WinXP Home then the copy is tied to the motherboard.
So if in a years time you decide it's MB, CPU & RAM upgrade time then you do actually have to buy a new Windows license.
For this reason I buy retail upgrades.
They are very similar in price (Well WinXP Home is, you do pay a bit of a premium with XP Professional retail).
This license can be transferred any number of times between any number of machines so long as it is only ever installed on one.
That clause alone in my eyes makes the retail license better than the OEM one.
What makes the OEM license better than the retail one other than the initial cost saving?
Upgrade your PC MB, CPU & RAM once and you make that money back.