Can someone explain what the difference is between running Windows in Bootcamp and VM, seems to me you are still running Windows. Not that I would buy and install Windows but it does seem a little odd to me. I little education for myself so I can follow these threads and understand what people are experiencing.
When you buy a software license, you are buying the right to use a certain piece of software in a certain way. You don't have some sort of inherent unlimited right to use any software any way you wish, which is limited by licenses. Rather, you are *granted* specific privileges by your licenses. Software licenses can address...
- where you use software (e.g. a university can purchase licenses to use the software on their sites but not necessarily at your home)
- when you use software (licenses can expire)
- how you use software (for instance, some licenses prohibit commercial usage of the software under that license, such as many academic licenses)
This has been true essentially as long as software has existed.
The Vista limitation falls into the last category. The difference between Parallels and Bootcamp is that, in the latter case, Vista runs directly on hardware that is compliant with its requirements -- all Bootcamp does is help you partition your drive to install Vista and provide drivers for Vista. In the former case, Vista doesn't have direct access to the hardware, per se. Rather, it interfaces with a
virtual equivalent of the hardware set that's provided by the host OS (e.g. OS X) and the virtualization software / technology (Parallels in conjunction with Intel's virtualization tech).
Is there some fundamental technological reason that the home Vista cannot run in the virtual environment? Of course not. Is there any technological reason why OS X cannot run on at least some Windows PCs? Of course not. But Microsoft and Apple, respectively, do not grant you that license with tha product. You can complain to them and lobby them to change the stance (which they might, as MS almost did in this case), and you can work with the legal system if this is a violation of rights accorded you elsewhere, but unless that's the case, you don't have any fundamental right to use the software any way you want. Rather, you have a right to run Vista directly on the hardware, unless you buy the more expensive versions, because that's the right that MS is selling you.
