The confusion of Dell/HP/etc OEM and regular OEM, and Retail, etc versions are the reason I switched to Macs in the first place. They have 2 versions. One server, one regular. There's none of this OEM crap.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
windows XP OEM?
- Thread starter trailofdan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Vista Home Premium System Builder disk (which works fine BTW- I have purchased and installed three copies of this so far) is $99 with free shipping at
So true, but then again the system disk that comes with one Mac may not work in another Mac.
Apple and Microsoft has different models of business. Apple sells high-margin hardware like the MB, MB Pro, and iMac with OS X as "freebie." Microsoft sells software, and they've to break their software into different markets. Apple can afford to sell two versions of OS X (client and server) simply because it's the different "versions" of the hardware is the differentiating factors. Likewise, Microsoft has multiple versions of Windows XP and Vista.
Microsoft licensing:
* Vendor OEM such as Dell and HP
* OEM that you can purchase
* Retail/Upgrade (similar except upgrade requires a prior qualified license)
Apple licensing:
* No OEM, Apple is the only vendor
* Retail/Upgrade, requires a Mac