Bristol is now ready for the business evolution

Yesterday, we presented the first of five cinema events featuring Exchange 2007, Office 2007 and Vista.  The gig itself was at the Bristol iMax which had a spectacular screen onto which we presented the fabulous.  One of the AV guys informed me that the screen was made partly of Silver and cost £3000 per square meter!!!

Today we're in London at the Kensington Odeon to deliver the message to partners based in the "big smoke".  Here are some of the questions I got from partners at the Bristol Event.

Questions from Partners

1. EULA/Licensing Concerns

Some of the questions that came back from partners included licensing terms which mentioned that users might not be able to install and then reinstall Vista.  They were of course talking about the first draft of the EULA (End user licensing agreement) which we then revised after feedback from the community. 

There's a fine line between combatting software piracy and giving a more painful experience to our enthusiast community and this instance we got it wrong, so we did something about it and came out with a new version of the EULA.

As Nick White said on the official Windows Vista Blog:

"Our intention behind the original terms was genuinely geared toward combating piracy; however, it’s become clear to us that those original terms were perceived as adversely affecting an important group of customers: PC and hardware enthusiasts.  You who comprise the enthusiast market are vital to us for several reasons, not least of all because of the support you’ve provided us throughout the development of Windows Vista.  We respect the time and expense you go to in customizing, building and rebuilding your hardware and we heard you that the previous terms were seen as an impediment to that -- it’s for that reason we’ve made this change.  I hope that this change provides the flexibility you need, and gives you more reason to be excited about the upcoming retail release of our new operating system."

2. EN-UK Multilanugage User Interface (MUI)

Getting a British English version user interface in Windows is something that the MUI Team are currently looking at.  I've been checking in with those guys quite frequently and will let you know of the progress we are making.

 More questions coming soon....