Forget about 40 Millions! Microsoft Didn't Sell a Single Windows Vista!

Microsoft has applauded strong market performances for Windows Vista since the operating system hit the shelves. The initial predictions for Windows Vista sales involved an adoption rate double than that of Windows XP. And although Vista had gotten up to what it seemed a shaky start, Microsoft touted the first 20 million licenses sold in the first month of availability alone.

In the first 100 days since the consumer launch on January 30, 2007, Windows Vista has surpassed the entire installed base of all other rival operating systems. "We've really been amazed at the customer response. I mean, we knew that [Windows] Vista would become the standard version of Windows. We knew that the industry was stepping up to take advantage of those capabilities, but what's happened in the last 100 days has been beyond our expectations. As of last week, we've had nearly 40 million copies sold, and so that's twice as fast as the adoption of Windows XP, the last major release that we've had. If you think about that, that says that in our first five weeks we've matched the entire installed base of any other provider of similar software," stated Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates during Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2007.

But the fact of the matter is that despite the fact that initial Windows Vista sales figures point to a splash and despite the 40 million copies mentioned by Bill Gates, Microsoft failed to sell a single Windows Vista copy. This is as a result of the syntax included in the Windows Vista EULA. No Vista copy is sold; the operating system is merely licensed. "The software is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights," informs the Vista EULA.

Consequently for the 199$ Vista Home Basic, the $239 Vista Home Premium, the $299 Vista Business or $399 Vista Ultimate, users receive only the limited right to use the operating system and nothing more. Users will definitely not be able to:

- work around any technical limitations in the software;
- reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software, except and only to the extent that applicable law expressly permits, despite this limitation;
- use components of the software to run applications not running on the software;
- make more copies of the software than specified in this agreement or allowed by applicable law, despite this limitation;
- publish the software for others to copy;
- rent, lease or lend the software; or
- use the software for commercial software hosting services.

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