MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US
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I have been asked in the US to prepare donated laptops for use by school children in Central America.
An acquaintance is gathering laptops for a group of her family members who frequently visit a Central American country to help school children. She has asked if I could "clean up" these machines prior to giving to children.
What Microsoft licensing issues should I be aware of with regards to this? I looked at Microsoft licensing and I don't know what applies to my situation. As far as I know, these machines are not to be used in any revenue generating capacity, including my efforts. The only issue I see is taking machines from US to Central America.
My questions are: Will Microsoft have some issue with this? I would naturally prefer to wipe and reinstall Windows, and perhaps Office if it is already on the machine; is this an issue? Installing Linux and LibreOffice is probably the easiest way to go as far as licensing goes, but I do not want to create other issues for the end users. Explaining why I am putting Linux on these machines will completely confuse my acquaintance as well.
Any ideas or suggestions?
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@scott I'd simply remove Windows from the computers entirely. "Cleaning" often isn't good enough and you may still be out of compliance with Microsoft, unless all you literally do is "clean" the systems.
Reinstallation or imaging of the computers can easily put you out of compliance.
Take the easier path here and install a light linux distro. This way you don't have to think about Microsoft.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Installing Linux and LibreOffice is probably the easiest way to go as far as licensing goes, but I do not want to create other issues for the end users. Explaining why I am putting Linux on these machines will completely confuse my acquaintance as well.
For the reasons explaining "installing linux" you simply have to state that you don't own the licensing to "gift" to others, nor does your friend (I assume).
Linux can be very easily taught, especially if you pick a mainstream distro like Ubuntu. If require you could give your friends an example of how easy it is to get going, and how simple it would be for whoever uses the computers to use them.
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Another benefit of using linux, is you can image the systems however you want. Using an OEM type solution (Ubuntu is the only one I've found recently that actually offers an OOBE installer), that is configured to update every week or month as well.
So rather than leaving the system to the eventual end user, you can install libreoffice and gimp and vlc and whatever else they might need. All while having the system automatically update on a set schedule.
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It might seem like more work to do this, but it removed a lot of the risk of being out of compliance.
Although I doubt Microsoft is going to come after you for charity work. On the other hand I wouldn't leave it up for debate.
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What Laptops are these? Do they have COA stickers on them? Windows 7, 8, 8.1?
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@harry-lui said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
What Laptops are these? Do they have COA stickers on them? Windows 7, 8, 8.1?
Even with the COA, to refresh the images he would need the OEM image and wouldn't be allowed to make any changes.
This would intentionally being using old software, which is never a best practice.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
I have been asked in the US to prepare donated laptops for use by school children in Central America.
Where in CA? That's pretty cool.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
What Microsoft licensing issues should I be aware of with regards to this? I looked at Microsoft licensing and I don't know what applies to my situation. As far as I know, these machines are not to be used in any revenue generating capacity, including my efforts. The only issue I see is taking machines from US to Central America.
The desktops / laptops should have the same "version" of Windows that is OEM on the box (e.g. Home or Pro) and then you should upgrade that to the very latest Windows 10 before sending it because you can easily and they won't be able to do that there.
If that amount of effort gives the slightest hesitation, then Windows should be ruled out and go with Linux, likely Fedora or Ubuntu. Keep it simple and useful for them. They aren't getting these to be video game machines, so Windows isn't likely of any value at all to them, but will cause a lot of problems as they don't have good Internet.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Installing Linux and LibreOffice is probably the easiest way to go as far as licensing goes, but I do not want to create other issues for the end users.
That's exactly why you avoid Windows here. With Windows they can't get MS Office, so any normal argument for Windows being useful for kids is out the actual window. Windows is the complication here, a LOT of it. It makes everything harder, both technical and licensing.
If you want me to talk to the school in CA I will.
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Thank you all for the suggestions.
This is for students in Guatemala. I don't know that it is all one school, as there are kids and extended family of various ages.
I am now leaning toward installing Fedora on these machines. I just switched to Spanish; Castilian, Guatemala to test here in my office and it looks easy.
So, Fedora 27, LibreOffice, VLC, and GIMP and we should be good.
I have suggested to my local contact to drop off a laptop and I will install everything and show it to her.
Any other words of wisdom?
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My first thought would be to use Linux. Do you know any educational software that might require Windows?
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What age of students? What kind of stuff will they be learning? Might be lots of other apps to consider.
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@black3dynamite said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
My first thought would be to use Linux. Do you know any educational software that might require Windows?
There is lots, and lots that requires a Mac. But very unlikely that expensive, proprietary apps would be in use in CA when donated computers are being used.
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Educational apps when using Fedora.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Education/AppsSome of them are probably outdated but its good start.
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@scottalanmiller said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
What age of students? What kind of stuff will they be learning? Might be lots of other apps to consider.
That's a critically important question. It's worth noting though that @Scott has said it'll be a mixed user group, from older people to younger.
At the moment what computers (if any do they have) is there an OS that they are already using?
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Here's another list of applications that a school in Pennsylvania are using when deploying Ubuntu laptops to their students.
https://technology.pennmanor.net/linux-software-for-schools/ -
@black3dynamite said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Here's another list of applications that a school in Pennsylvania are using when deploying Ubuntu laptops to their students.
https://technology.pennmanor.net/linux-software-for-schools/That is a pretty impressive list of software.
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Thanks again for all the help.
Client still wants me to "clean up" Windows machines.
Can anyone point to a relevant MS document that prohibits this regarding Windows and/or Office?
I want to help, but in the right way.
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@scott said in MS Licensing Issues Regarding Machines Donated for Use Outside of US:
Thanks again for all the help.
Client still wants me to "clean up" Windows machines.
Can anyone point to a relevant MS document that prohibits this regarding Windows and/or Office?
I want to help, but in the right way.
WTF are you driving at? A license is a license. It is tied to the hardware unless it was a VLSC license.
Almost all hardware purchased in the US is purchased with an OEM license of Windows.
Reinstall Windows, install your software, and be done.
It is totally untrue that you have to use some fucked up OEM's install media to reinstall Windows.
