Microsoft Vista and virtualisation

Another iteration of the Microsoft Vista EULA has been released. The previous version caused uproar among hardware enthusiasts, by placing extra burdens on those who frequently upgrade their hardware. This version eases those burdens somewhat, but still contains:

Before you use the software under a license, you must assign that license to one device (physical hardware system). That device is the "licensed device." A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate device.

The "hardware partition" clause has two effects. Firstly it requires that each virtual machine has a separate licence, and secondly it prevents you from installing Vista on two hard drives on the same machine.

You may only obtain updates or upgrades for the software from Microsoft or authorized sources.

This gem of a clause prevents you from applying third party patches to fix bugs if Microsoft is being slow to fix bugs being actively exploited.