OEM

One other (hopefully final) thing that annoyed me during the installation of the new Shuttle PC was this :

I ordered the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version of Windows XP Pro to go with the PC. Basically, for those who don’t know, the OEM version is basically just the software without all the bells and whistles of packaging, manuals, and all the nice customer-friendly stuff that you don’t really need. It’s packaging for people who are building their own PC – and it’s a buttload cheaper than getting the full “consumer experience”. And that’s all well and good.

However it comes in a cardboard box that’s plastered all over with “Don’t open this box ’til you’ve verified that you’ve been sent the correct version, as an opened box is non-returnable” and “if you open this box, you agree to the following licence agreement” – all the normal guff. But of course on the box there’s nothing on the outside of the box to tell you which version of Windows you’ve got. So you’ve got to open the box to find out, at which point you can’t return it if the suppliers have fucked up, and you’ve accepted the licence at that point too.

Fortunately, I’d received the version that I’d ordered – but I didn’t know that until I’d already accepted everything by having to open the keffing box.

I thought that these “you’ve got to open the box to read the licence that you’ve agreed to by opening the box” methods had been retired, but it looks like they’re still going strong.