OEM vs. Retail Versions of XP for Fusion

[gypsy1968]

I have seen system builders, OEM and retail versions to purchase for my use with Fusion. I understand "any" will work but some have restrictions or are tied to specific hardware. I "may" want to install fusion on 2 mac's but unsure at this time. Thanks!

[patje57]

Both OEM & retail require 2 licenses if installed on 2 different Mac's. Legally OEM is tied to 1 machine, you can not install on another machine even when uninstalling on the first machine. Retail let you install XP on another machine but requires to uninstall on the other machine, license can not be shared.

[MandarMS]

Go through the following for OEM vs Retail

http://communities.vmware.com/message/741568#741568

http://communities.vmware.com/message/798421#798421

[gypsy1968]

Those are very useful links, thank you. I found it interesting OEM's work with parallels but not fusion. Bigger investment for fusion to work, which may make parallels the winner but if if can find a reasonable retail version I will try both. Thank you!

[JohnZonie]

I think there needs to be differentiation between an OEM edition that came with a purchased PC and one that was purchased separately. Fore example, mwave sells OEM versions of XP SP2 home and pro considerably below the retail editions. Such versions are intended for system builders and VM users are nothing if not system builders

I have installed OEM Pro SP2 on boot camp and then point VM Fusion to it without difficulty.

[gypsy1968]

When you say "point" fusion to it, you do not reinstall it on the mac? I don't have a need for bootcamp at all, or is this recommended? So if this is the case then the one on amazon that says "xp home sp2 for system builders" should do the trick, however only for use on one mac I am sure. Thanks!

[JohnZonie]

Sorry. What I meant was by "point" was to tell Fusion to use the boot camp partition for the virtual machine. I followed the standard steps to create a boot camp partition and install the OEM edition on that partition.

(I installed XP in a boot camp partition in case I needed the full machine resources for my XP work. I don't see any reason other than that why the OEM version couldn't be installed in a "pure" VM.)

[gypsy1968]

Great to know, so if i wanted to have "both" I would not need to reinstall all software for use with fusion, I can just direct it to the partition? If so, that makes it easier to have both, but to install all software on both sides I may not need but if so simple, great! So do I need virus software on a VM or just the bootcamp?

[admin]

I found it interesting OEM's work with parallels but not fusion

Not sure where you're getting that. OEM licenses work in Fusion too, it's just that some people don't realize the activation hassles they're getting into by choosing it.

Great to know, so if i wanted to have "both" I would not need to reinstall all software for use with fusion, I can just direct it to the partition? If so, that makes it easier to have both, but to install all software on both sides I may not need but if so simple, great! So do I need virus software on a VM or just the bootcamp?

I've heard problems about activation issues if both Fusion and Parallels are used with a Boot Camp partition - we both try to handle activation, and the methods may not work well together (or it could be user error, I'm not sure). You should have antivirus, etc. regardless if it's a Boot Camp virtual machine or a normal virtual machine.