[olug] Barracuda violating GPL & Doctrine of First Sale?

[Will Langford]

> that he could install XP instead. They did not have to honor his warranty if
> he wasn't running the "recommended" OS, which, to them, meant Windows. So,
> even when you own the hardware, agreements can be invalidated based on your
> software (don't ask me how that makes sense). You don't get what you pay for
> anymore, and it just sucks.

There might be fine print somewhere regarding acceptable software to
be run on the hardware without violating warranty stuff.... unsure if
that's a common thing or not.  In general, I'd imagine the "reinstall
windows" bit is more of a tech support life saving donut, this way the
company in question only has to trouble shoot a single given OS.
Software *can* damage hardware.... and always has been able to.  Back
in the old commodore days of slamming drive heads around, or today
with overclocking tools that push graphics parts into thermal
no-zone... as two wide examples.  Embedded devices are notorious for
having clauses about approved software, just look at the iPhone as an
example :).

Sane course of action, undoubtedly, would be to install XP or Vista,
run through the tech support gambit, and return to your alternate OS
after getting warranty work done --- all the while trying to keep mum
about the alternate OS.