Apple Offers Three-Year Upgrade Plan for Server

davidstrauss writes "News.com is reporting that 'Apple Computer is giving buyers of its Mac OS X Server the option of signing on for three years of unlimited access to software upgrades for the same price it charges for a single, onetime upgrade.' This sounds almost like a push in the direction of Microsoft's Licensing 6."

Comments

NOT like Licensing 6

[Ster]

Licensing 6 requires an annual fee, which is a percentage of the original purchase price. That's on top of the price for the original software.

Original 10-User Win2k Server: 1199
Three-year licensing agreement: (1199 * 29%) * 3 years = 1043.13

This is different: instead of one upgrade, you get all upgrades for the next three years at no additional cost.

Original 10-User OS X Server: 499
Three-year Upgrade plan: 499

-Ster

Paying for security? Hardly.

[daveschroeder]

No, and how wrong your logic is. Up until now, the only way to get a new version of Mac OS X Server that was a paid upgrade (like 10.2 from 10.0.x/10.1.x) was to buy it outright at full price...this actually makes it cheaper in the long run, assuming there's more than one paid update during the 3 year period. Additionally, Apple will continue to release updates and patches that keep previous versions of Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server secure as long as they're in routine use. Apple has already released security updates for 10.1.x, even after 10.2 was out.

Very good!

[Sulka]

At the moment, you can't get an upgrade pricing on OS X Server. Apple just doesn't offer an upgrade. And remember, OS X Server with unlimited licenses costs a lot ($1500 in Finland). I'm still running 10.1 as I'm having a grudge for purchasing a new license just to upgrade to a hopefully less buggy version of the server. So, this is a very good deal. :)