Slashdot Mirror
MS Tweaks Ill-Received Licensing Plan
ahooton writes "C|Net is
reporting that
Microsoft has updated it's
Software Assurance licensing program. The company has admitted that it's initial approach angered a large number of customers. No huge difference in pricing or terms -- changes are comprised of bundling some training and support. The one interesting concession is that corporate licensees of Microsoft Office can now use that suite on a home computer as well." What a concession. (Paddo points to this similar article on Australian IT via News.com.au.)
I was thinking they were going to implode soon.
Business models can change....
Open source- the greatest equalizer mankind has ever seen.
...rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
"The one interesting concession is that corporate licensees of Microsoft Office can now use that suite on a home computer as well." You mean that under the previous terms I couldn't before now???? Oops!!!
"Get off the cross - we need the wood" - Tori Amos
Okay, we won't call it piracy if you've be brainwashed into our cult and take a copy of our scriptures home with you. Soon you'll be quoting them to all of your old friends.
Well, there goes my excuse for not being able to view corporate memos and write designs and reports at home.
Dude. You replied to the wrong article. Total Information Awareness is the next article.
Finally, Microsoft makes a concession we knew had to happen at some point.
Now to wait for the "Linux is much better than Windows" concession...
When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
So...who else has been doing this since Office 97?
Well, there goes my excuse for not being able to view corporate memos and write designs and reports at home.
;)
Just tell them you can't afford a computer that will run it. What does the latest version of Office require now? A Cray?
The coolest voice ever.
Master Bill Gates, Chief Architect of Matrix^H^H^H^H^Hicrosoft, in response to customers' whining at license changes, said in his dark mask:
I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
From the article:
LaBrunerie said Microsoft surveyed 2,500 customers in the past year in an effort to find ways to mend fences with them.
Hmmm I wonder if they interviewed any Slashdotters...
Microsoft:What can we to make you pay us an annual fee?
Slashdotter: I'll never join the dark side!
Oh wait, it says they interviewed customers, NM.
"Much work is lost, for the lack of a little more." -Edward H. Harriman
Rome has announced concessions with the outlying provinces.
The Magistry of Taxation, realizing that the combination of tax farming and a lack of census taking led to anger and protests, will now attempt direct taxation, following 5 years of census. It is hoped that peace will once again return to the Empire, however, many Senators privately concede that Rome's reach has now exceeded it's grasp.
Go out of business.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
> We're getting open source alternatives lined up and mapping out our "Escape from Redmond" plan
Sounds like a fun movie. Will there be robots and lasers and stuff?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
100%.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
There really isn't any beneficial changes here. People's gripes were largely with prices and restrictive measures that were associated with the new scheme, not what kind of "assurances" they were recieving ("assurances" that they thought they were already getting for free with older Microsoft products and that they usually get for free with other venodrs' software products: real support, limited training, and manufacturer accountability).
It's a little-known fact that the "assurance" in "Software Assurance[tm]" refers to assuring that Microsoft's current high profit level continues, rather than anything a customer might want.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
CTRL-C CTRL-V
GPL: The Guido Public License
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the the Scarpelli family's Guido Public License gives you more freedom with the benefit of protection for you, your family and your business. The Guido Public License applies to most of the Scarpelli Family Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Scarpelli Family Software Foundation software is covered by the Guido Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
Accidents, fires and floods happen. The Guido Public License protects you.
We protect our rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy and distribute the software.
Failure to abide by the rules of any of the Guido Public Licenses will mean a visit from Guido Scarpelli himself.
You don't want that.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Agreed. Incorrect usage of "it(')s" is preventing us from attaining the utopian society I have always dreamt of.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair