Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans
prostoalex writes "Microsoft is introducing significant changes into its licensing program, faced with competition from Linux, as Reuters article suggests. First, Microsoft starts giving away free server licenses to its Software Assurance Program customers, if the PC is not actually used in production and is not present on the network. Such licensing would be convenient for disaster recoveries, where it's important to replace a failed server as soon as possible without calling Microsoft support or licensing partner. Support lifecycle is also extended to 10 years for a variety of products, including Windows 2000, Windows XP and SQL Server 2000."
Well, give is another 6 years and people will be able to qualify for those weird job requirements of having 10 years experience of win2k.
:)
IT guy: Lets switch to linux, otherwise we're simply going to fall behind our competitors
MD: No way! We still have 3 years on our licensing with Microsoft, we can't just throw money away!
[in 3 years]
MD: Hey Microsoft have given us a new 40% discount for a 3,000 year licensing plan! We can't possibly move to Linux now!
procrastination seems very attractive. of course, any other slashdotter probably could tell you the same thing.
I could have done but I thought that if I waited a bit maybe someone else would say it and save me the bother.
I have clients that run DOS programs. Trust me. People will be running 2000 and XP in 10 years. Why do you think Microsoft delayed the removal of support of Windows 98? I bet they found 98 machines running in their offices.
"It's pretty expensive to upgrade software, not just in the cost of the product itself, but in lost productivity and people-hours needed to perform the upgrade" Cost is indeed expensive, but I've upgraded over a hundred computers to xp via network installation and it only took about a little over an hour.
Let me get this straight. The best President in recent history died yesterday and you people are talking about Microsoft revamps licensing plans?!?! My GOD people, get some priorities!
Well, it's a step in the right direction anyways.
Bob Wiley: Baby step to four o'clock. Baby step to four o'clock.
Good for disaster situations, but I'm sure a lot of people have already been using this "new" licensing scheme for a while now.
and, of course, Microsoft has done soooo well in the past.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta get back to cleanin' a Windows system for someone; last count 3 viruses and about 90 spyware!
But don't forget, hardware will be free in the future!!!
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
Comedy gold...
Feature race: Mach and Longhorn.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
> And this is why Linux is good for you, even if you don't care about the actual software and are a Windows-only user.
:)
Oh, I don't know about that. I think that my startup company may go with Windows. I only plan to host a single webserver to handle the 3M+ hits per month. I'm very focused on redundancy and recovery so if something --gods forbid-- would happen to the webserver, my backup cluster of 300 servers is ready to hop into action right away. It's really convenient that MS came up with this -and the curious thing is that they announced it just about the same time I was drawing my specs. It was almost so close you couldn't tell which of us spoke first!
Yes yes, I RTFA
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
As benevolent as Bill is being with this, when are they going to release the source code?
This sig no verb.
It seems to me that, regarding system instability, that when Windows has problems, it's obviously Microsoft's incompetance. When Linux crashes, quite obviously, it's my fault! Clearly, I've configured something wrong. Bad software design? No, I just don't understand the underlying framework (I guess I have to). The software is stable. The software is perfect!
Gimme a break. Windows XP/2000 is just as stable as Linux. Both have the same caveat: proper user configuration and maintainence.
Nah. HURD vs. Longhorn. Now THAT is race to sleep through. :)
Democrat delenda est
It was a bit slow, had a non-standard keyboard, non-standard graphic controller, an on-board hardware debugger (which defaulted to german keyboard layout) and the BIOS was a bit weird.
Sounds suspiciously like Knoppix.
Cogito, ergo sig.
God I hate to remember AutoCAD on an 8088. I'll bet that fucker is still saving.
--
What would Bill Clinton do?