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Microsoft 'Open Value Subscription' is None of the Above
daveofdoom writes "This week Microsoft launched an SMB program that contains the words 'open', 'value' and 'subscription', none of which are common to Microsoft products, culture, or marketing. Digging in a bit I found myself confused not only by what the program portends to be but why it would be called 'Open Value Subscription' unless they were hoping to leverage buzzwords and concepts related to open source and SaaS (software as a service). It's such lame and dishonest branding the marketing group should be ashamed."
It's such lame and dishonest branding the marketing group should be ashamed.
I'm sure they will be ashamed all the way to the bank. Let's face it, Microsoft marketing does these things because they work, as proven by Microsoft's success.
That's so lame. If they actually leased the software, there'd be a potential tax advantage for the buyer. But no...
...wouldn't be ashamed labeling sulfuric acid "delicious baby formula." You're barking up the wrong tree with that one.
I mean, proud.
Seriously, what is a marketing department for, if not to bamboozle people into buying your product who otherwise would not do so?
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I saw a commercial for beer on TV that featured a hunk in a hot tub surrounded by beautiful women. I tried drinking their product and I found myself fat, alone, and depressed at home watching reruns. The marketing department should be ashamed! Their product doesn't actually cause the things the marketing department suggests it does!
Open is like bio, green and other feel-good words. It means that someone wants you to believe that there is more to something than there really is. In this case, and in the case of OpenDNS, they want to hide the for-profit nature of the business behind the impression of participation. It's double plus good. Shame is a forgotten concept.
Windows Genuine Advantage! Because the advantage it brings is genuine and is most definitely not anything like false advertising.
that this was to be tied somehow to F/OSS-like models.
From what I read on the MSDN site, there is no reference to any type of development, but more of a partner services sale structure.
It appears Dave Rosenberg is forcing a nefarious connection to support a column he wrote back in the summer of 2006.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
Honestly, learn to read. Just because they use the word Open in the title doesn't mean it's OSS.
It doesn't pretend to be open source, it doesn't mention open source anywhere in the press release. It's a licensing model for resellers.
So, if it's not used like "Open Source", then it's a hijacking of the term? Come on. That's a pretty big stretch.
My understanding is that this program allows SMB's to become license-compliant while limiting their initial capital outlay, i.e., more pay as you go than all up front.
I really fail to understand why this CNet blogger has a bug up his butt over this.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Microsoft comes up with yet another licensing system to confuse buyers, news at eleven.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Consider this case. Say you're a company that needs to invest in 200 copies of a high-end piece of software that costs $5000 a seat. You're now looking down the mouth of a $1,000,000 bill that needs to be paid off in 30 days. This can be upsetting to your accounting folks. Now consider the lease option. Microsoft basically lets you finance your software licenses at a cost of something on the order of $10,000 a month, which is much more palatable for your accountants to manage throughout the year. Best part is, if you hire an additional 50 workers, you can just bump up the lease instead of paying out another increment of $250k.
Also, sometimes leasing things works out more favorably than owning in accounting.
This type of licensing makes no sense for personal use or small quantities of licenses, but on a large scale, there are potential benefits for customers over paying the full price up front.
No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself.
Seriously though, if you are, do.
Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers. Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself.
Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke..." there's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking makinations. Machi... Whatever, you know what I mean.
I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart."
Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags!
"Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing."
Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!
"Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that."
God, I'm just caught in a fucking web.
"Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar..."
How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don't you?
"What didya do today honey?"
"Oh, we made ah, we made ah arsenic a childhood food now, goodnight." [snores] "Yeah we just said you know is your baby really too loud? You know?" [snores] "Yeah, you know the mums will love it." [snores]
Sleep like fucking children, don't ya, this is your world isn't it?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
If every lame and dishonest practice of marketing groups were to be published on
This isn't news for nerds. This isn't stuff that matters. Total nitwits are paid to come up with this crap, imho it doesn't deserve any additional coverage.
This sig is intentionally left blank
Actually, lameness and dishonesty are generally marks of distinction in the advertising world. In fact, just the other day my creative director was telling me, "What is this crap?! It's neither lame nor dishonest!"
Seriously though, you can't expect anything beyond the most vague truthiness from marketing. Even the FTC's guidelines for truth in advertising are brilliantly open for interpretation.
While I'm all for a good Microsoft Bashing Session, just about every marketing department everywhere could be pinned for this type of "deceptive" practice.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
"It's such lame and dishonest branding the marketing group should be ashamed."
That makes me laugh. I agree, of course. There are a LOT of technical companies with marketing companies that are out of touch with the reality of their business, and don't even seem to want to be in touch.
If you want to be a little scared, you can watch horror films. But if you want to be really, really deeply frightened, hang around some Microsoft marketing efforts. There are people who have turned themselves into drones. The go about their day robotically, not even realizing that what they do has no positive effect, or maybe any effect at all. They seem to think they have jobs, but actually they are locked into some forgotten corporate warp.
Nintendo launched an SMB program leveraging the buzzwords "platform," "galaxy", and "adventure." And "b00zar."
Sorry that's just the first thing that came to mind when I saw "SMB" and I *still* haven't bothered to find out what it actually stands for in the context of TFA.
I like basketball!!1!
The first suggestion was "Anal-rape ball-and-chain vendor-lockin" but that just didn't have the same ring. The focus groups suggested only about a quarter of the current customer base would buy into the project with that name.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
SMB? Oh... I know! Just use Samba, that's open! :-)
Microsoft has referred to their MSDN stuff as a subscription, or at least used to. I dunno, I weened myself off the redmond teat a long time ago and no longer have to deal with their crappy products.
And now that I think about it, Value is a pretty normal thing to put in the name of something. So that leaves us with Open, and if you read what the thing actually is, a slightly flexible account without exact license numbers on it, that actually makes some sense.
In other words, this is a pretty normal product name, a guy going off in a post for no reason to abuse Microsoft when there are plenty of GOOD reasons to abuse Microsoft, and an editor who really, really can't tell what is news.
7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
This is "open" in the sense of "it is an open question how much value, if any, you get out of the subscription".
> "It's such lame and dishonest branding the marketing group should be ashamed."
The two subspecies that are parasitic on businesses, marketoids and attournasaurus, are able to function in large part because they *don't* feel shame. Their conscience has been eaten away by malignant greedanoma. The same could be said of many politicians, but politics and business are symbiotic with each other. They gang up to prey on the vast herds of sheeple that, contrary to nature's way, continually run *towards* the predators, and attract their attention by throwing money at them for any reason the predators invent.
Welcome to Earth. Loonie bin to the universe.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
And that is why you fail
[yoda off]
I'm guessing that the submitter is a Linux guy looking to make some anti-Microsoft noise on a slow news day. Why?
Digging in a bit I found myself confused not only by what the program portends to be but why it would be called it 'Open Value Subscription' unless they were hoping to leverage buzzwords and concepts related to open source and SaaS (software as a service).
It's not an attempt to trade on buzzwords and concepts related to Open Source and SaaS. Microsoft has used the term "Open" for years in their licensing programs (at least a decade that I'm aware of).
For years there have been three main categories of volume licenses. They are "Open" (for small businesses who only buy a handful of licenses at a time), "Select" (for large businesses with higher purchasing requirements) and "Enterprise" (for the largest organizations). As you move up the tiers the per-license cost gets lower and the associated benefits increase. For example, if you have an Open license you are expected to buy a license before deploying software. With the higher level agreements you are required to perform a regular "true-up" where you audit the number of licenses in use, compare that count to the number of licenses you own, and then buy enough to cover the gap. At the highest level you are only required to true-up annually. As you can imagine, this makes it a lot more difficult for the BSA to come in and claim that you're using unlicensed software.
The "Value" part of the name refers to features that are included with the volume license plans, and the actual "Value" increases as you move up the tiers. "Value" benefits can include a set number of Microsoft Consulting hours per year, a number of "free" support incidents, and a number of units of training on Microsoft products. Some even include vouchers for Microsoft certification exams.
The "Subscription" part of the name refers to the fact that you are paying an annual licensing fee. This used to be simply called Software Assurance, but nobody was buying it. Instead they started bundling more benefits and called it what it is, an annual subscription.
So there's no mystery there, and certainly nobody trying to trade on the good names of "Open Source" and "SaaS."
I just love how people who know nothing about Microsoft other than "I'm supposed to hate them" are always jumping to the most nefarious conclusions based on the most flimsy and innocuous of evidence.
Microsoft's use of the word "Open" for licensing is nothing new. There has been an "Open License" program for years. It simply means that it is open to small businesses that don't qualify for the enterprise licensing deals. (All that's new is the "Subscription" part, which has some interesting and troubling ramifications.)
If you are going to be outraged, you need to go back in time a few years...
FIXME: Add a sig here
While nobody reasonable party derives happiness from confusion, I would like Microsoft to understand that it (Microsoft) is entitled to its own opinions but not it's own "facts." Just wanted to make that absolutely clear.
Blogger confused by MS naming, and it gets on Slashdot? What am I missing here besides the irrational need to bash all things MS?
Seriously MS does all sorts of crap that is worthy of scorn. What the heck is this taking up space for?
The summary uses the acronym "SMB", which is used in TFA, and is also used on the linked Microsoft blog. At no point does anyone define this term or give enough contextual clues for it to be obvious.
After thinking about it for a minute, I figured out that it must mean "small and medium business", but given that SMB has many definitions, especially in the tech field, would it have been so difficult to just expand the acronym and explain the context? Instead of "...launched a SMB program..." why not "...launched a new licensing program targeted at small and medium-sized businesses..." Yes, it requires a few more words, but we're no longer in an age of trying to squeeze a certain amount of information onto sheets of physical paper.
I understand the need for acronyms and tech-lingo in specialized discussions (I'm a geek, after all)... but when reporting it doesn't hurt to provide context!
Marketing? Dishonest?
I'm shocked, shocked.
Sigh.
"Open" is the "turbo" of the 2000s. Marketing latches onto "hot" memes like walleyes hitting jigs in spring. They can't help it. It's instinctive.
Objective (or subjective) truthfulness or applicability is irrelevant. If you can hand-wave and retrofit a coherent explanation onto the appropriation of a piece of mindshare, all the better. But that's optional.
I guess the real story here is that a /. submitter is insufficiently jaded for the real world. And the editors are credulous and unassuming, innocent as the driven snow.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
meaning that customers acquire their software licenses from a Microsoft Reseller, who in turn, acquires the licensing from a Microsoft Volume Licensing Distributor.
First we have seven layers of Vista licensing hell, now we have circle jerk licensing. You buy your license from some guy selling them out of the back of his car in an alley, then he gets them from another distributor who packages volume licenses...where's the value in that for the customer?
And if somewhere in that chain your licenses aren't legit, of course MS isn't going to hold you responsible. No BSA audits for you...oh, wait, you'd still be subject to those. But if you could prove you didn't know the licenses were bogus they might waive all the fines! Wo-ho! Lucky you!
Pretty soon they're going to need to offer a certification in MSBS just to manage enterprise licensing.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Microsoft's use of the word 'Open' for something that is not 'open source', even though they weren't refering to 'open source' is against the intent of the word 'open' and the Prophet Richard M. Stallman, hallowed by His name, peace be unto his greasey smelly armpits, has declared any use of the word 'open' must refer to 'open source' (making the word 'source' redundant) and therefor must also come under GPL 3, a.k.a. the Holy Words of the Prophet, may God smite the toes of the unbelievers.
RMS, the Lord is with the mites that inhabit his beard, is pursuing:
Remember, if Microsoft uses the word 'Open', we must automatically, and by the word of the Prophet, a thousand blessings on his klingons, assume they are refering to 'open source' and their own twisted interpretation.
We must also make a point to find some way to daily point out how everything Microsoft and Bill Gates does is evil, and post it to /.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Good God, knowledge _and_ experience. What are you doing on /.?
Depreciations. Businesses can deduct depreciation costs from their taxes. If you don't actually own the software, or lease it, you cannot legally offset your taxes with depreciation.
You said "marketing group" and "ashamed" - those almost never go together. Everyone knows that marketing has no shame.
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
Am I the only person who read this and thought Microsoft had launched a Suck My Balls program.
Basically, MS is offering small business a way to reduce ***up front costs***. For a ***small business*** pirating software is more appealing than buying it. You guys need to take off the hate goggles once in a while.
It also has a component for resellers - which is revenue source for small businesses...
Of course we also see what marketing has done to the Internet consuming bandwidth and messing up efficient design and TV where it influences reporting and promotes more fiction and propaganda.
What we really need to do with marketing is keep it simple, as a consumer I want to know the features and benefits, the quality of the material and the price and the warranty which indicates how long the product is engineered to last, often to the day. Then I can calculate the actual benefit and value it will provide and if the cost justifies the purchase.
What we don't need in marketing is ego manipulation, plays on emotions, and empty meaningless marketing words that create an illusion or appearance with nothing behind it.
I want to know did you use stainless steel or plastic, did you pollute the environment?
I am looking to buy from companies that are smart and efficient, producing quality. In the long run quality is actually cheaper than the cheap stuff because it lasts longer, and it is up to the consumer to realize this, be able to determine it, and pay for quality and quit buying the cheap stuff.
What we need to implement is a new system, I have one that will work, that we can look up any product see exactly what is made with and how, the material cost and even the profit margin. The more efficient the manufacturer the lower the profit margin.
In fact should we just have a central database of all products where I can type in what I am looking for and then compare? The only reason to have any type of marketing is simply to let us know when something new comes into existence or some improvement.
"an infinite player that has lost his finite mind" ~Infinite Play the Movie (it blends with reality)
S in on one side of keyboard and L is on the other side.
"That's funny, since Fortune Magazine apparently has MS rated as the 12th most admired company nationwide."
I'm sure that classifying Hillary Clinton as one of the most admired women in the world might also be true, in spite of the fact that she is loathed by so many. This is called "Polarizing" and has nothing to do with the merits of either viewpoint.
This is the problem with XOR logic that so prevails our culture. I'm sorry, but MS is both well admired and well loathed. Because it is one (loathed / admired) doesn't mean it isn't the other as well.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Windows Genuine Advantage DID concern Windows, though. One for three isn't bad...
(actually, it's 33%, but don't tell anyone)
Is an oxymoron.
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
Like submitting one's own blog post as a Slashdot story?
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
on what the definition of "il" il?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Our city government does something very unusual with regard to taxing leased property... specifically automobiles.
If a resident or business of our city leases a car, then the city levies an inventory tax against the leasing company once per year as long as the lessee resides in or the business is based inside the city limits and the vehicle is registered here, because the city claims that lessor still owns the vehicle, so therefore it is still a part of their inventory, and is being kept, stored, and/or operated while being registered in, and based here in this city.
The vehicle leasing companies, have fought the city hand, tooth, and nail over this issue for years, but the city always wins since state law is on their side and nobody has been able to push thru state legislation to change the law. And when they've tried to make a federal case about it, the federal courts refuse to hear the case, because it's purely a state law issue due to technical reasons and the fact that the leasing companies all must, by state law, have a business presence located inside the state to be able to lease vehicles here at all.
Of course, the lessor always makes the lessee pay for the tax in the long run, by jacking up the cost of leasing the vehicles. And some of the big leasing companies have in recent years ceased doing business in our state altogether since our city is not the only one in the state collecting these taxes. Almost half the cities with population 50K or larger are doing it now.
If commercial software ends up becoming a lease-only deal, this city is ready to begin taxing the hell out of it in the same way they're doing to leased vehicles, since legally, software is considered "personal property" in the inventory of the software vendor
It's time to get this idea circulating so we can manifest it.
The consumer is set to reposition itself as the highest authority, with the power to remove or dictate to members of the board of directors and the CEO. Just like the citizens are set to take over the government and dictate to congress what it will do, since we collectively are the authority and grant individuals in government their authority to deliver on our collective intentions, we the people are the owners of all assets and the payers of all debt the government pays for and owns nothing. Government is just a label it cannot think or make decisions, only individuals can. We can also not blame government because there is nothing there to blame it is just a label. It is individuals with names that have responsibility for their actions and decisions. Also we are going to cut through and challenge the fictions and ignorance on the floors of congress. We will no be divided by fictional issues and illusions or "fear", thus disempowered and ruled as an indentured servitude.
The next level which I suspect will come soon is Consumers grouping together in large powerful groups and then contracting with companies, or allowing them to bid on the products and service that we need. This includes cable, cell phone and Internet service.
What I am saying is a major shift in power away from corporations to the consumer.
At least this is how it is articulated in ahref=http://infiniteplaythemovie.com/rel=url2html-31683http://infiniteplaythemovie.com/> Infinite Play the Movie, which blends with reality.
In the movie it speaks of a group known as the Technorati that helps bring this about.
Evidence that this is actually going to actually happen can be found at:
http://www.oneclickrevolution.com/ and URL:http://zulu.mobi Furthermore the citizens will stipulate that the representatives of the house and senate will record, measure and authenticate our intentions and desires on all issues and execute according to our collective will serving the good of the many, with respect for individual rights and the pursuit of happiness, and allow people to engage in the production of goods and services for others, unencumbered by regulation. If they damage anything we simply sue them to recover damages. The insurance companies can keep them inline rather than government servants.
How many people have ever been asked by there representative how they want them to vote and what issues should be put up for vote? Then I ask you how could your representative really be representing you?
I think it is safe to say that government representatives have failed in their fiduciary responsibly to represent based on the fact they have not asked us what we want. They apparently don't even read the entire bill they are voting on and this should be a requirement. We will do this using a web interface and a database with redundant third party receivers of the "vote" and requests for unnecessary or outdated legislation created by dead people or those acting irrationally as a result of the fictions they maintain in their minds
"an infinite player that has lost his finite mind" ~Infinite Play the Movie (it blends with reality)
"Open" and "Value" does not match the definition of "Microsoft"...
...and "Subscription" is just what you always get from them... just read the EULA.
This article is a joke. I used to work at an IT Reseller. Open Value has been a licensing term for at least 5 years. I know absolutely zero about what "Open Value Subscription" entails but I at least know the market this is going into unlike the person posting this story.
Being ignorant just makes him a slashdot contributor I guess. Businesses and Resellers are used to the terminology Open Value, Open Business, Enterprise Agreement etc.
It's not bad business to stay consistant in your naming. Stop being a hater and actually do some research maybe then you'll get to be a real journalist some day.
It's just a flexible volume-licensing, where the number of licenses and associated costs are left open for adjustment based on the needs of the business.
It sounds like the CNet author is just not a very smart guy, and that he doesn't really "get it"--remarkable considering the simplicity of the program. Also,as usual, it sounds as though there are a lot of less-than-bright slashdotters commenting. No offense intended to the 25-30% of slashdotters who actually know how to think independently.
Now why would somebody just quote two lines of your post and not comment on it at all?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
But, Microsoft _is_ bad.
word the marketing department will attach to any product.. it will go away just as the others - remember the days where everything had "Super", "2000", "X", etc. in the name?
Buy Volvos. They're boxy, but they're good. We know they're not sexy, but this is not a smart time to be sexy anyway with so many new diseases around. Be safe instead of sexy."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099316/
when you are conscienceless.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
This whole article is summarizing Microsoft Launching it's Open Value Subscription in the US and in Canada.
According to some of my own research, in which I went to the following websites:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2008/01/01/6933535.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/open/openvalue.mspx (note, this site is confusing.)
http://www.sellsoft.ie/microsoft_osl.html (much better description, but third party site)
I found out that the whole Open Value Subscription program is essentially a third option for those seeking to purchase site licenses for Microsoft Software. This option would allow you to run Microsoft software for a three year period, after which you have three options:
1) Discontinue use of the software
2) Renew the subscription for three more years
3) Purchase the license outright (a.k.a. buy the right to run the software on a permanent basis on your computers.)
At first glance, this looks all fine to me. However, the only thing I'm worried about is what conditions might come with the license... will Microsoft attempt to force organizations to upgrade in order to renew their subscriptions? (This would be a great way to force businesses to switch to Office 2007/Vista...)
Why is this news? And who the hell allowed it on the front page?
/. I nearly forgot, anything negative towards Redmond must be seen by all!
Oh... wait... this is
... the kings of double-speak.
C'mon, people, what can you expect from the same company that calls:
1. bug fixes - "reliability enhancements"
2. new proprietary document format - "Open XML"
3. reactivating XP every time you replace/upgrade the hard disk - "Windows Genuine Advantage"
4. system running Microsoft and only Microsoft software - "neutral platform"
and, finally, [drum roll]
5. Win98, WinME, Win2k, Win XP and Vista - "the most secure OS ever!"
Honestly, why do you even listen anymore?
Only 2 more months before CDW and Insight start pushing this as hard as possible. Gonna have to educate the PHB before they get their hooks into him.
So how many goobles does a subscription cost me ?
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
Although I am no fan of MS or their licensing models, this article is totally pointless. Did anyone read the article before submitting it to /. or were we all taken in by the possibility to smear MS (yes, it is fun, but still).
..
Who said 'open' meant open source
- mipe -