Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans

Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans 356

Posted by timothy on Sunday June 06, 2004 @06:33PM from the adapt-or-die-die-die dept.

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."

Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Search 356 Comments Log In/Create an Account

Comments Filter:

Human Resources (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @06:41PM (#9352925)

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.

:)

10 years?! (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @06:51PM (#9352966)

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!

Re:Probably... (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @06:53PM (#9352972)

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.

Re:In 10 years? (Score:2, Funny)

by TheOtherAgentM ( 700696 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @06:57PM (#9352993)

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.

Re:Probably... (Score:2, Funny)

by beatnitup ( 616700 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @07:29PM (#9353118)

"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.

Get Some Priorties People!!! (Score:0, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @07:33PM (#9353139)

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!

baby steps (Score:3, Funny)

by jdkane ( 588293 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @07:34PM (#9353144)

Oh wow -- free licensing for computers that are turned off! I can't wait to load up that baby and turn off the computer to see how it runs.
Well, it's a step in the right direction anyways.
Bob Wiley: Baby step to four o'clock. Baby step to four o'clock [imdb.com].
Good for disaster situations, but I'm sure a lot of people have already been using this "new" licensing scheme for a while now.

Re:I don' see how... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @07:40PM (#9353168)

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 hardware will be free!!! (Score:4, Funny)

by rock_climbing_guy ( 630276 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @07:57PM (#9353248) Journal

But don't forget, hardware will be free in the future!!! [userfriendly.org]

Re:Wow, this is soo insightful. (Score:5, Funny)

by RoLi ( 141856 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @08:03PM (#9353277)

my laptop running XP hasn't crashed ONCE since my last reinstall
Comedy gold...

Re:In 10 years? (Score:5, Funny)

by SpaceLifeForm ( 228190 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @08:38PM (#9353445)

Feature race: Mach and Longhorn.

Re:Yay for competition (Score:3, Funny)

by E_elven ( 600520 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @08:57PM (#9353519) Journal

> 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 :)

That's nice (Score:3, Funny)

by dacarr ( 562277 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @10:52PM (#9353988) Homepage Journal

As benevolent as Bill is being with this, when are they going to release the source code?

Re:Wow, this is soo insightful. (Score:3, Funny)

by ejdmoo ( 193585 ) writes: on Sunday June 06, 2004 @11:49PM (#9354184)

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.

Re:In 10 years? (Score:3, Funny)

by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) * writes: <{jmorris} {at} {beau.org}> on Monday June 07, 2004 @01:57AM (#9354508)

Nah. HURD vs. Longhorn. Now THAT is race to sleep through. :)

Re:Another nice support story... (Score:2, Funny)

by cammoblammo ( 774120 ) writes: <cammoblammo@TOKYOgmail.com minus city> on Monday June 07, 2004 @05:49AM (#9354949)

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.

Re:Another nice support story... (Score:1, Funny)

by NineteenSixtyNine ( 775581 ) writes: on Monday June 07, 2004 @06:21AM (#9355019)

God I hate to remember AutoCAD on an 8088. I'll bet that fucker is still saving.

There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.

Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans 356

Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans More Login

Microsoft Revamps Licensing Plans

Human Resources (Score:1, Funny)

10 years?! (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Probably... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:In 10 years? (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Probably... (Score:2, Funny)

Get Some Priorties People!!! (Score:0, Funny)

baby steps (Score:3, Funny)

Re:I don' see how... (Score:1, Funny)

But hardware will be free!!! (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Wow, this is soo insightful. (Score:5, Funny)

Re:In 10 years? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Yay for competition (Score:3, Funny)

That's nice (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Wow, this is soo insightful. (Score:3, Funny)

Re:In 10 years? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Another nice support story... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Another nice support story... (Score:1, Funny)

Related Links Top of the: day, week, month.

Slashdot Top Deals

Slashdot