Microsoft To Shut Down TechNet Subscription Service 280
otaku244 writes "Since 1998, Microsoft TechNet has been a mainstay for all system developers attached to the Microsoft platform, given the ease of access to almost every product the company has produced. Unfortunately, the days of a cheap, unlimited Microsoft development stack are coming to an end."
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:0, Insightful)
I don't think that expression means what you think it means.
A monumentally bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
This has got be the third dumbest idea Microsoft has had in the last decade (Windows 8.0 and the f*cking the start button in Windows 8.1 being the first two). Microsoft Technet was a relatively cheap way for people that made a career out of Microsoft products to get their products for a reasonable price.
This allowed for two very important things, first it allowed for the ecosystem to be license compliant which made it easier to stay in the habit of being license compliant while at work work. The second thing it did was allow workers exposure to products to gain access for skills development. Workers that have exposure to products tends to push for the products that they are familiar with at work.
It's all about the ecosystem, and TechNet was absolutely brilliant for supporting the ecosystem of workers that support their products in the work place. Sure, you can follow their suggestion to switch over to the much more expensive MSDN subscription, but for most workers that is simply too expensive for a personal salary. Microsoft is shooting themselves in the foot for exploitation of the very people the very workers that make their success possible to begin with in the first place.
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:5, Insightful)
It's patently obvious you have NEVER had a TechNet subscription -- especially if you think all there is to it is Office and a light version of VS.
This is a serious drag, especially for contractors/consultants, small shops, and MS developers of all kinds
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure what's going on with MS these days. They release a monstrosity of a desktop OS (Win8), a sub-par hermaphrodite laptop/tablet to go with it (Surface), and they are now giving their loyal developers the finger.
The cynic in me thinks that Microsoft knows its desktop monopoly is becoming steadily less lucrative, so they want to squeeze out every last penny while they can. We all know that for years, many users got Technet subscriptions and ignored the "for testing only" proviso, instead using them as cheap installs for self, friends, and family. When Microsoft cared about desktop market share, this didn't bother them much, since they'd rather people use their software (even at low cost) instead of going to a competitor. Now, however, they have delusions of being a "device and service company" and want to cut the desktop loose. It's absurd, of course (the desktop is the only area that MS has any kind of real advantage over its competitors) but it is what Steve Ballmer thinks.
Whatever happened to... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Developers! Developers! Developers!" I guess that with their obsession of trying to be everything Apple, they've decided to abandon everything that made Microsoft successful. Is the management team just panicking and throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks?
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:2, Insightful)
And over here in Debian land we just type apt-get install build-essential.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:5, Insightful)
This.
From TFA it sounds like they're moving more to a 'you only need it for X number of days to do that sort of integration testing, or you can buy one license if you need more time'. If you need a lot of time and a lot of licenses to build an application that's what MSDN is for.
Ultimately it's just a way to raise the price. Fair enough, if you think the price is too low on your product you're free to raise it and see if the market adjusts. I can see the problem they were getting into as more and more people were probably buying a technet license for their home family offices and parents and that sort of thing, which was costing MS money. I think they probably realized that when they dropped the price of Office Home and student people were.. well, willing to actually buy it. Rather than all these stupid deals where you got it through an employer or through school or the like (or you just pirated it). This way, you go into a store, you pay your money and you go home with it. No special program arrangements on MS end etc. Technet is/was a tremendously good deal, it was quasi legit enough that they couldn't justify trying to enforce the license, and that's the problem. Most of those people will continue to pay, so MS will try and charge them more money for it.
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:5, Insightful)
The change in Technet doesn't affect me personally (as I'm a developer), but I'm at a life change right now and I need to change and update my programming skills. The question is, what should I be looking to do with my life?
When Microsoft pulls stunts like this, I take notice and I know I'm not the only one. Why would I want to invest my time and money into a sinking ship? I have 20 to 25 more years of development before I retire and right now I'm a .NET developer. C# is a pretty good language, but Microsoft is screwing up so much else, I don't really see how businesses are going to continue to support Microsoft. When those businesses drop Microsoft, it's going to go fast and my ability to get and keep a good paying job will go with it.
Microsoft, are you listening? Technet doesn't affect me directly, but I see this. You know that whole thing with Windows 8.0 and 8.1 and the no-start menu? That affected me and I started changing he advice I gave to people. Then there are the things that do affect me greatly. I called you a few months ago when I was investigating possibilities for my future and you gave me shitty advice because your own people couldn't figure out your own licensing. A word of warning: You have really big problems. You think you hide your issues from us? Tell us things are ok? Lie to us? Tell us that "Metro" which can only hog the whole screen is really a good thing? Think again. We can see your failures and piece together what is really going on behind your closed doors. We can smell how sick your company is and its really repugnant. People like me determine in the workforce which languages and operating systems to use. We play around with this stuff at work and at home. You really think you're going to squeeze us with UEFI and Technet? Your company is dying and we the tech people know it and we're going to start whispering that to our bosses and quietly switching away from you. You are not safe. The momentum is shifting and when it really gets going in the other direction you won't be able to stop it. You still have time to fix this, but you're being brain-dead stupid. Start listening to us because we sure as hell are listening and watching you.
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:4, Insightful)
Translation: "I have no clue what Technet does".
Visual studio? Try virtually every Microsoft product ever created, available for download and legal for running without further licensing so long as you use them for intentionally-vague "development" purposes.
Bad move all around, Microsoft. On the one hand, I don't really care, because I have the last 15 or so years worth of physically mailed MSDN discs, and if you cared about selling from your back-catalog, you'd still offer XP for retail. On the other hand - You want me giving the latest and greatest version of your toys a spin, because what amuses me to write my next internal app for today, my company will pick up a few hundred thousand in licenses to legally deploy it next year.
But hey, just keep pushing Win8 and the cloud, and pulling stunts like this, and then wonder why no one seems to write apps for your platforms anymore.
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:5, Insightful)
i guess MS no longer needs sys admins and IT professionals to support their products.
They want Enterprises to move to Azure and the Microsoft cloud.
On-Premise deployments of software are in the process of being phased out.
Microsoft has planned obsolescence for Windows IT professionals
Re:This is mostly outdated service (Score:4, Insightful)