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On Friday [June 19, 2015], Microsoft described a way for anyone to get Windows 10 for free: activated, genuine, and updated forever. We wrote at the time that we expected the company to do a volte-face and back away from this promise. Lo and behold, it has come to pass.
Since Friday, the blog post describing the changes to the Windows Insider preview program has been silently updated. Previously it said that signed up members of the Insider Program running a preview version would "receive the Windows 10 final release build and remain activated." Now it says only that they will "receive the Windows 10 final release build." The activation wording has been removed. The company has also added a "clarifying" sentence: "It's important to note that only people running Genuine Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can upgrade to Windows 10 as part of the free upgrade offer." This is in contrast to what the company said on Friday, when Microsoft's Gabe Aul confirmed that upgraded preview copies would be Genuine.
So what does this all mean? The main thing it means is that we're not expecting clear communication from Microsoft about licensing any time soon. We don't imagine that there will be any technical difference: we expect that as previously described, Windows 10 installed via the preview will activate and show as genuine. It should be fully functional (no "non-genuine" watermark on the desktop or anything like that), and essentially indistinguishable from any other Windows 10 installation.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Informative) by iamjacksusername on Monday June 22 2015, @03:01PM
I would like to thank the Microsofts, Autodesks, Oracles and countless other companies like them for keeping me in business. Understanding the licensing and picking the optimal program to use has become one of the key services I offer my clients. Nobody but the people who do this on a day-to-day basis would actually understand all the intricacies of each program - I end up having to explain the differences to Inside Sales people who are supposed to be the experts because, half the time, they send me the wrong SKUs. It gets old but that's why they pay me.
I do give Microsoft credit - they are doing the things on the services side that need to be done but their accountants seem absolutely intent on squeezing the proverbial last drop of blood out the stone. Sounds like someone in MS accounting saw the announcements, called legal and said "we need wiggle room in case we are having a bad quarter".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by EvilSS on Monday June 22 2015, @03:43PM
I've always said that universities could offer four year degree programs centered on understanding Microsoft licensing. At the company I work for we have a full time person who's only job is figuring out the correct licensing for our customers to purchase.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by schad on Monday June 22 2015, @04:43PM
Does Microsoft charge you a different rate depending on the make and model of your server and/or CPU? If not, they're straightforward and easy-to-understand by comparison to, for example, IBM. It kills me that IBM pushes (or pushed; it's been a while) PVUs as simple. "Shit, our sales numbers are looking bad. Guys, tweak the PVU sheet, we need a 2% increase to hit our quotas."
(Score: 3, Informative) by iamjacksusername on Monday June 22 2015, @06:02PM
It's not quite as bad as IBM but they seem to employ similar methodologies. Microsoft makes it deceptively simple - Oh, just count the clients or devices. Oh, you want SQL? Which edition? Oh, you cant use CALs if you are upgrading that edition under SA; you need to convert them to core licenses. How many cores are you running? Oh, its virtualized. Well, that's a different story. Do you have an EA? Was it grandfathered in from a Select? Which Select did you have? What do I do with Open Business that some guy bought 10 years ago?
Like I said, this stuff pays the bills.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday June 22 2015, @04:47PM
I wanted to mod you up as "That's Messed Up."
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Touché) by TK on Monday June 22 2015, @04:55PM
I have previously proposed a "+1 Sad but True" moderation which I think applies equally well.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @10:57PM
It cost Sterling Ball, CEO of Ernie Ball, Inc., $100,000 to figure that out (a BSA raid with armed federal marshals).
He quickly learned that with Linux that isn't necessary.
He told his IT guys he wanted the place switched over within 6 months.
EULAs suck. [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday June 23 2015, @07:19AM
It cost Sterling Ball, CEO of Ernie Ball, Inc., $100,000 to figure that out (a BSA raid with armed federal marshals).
He quickly learned that with Linux that isn't necessary.
He told his IT guys he wanted the place switched over within 6 months.
I've wondered before what happened with that switch. Seemed like someone would follow up on the story and get a long-term retrospective on the change, but every time I think to search it the latest info is still early 2000s. I'd love to hear savings, costs, and challenges faced in the past 15 years. Even if it turns out it was a failed experiment and they went back to being extorted by the BSA, more info could help others succeed.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 23 2015, @11:51AM
http://www.osv.org.au/index.cgi?tid=91 [osv.org.au]
http://www.metafilter.com/30137/The-CEO-of-Ernie-Ball-talks-about-how-his-company-left-Microsoft-for-Linux-after-a-licensing-fiasco [metafilter.com]
http://myitforum.com/myitforumwp/2012/11/12/ernie-ball-inc-still-rockin-11-years-without-microsoft/ [myitforum.com]
http://mrpogson.com/2013/02/14/50-years-old-and-12-years-free-of-m-ernie-ball/ [mrpogson.com]
(Score: 2) by Marand on Tuesday June 23 2015, @01:14PM
Nice, thanks. Last time I looked was around the 10th year, maybe 6-9mo before the 2012 one, so I guess I just missed the updates. The 2003 stuff I'd seen but was too soon after the change for what I meant.
(Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Monday June 22 2015, @06:07PM
At one company, I had ~50 hours billed to unwind some Autodesk contract problems on a contract with a whopping 4 licenses on it. Crazy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @05:55PM
> Sounds like someone in MS accounting saw the announcements, called legal and said "we need wiggle room in case we are having a bad quarter"
More precisely, I said to myself "It's 4pm and I still have to perform the evil deed of the day", THEN saw the announcement, and THEN called legal.
They don't pay us to do nothing all day, you know.