Comments on: Windows 7: the licensing mess continues

By: Scriptman

Scriptman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:07:03 +0000

Please research before commenting. It helps to cut down on misinformation. There are several ERP/Financial software solutions for Linux including OpenBravo ERP. Please feel free to investigate. You will not be disappointed.

By: Falcon

Falcon — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:46:48 +0000

Picture this… my company has over 100 road warriors, working in Australia, a country where the distances between cities are quite significant.
These warriors have laptops on a separate network from my headoffice – basically for security reasons. As an IT manager, how the heck am I supposed to provide them an activation every 6 months?
Let’s see my options:
- Ask everyone to post their laptops to the Headoffice and back? … hmmm every user without a computer for 5 days on average (between posting, receiving, activating and returning the bloody equipment) + post costs + risks of loosing/breaking the hardware… I dont think so…

- Bring everyone to the Headoffice.. sure… it’s Australia… continental country… I dont think so either…

Options? One separate license (not volume license model) for road warriors and another volume license model for my head office people…
if dealing with one licensing model is already scary, imagine managing TWO in the same company!!! … I dont think so either…

Only option resting is … fuggit … leave the laptops on Win XP, in a couple years migrate the whole bloody thing to Linux & StarOffice and/or go Google Apps and in a couple years hopefully the legacy CRM laptop apps can run on CitriX.

By: Clifra Jones

Clifra Jones — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:22:03 +0000

GNU/Linux — No ERP/Financial client software (yes, oracle runs on a NIX box but clients are windows), no users who can actually use it, little if any software you users are going to now how to use. large costs to re-train users.

Don’t get me wrong, I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.

By: Richard Melville

Richard Melville — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:57:31 +0000

GNU/Linux — more security, more stability, no restrictive licences, no viruses, no malware, no more to be said.

By: David Wright

David Wright — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:51:34 +0000

That’s what I thought. The Office licences make a little more sense, but again, if you are planning a 5-7 year upgrade cycle, it isn’t cost effective.

As for Windows 7, we’ll need to buy new kit anyway, so it doesn’t make much sense.

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:59:37 +0000

All volume licences for OS’s since vista are upgrades not full products. MS assume that the PC has a valid OEM licence. If you never upgrade your PC’s OS then you needn’t worry about windows 7 volume licencing.

By: SKGiven

SKGiven — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:53:54 +0000

Anothre hidden task

By: David Wright

David Wright — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:11:05 +0000

Jon, what exactly is the point of a volume licence?

I’ve looked at it and I still don’t understand it. To qualify for a volume Windows 7 licence, I must buy computers with Windows 7 installed, then I can install Windows 7 on them… But they have Windows 7 installed. :-S

I can see it from an automatic deployment side, you can install from a single image, but it really confusing that I need to have a Windows licence, in order to be able to use the volume licence….

By: Wayne Taylor

Wayne Taylor — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:38:18 +0000

If you have less than 75 computers then Microsoft SBS Server is the product for those business and the CALS for this is simply.

You can mix Device and User CAL’s and purchase in 5 pack or 1 packs to help with cost.

I agree once your above 75 users, its much more difficult.

By: hjlupton

hjlupton — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:24:24 +0000

“It’s going to be a horrible mess: or, more correctly, I’m going to run up my Leopard Server for vital core functions and just keep yelling at MS to do the other stuff…”

Thats similar to what I was thinking, Apple’s Mac OS X server employs much simpler licensing. Install, done.

It just makes me wonder why MS make the licensing so complicated when it could be much simpler. Certainly in the case of a small business (less than 25 computers) it’s going to be a major pain.

I’d be tempted to start recommending to small businesses that they might be better served, save money and have less complications using OS X server rather than windows.

just my 2 cents