And you would be right.
MS aren't stupid. They know full well that non-expiring 'evaluation' keys are just another source of revenue that would have been otherwise potentially been lost to piracy.
If they truly intended Technet keys to be used solely for evaluation purposes, then they would have been time bombed from the get go.
They are only back tracking now because of the prolific abuse.
Their methodology in handling the damage limitation is indeed in poor form however.
I have the TechNet Professional (Retail) subscription. I just logged in and there is some truth in the OP post. Over half of the products have been reduced to 5, however, some products such as Windows Vista or Office Visio 2010 still allow 10.
And what happened to the Download and Product Key FAQ? Its not FAQs anymore.
It's not necessarily for eval...but rather for testing...which is different from production/day-to-day use.
I've always felt that Technet should be there, and it should have non-expiring keys, but Technet should cost a ton more than it does. If a single retail copy of Windows 7 is $200 and a single retail copy of Office is $300-$400....then I don't see why you would necessarily get multiples of all of the products for a fee less than $1500 a year.
I've never understood why MS decided to have no requirements for purchase and then make it is super cheap to boot. Of course, that's going to create abuse. It's common sense. but like you said, "get all of the money you can" seems to be the goal. but I maintain, they should just lower the cost of the OS to the retail chains. Wonder how many more people would buy Windows 7 if the full retail price was $49.99 per machine that you wanted it on???
i was getting pretty worried reading the first few pages of this thread - but now it all sort of seems like good news to me in a way:
before, i thought i had 10 keys or activations - now i have 2x10 = 20 activations
i'm very happy to hear that installed keys don't expire and "de-activate".
it's all still a bit strange though...
ah...
i always like to know!
but i didn't know before about 10 activations per key.
so i've still got twice as many as i (mis)thought i had originally. (i'm trying to look on the bright side.)
20 is more than enough me anyway, luckily - but it's still a dastardly trick that m$ have pulled here, in the middle of a 'contract' or 'agreement' or whatever the legal nicety is...
Definitely. However, prior to the Seven hype juggernaut, Technet and it's plethora of benefits was by and large, somewhat of a secret from the masses.
But when MS 'accidentally' opened Technet for a day or two during the height of the 'beta leak period', many glimpsed the potential benefits of what a subscription would entail and as such, I'd wager Technet subscriptions exploded massively around the time of Sevens release.
But what may have been seen as a short-sighted boon to begin with, became quite a bane in the long run. For both MS and subscribers alike because of the abuse.
Their pricing structure has always been skew-if and ambiguous.but I maintain, they should just lower the cost of the OS to the retail chains. Wonder how many more people would buy Windows 7 if the full retail price was $49.99 per machine that you wanted it on???
The fact they now offer multiple tiers of subscriptions with the lowest tier basically becoming a cheap 'family pack' alternative, it really does beggar belief that they maintain such a premium price at a retail level.
A lower initial home/business cost would see a much wider adoption and they'd still be raking in money hand over fist.
Oh yes, sales of Technet always increase dramatically during a release year. There are lots of people here who currently have Technet and some who don't plan on renewing. Why? Because they got what they wanted and they have their keys. Some of us even asked for all 10 of the keys we were allowed and then stored them offsite. Why? So we could use them in the future on new machines and have them available when we let the Technet subscription lapse.
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