Windows 7: Windows 8 RTM on TechNet Aug 15th

Two more weeks

Noticed tonight that MS changed the licensing agreements for Technet in July of 2012.


New licensing agreement this past month;
TechNet Subscriptions and Licensing

• MS removed the home based software (Home Premium, Ultimate, Starter) editions. Tried to reinforce the usage of IT users only for business evaluation and support.
• They have also defined the usage scenarios which qualify for use of this software.

And in the new subscription agreement;
TechNet Subscriptions Software License Terms

• They acknowledge that if you let your subscription expire they might deactivate your keys which will eliminate your ability to activate products.

They are finally cracking down on this nonsensical offering of all of their software for $199. I never understood why Technet offered so much and was so cheap.

I think this is a lead up to a new pricing scheme, monthly/yearly subscriptions for everything.

Will be interesting to see this play out.

That's what they are doing with Office 2013. You can buy a standalone copy for your PC or get a subscription to use it. MS has not set a price but $5 - $10 a Month to run Office 2013 on 5 PC's may be a no brainer. Now for Windows, would you pay $5 to $10 a Month to rent Windows for 5 PC's and would always have free upgrades to the newest version.

Jim

^ wouldn't want to pay the monthly fee for Windows as I'm not really always interested in being on the latest version. I skipped Vista and I have plans to skip 8 as well.

It depends on how it is set up. Say you subscribe and Windows 7 would be offered until support is killed in 2020 or you want Windows 8 or Windows 9 is offered in 2015 or Windows 10 in 2018. You could stick with Windows 7 and then upgrade to Windows 10 and skip the rest. All for one small Monthly fee. I am sure something like that would be offered but you could still opt to just buy it as we do now. Automobile leasing is a big thing right now but you can still buy them. Years ago only business would lease but a lot of consumers are doing it now.

Jim

Hi there
I loathe the whole idea of "Monthly anything" whether it's Software - credit cards mortgages or anything else. I've NEVER EVER encountered a Monthly subscription that beats an outright purchase - and once you hand over an "automatic Bank Payment scheme" to some organisation - then you are no longer in control of your own money -- subscriptions may rise - but with a monthly bank direct debit your account can be automatically debited with the new amount without you even knowing about it.

(Some people need unfortunately to have monthly payment options -- but if you can negociate a YEARLY deal you can often get substantial discounts).

I've seen people in the UK sign up to so called "Cheaper Energy options" -- they pay say 60 GBP for 11 months and then on the 12th a HUGE bill of say 2,000 GBP comes in -- and the first the poor "victim" knows about this is that his card stops working at the ATM when he tries to withdraw cash.

NEVER EVER use Direct debits - even if you sign up to these "subscriptions". Standing Orders protect you against this type of B/s --the Bank is only authorized to debit the amount on the Standing Order --if the subscription rises then the Bank have to contact YOU before they can change the terms of the SO -- you can then decide to keep or cancel.

Cheers
jimbo

My bank (BofA) has a feature for their visa card that is a one time use credit card number where you specify the maximum amount and when it expires. I believe it is called ShopSafe. I use it whenever I buy a product on-line where they talk about renewals or even if I suspect they would be doing that.
You gotta watch PayPal as they have some of those recurring charge options also.

As Always, let the buyer beware...

Rich

the reason the energy companies let you rack up a large bill is to keep you as a customer, its supposed to be easy to change providers to a cheaper provider, but ... if you have a large bill you have to clear it before you can switch, thus keeping you tied to their company,
drug dealers do that also,

I've edited the post title to reflect the correct info.