Microsoft is retiring the TechNet Subscription service

I'm not at all surprised by this. Look at how a large number of people have been using TechNet over the years. People ruin all the good things for everybody, I suppose.
 
This basically sucks. I've been a subscriber for the past 4-5 years, and have been using the licenses for my home VMware testing lab, and in order to test things before they came out (I was the resident Windows 8 & Server 2012, and Office 2013 expert at my company, just because I could test things out ahead of time thanks to my TechNet account).


I can't afford to buy all those software programs by themselves for myself, and I certainly can't afford the MSDN Pro subscription that it would take to get the Windows, Exchange, & Office software I've been using it for.
 
This is a pretty dumb move. Even if they were seeing a lot of piracy, allowing your "foot soldiers" access to the software made a ton of sense.

I use AD, MS SQL, Exchange in my home lab, guess what I am going to recommend to customers? The loss from piracy would be made up several times over due to people being in your ecosystem.
 
zero1945 said:
This is a pretty dumb move. Even if they were seeing a lot of piracy, allowing your "foot soldiers" access to the software made a ton of sense.

I use AD, MS SQL, Exchange in my home lab, guess what I am going to recommend to customers? The loss from piracy would be made up several times over due to people being in your ecosystem.
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There is also some merit to the argument that pirates often become evangelists for your product once they enter the workforce.
 
maw said:
There is also some merit to the argument that pirates often become evangelists for your product once they enter the workforce.
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Yes there is but MS is a greedy corporation just like every public company out there.
 
zero1945 said:
Microsoft's biggest threats are web apps. Microsoft is in big trouble once the app becomes detached from the OS. Someone at work showed be a web app called Prezi. It's basically a web based Powerpoint.
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Guess you've never heard of google docs? but yeah prezi is a nice web based presentation too.
 
If you work in education, you can still get an MSDN sub for $180 that is the same level as TechNet pro.
 
DeChache said:
Do you have any more info on this I can't seem to find anything but MSDNAA
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I go through my cdw account vendor. I will look up my sub type and post it here. I just renewed for $230 tax included. I work for a private k-8 school. I e carried the msdn sub with me for years.
 
DeChache said:
Do you have any more info on this I can't seem to find anything but MSDNAA
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I have the following: Visual Studio Premium with MSDN

This is a retail version that is sold in the education market for $180 bucks (Three years ago). The retail went for around $5K IIRC. I just re-up'd mine for $197 two weeks ago for another three years.

And you must have either a ".EDU" address or the vendor that you purchase from must verify that you work at a school. Once you get the sub, you can then transfer the email address to any Hotmail/outlook service.
 
The biggest problem is not the experienced people, we will find ways to get access to the products still.

Where they are shooting themselves in the foot is with incoming talent to the industry. A lot of schools and institutions are already focusing on opensource/non-MS products for teaching. Then you add in that many students are using Apple products cause they are college "cool", and you have a lot of people that just know Microsoft for the Desktop OS.

We have been hiring a lot of young talent, and it is amazing how little they know about the full MS stack. The ones that do typically had exposure through things like technet and home labs.
Lose those people, and the new talent will be pushing businesses away from MS. While it will take a long time, and enterprises are well rooted and not likely to change soon, it slowly erodes the user base and buy in for the products.
 
most schools/colleges have EDU discounts or sometimes free MS software. there is also the DreamSpark program.
if you need it for work eval, then the company should cover the cost of MSDN.
those learning for certs/job skills, MS offers free 180-day trial versions of their server products
MS is also offering free TechNet Virtual Labs instead of TechNet subscriptions
if you're a fledgling small business, there is the BizSpark program


there's plenty of ways to get your "feet wet" for free, if you can't afford it.
 
bloodypulp said:
most schools/colleges have EDU discounts or sometimes free MS software. there is also the DreamSpark program.
if you need it for work eval, then the company should cover the cost of MSDN.
those learning for certs/job skills, MS offers free 180-day trial versions of their server products
MS is also offering free TechNet Virtual Labs instead of TechNet subscriptions
if you're a fledgling small business, there is the BizSpark program


there's plenty of ways to get your "feet wet" for free, if you can't afford it.
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DreamSpark is no where close to what Technet provides, and EDU discounts dont mean squat for Server and Enterprise products.

BizSpark has a ton of special requirements and is an application process, it also does not hit on the same uses of technet.

Tell me where else I can get long term install licenses for Server 2008, 2012, SharePoint (beyond foundation), Lync, Exchange, etc.
 
Grentz said:
DreamSpark is no where close to what Technet provides, and EDU discounts dont mean squat for Server and Enterprise products.

BizSpark has a ton of special requirements and is an application process, it also does not hit on the same uses of technet.

Tell me where else I can get long term install licenses for Server 2008, 2012, SharePoint (beyond foundation), Lync, Exchange, etc.
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Wrong, I get the entire Microsoft catalog to download. This morning I downloaded MS Systems Manager along with Server 2012. I have a 5 key limit on my downloads, but I always use the same key because I usually rip apart the server after three months for new installs.

Just because you have a .EDU address, does not mean you can't navigate the system and gte what you need. You should always go thru a MS reseller to get MSDN, and not directly from the MS website, there are always better deals to be had.
 
The Cobra said:
Wrong, I get the entire Microsoft catalog to download. This morning I downloaded MS Systems Manager along with Server 2012. I have a 5 key limit on my downloads, but I always use the same key because I usually rip apart the server after three months for new installs.

Just because you have a .EDU address, does not mean you can't navigate the system and gte what you need. You should always go thru a MS reseller to get MSDN, and not directly from the MS website, there are always better deals to be had.
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Straight dream spark is a different catalog than technet. I have had both, and they are clearly different, thought there is some overlap of primary products like server OS.
 
Formfiller;1040026431 I wouldn't be surprised if this TechNet move is Microsoft's way to "payback" all those ungrateful users who rejected their newish products. An act of revenge and spite.[/QUOTE said:
We all know that Microsoft, like any big company, can be stupid, but not that stoooppppiiiiidd. Balmer is an arrogant SOB, but he is not stupid. I'm sure they have their (obscure, make-no-sense) reasons, but not spite.

Just my 2 centavos.
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i am sure they have numbers and stats to show how abused serial keys have been from technet, They likely have some numbers to back up a decision like this financially.

It sucks either way but they are providing other options... do you really need to trial something longer than 180 days? that's 6 months...need it longer? re-arm if it lets you, otherwise reinstall...
 
ugh.... i will be moving my stuff off m$ products as can not afford to get msdn nor to buy server licenses

so... adios m$ hello Linux apparently... super ticked off about this... been paying for technet sub for 3x years now.. and was doing what i wanted well enough but now I'm super ticked off about getting hung out to dry like many other enthusiasts...


f*** it going to move off as much M$ software as possible and going to start referring friends and family to macs if m$ wants to be this way ... let alone getting me started on what a awful pile of crap windows 8 is imho...
 
Eldata said:
M$ is probably pissed over the relatively small amount of Windows 8 keys that were claimed so far by TechNet subscribers. ;)
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ha... damn it I did my part and claimed a couple so far...

then wished I hadn't
 
I'm pretty pissed that they're nuking this. I've become fairly dependent on TechNet for testing out MS products in order to keep myself up-to-date for my systems administrator job. MSDN costs too damn much for it to be effective. Trials don't cut it, especially when I'd rather not reconfigure everything for every new installation.

MS has lost it...
 
MrGuvernment said:
i am sure they have numbers and stats to show how abused serial keys have been from technet, They likely have some numbers to back up a decision like this financially.

It sucks either way but they are providing other options... do you really need to trial something longer than 180 days? that's 6 months...need it longer? re-arm if it lets you, otherwise reinstall...
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For the most part the 6 month trial is fine. I just don't want to have to rebuilt my Domain and DNS services every six months. Seems like everything MS needs AD on the server side. Everything else is probably only on a month or so.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
I'm pretty pissed that they're nuking this. I've become fairly dependent on TechNet for testing out MS products in order to keep myself up-to-date for my systems administrator job. MSDN costs too damn much for it to be effective. Trials don't cut it, especially when I'd rather not reconfigure everything for every new installation.

MS has lost it...
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By Action pack you get technet with it.
 
Wrench00 said:
By Action pack you get technet with it.
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I'm pretty sure that the technet retirement is going to affect Action Pack as well. Action pack is going to be really weak without it though...only a couple copies of office/windows 7/8...
 
Neb said:
I'm pretty sure that the technet retirement is going to affect Action Pack as well. Action pack is going to be really weak without it though...only a couple copies of office/windows 7/8...
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Last time I spoke to MS which was like a month ago they told me Action pack give you production but it also entitles you to a technet account. I don't think this will change.

Of course action pack is 380 bucks vs 260.
But you get IUL in action pack.

Its retiring tech net subscriptions not tech net itself. I think if you have Action Pack your going to get migrated to MSDN.
 
They haven't officially commented on how the technet shutdown will affect Action Pack, so it'll be interesting to see what they do. Hopefully they'll move it to MSDN as you say.

What's IUL?
 
Neb said:
They haven't officially commented on how the technet shutdown will affect Action Pack, so it'll be interesting to see what they do. Hopefully they'll move it to MSDN as you say.

What's IUL?
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Internal Use License.
 
I don't think I can afford an Action Pack for a long while (unless I see an improvement in my financial situation & the damn furlough isn't helping that).
 
When I had a custom CarPC in the past, I used normal hard drives without issue. But makes sense to me to use a SSD nowadays, if only for the quick boot.

Btw, www.mp3car.com used to be a great site for this kind of thing.
 
Probably had multiple tabs open and typed up the reply in the wrong thread.
 
zero1945 said:
The cloud is a tough sell. No matter what the advantages are, some people hate getting banged for a monthly nut every month.

Someone has to win partners away from Microsoft by allowing them to get a larger cut of the monthly cloud revenue. If email is $4 a month, then the partner gets $2 a user per month for the life of the service. Microsoft offers some ridiculous amount for Office 365.
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It depends on if the value-add is worth it to the business. I know too many businesses that have opted for Office 365 because the value add of what they got vs. an infrastructure buildout came in much lower. It made sense and negated the need for an email admin (one less headcount). Business leaders dislike IT because it is historically a cost center they simply don't understand. Accounting is one that they do understand so they're more than happy to have accounting departments with 10x more heads than IT. Until IT becomes a huge value-add and you have IT leaders who can speak CxO language, you'll forever have the above kind of organization.
 
shade91 said:
It depends on if the value-add is worth it to the business. I know too many businesses that have opted for Office 365 because the value add of what they got vs. an infrastructure buildout came in much lower. It made sense and negated the need for an email admin (one less headcount). Business leaders dislike IT because it is historically a cost center they simply don't understand. Accounting is one that they do understand so they're more than happy to have accounting departments with 10x more heads than IT. Until IT becomes a huge value-add and you have IT leaders who can speak CxO language, you'll forever have the above kind of organization.
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That's a big fallacy that you don't need an email admin. You still need one. Any thing you need to do that's out of the ordinary you still need some one capable of administering it. I have o365 clients and it requires as much work to manage as it does onsite. The only difference is that you don't have hardware in house. I would say that 0365 in fact requires more knowledge then onsite servers since you need to do everything in Powershell. Honestly o365 only makes sense if you want to get rid of the hardware from in house. SPLA licensing is actually cheaper the o365 over long term.

Most management doesn't understand IT is a commodity.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
I'm pretty pissed that they're nuking this. I've become fairly dependent on TechNet for testing out MS products in order to keep myself up-to-date for my systems administrator job. MSDN costs too damn much for it to be effective. Trials don't cut it, especially when I'd rather not reconfigure everything for every new installation.

MS has lost it...
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Thank all the Chinese sellers on eBay that exploited technet reselling the keys
 
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