YeuEmMaiMai
Extremely [H]
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I want the physical disk from MS
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Is it possible to get Win7 legally right now?
- Thread starter sanitystealer
- Start date
I want the physical disk from MS
I guess thats all well and good, but as another thread went deeply in depth over, there is absolutely no difference what so ever.
Unknown-One
[H]F Junkie
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As others have mentioned, $350 for Technet and you're all set. Access to ISOs and keys directly from Microsoft.
3rd degree price discrimination. I mean they gave away Win7 for 20$ and 30$ in different deals for students. They sold Vista and Office Ultimate for 60$. I'm sure they'll still make some profit off those prices, just not as much as their normal prices.
Menelmarar
Supreme [H]ardness
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I read the thread and 1/2 of you are saying one thing and the other 1/2 are saying something different.
Edit:
And this from the Technet site...
Evaluate.
Full-version software with no time limits.
Evaluate full-version commercial software products like Windows 7 Release Candidate without time or feature limits, including these titles:
If they wanted to control how the Technet licenses are used they wouldn't just let anyone sign up I would think. I don't know. Let me look at the terms of use and see what it says.
Edit:
And this from the Technet site...
Evaluate.
Full-version software with no time limits.
Evaluate full-version commercial software products like Windows 7 Release Candidate without time or feature limits, including these titles:
If they wanted to control how the Technet licenses are used they wouldn't just let anyone sign up I would think. I don't know. Let me look at the terms of use and see what it says.
Menelmarar
Supreme [H]ardness
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Some people just have a hard time with reading comprehension. You quoted it plain as day there in your underlined text "Evaluate"...
Yes, you can use it on a live system, but it violates the terms of use you agree to. If you have no moral objection to that, go for it, or not, the choice is yours.
No, I read that fine but I think anyone can argue that they are evaluating it while using it(splitting a fine line there as well). Again, I go back to the controlling who signs up for the service if they were that concerned about it.
I don't care either way, I ordered my two copies back in June.
I don't care either way, I ordered my two copies back in June.
Menelmarar
Supreme [H]ardness
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They control it via the terms of use. They tell you what this license is to be used for. Beyond that, enforcement would be impossible. They intend it for industry professionals. Anyone can go out and form a small business. There are 100's of thoussands of small technology oriented businesses. Microsoft can't police them all, many of them are self-employ type business where people work as contract developers or consultants.
Menelmarar
Supreme [H]ardness
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More at this link if you're still interested:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/bb892759.aspx#benefits
Are you a student? If your school has a Microsoft Academy or and MSDNAA account you can get it now. I'm an instructor in IT at a community college and that's how I got mine. I have the 32 and 64 bit Pro versions. I'm running 32 bit right now due to a program that I really like that will not run on 64 bit yet.
The various terms and conditions and agreement documents which pertain to Technet obtained software make it quite clear the the software is not for use in a 'live environment' or by anybody other than the subscriber. It's not actually possible for a person to mount a legally plausible argument if they are using it as the OS on an everyday machine.
It wouldn't be much of a concern to Microsoft anyway. It isn't as if every man and his dog takes up a Technet subscription and abuses it. The (comparitively) small amount of rorting which occurs would be more good than harm to Microsoft, as it is helping their new OS to gain a foothold in OS usage market share.
If you look at a lot of the people here that use Technet to get their windows installs, many of them are IT people. It is more important to MS that we are getting familiar with their software that it is for them to get the retail sales.
For example, I use TechNet licenses on all of my machines. I get reimbursed for the cost from work. I am also the one who rolls out new software for all the systems at work. The sooner I am comfortable with the software, the sooner it gets rolled out at work. To put it another way, all the new PCs that just went to our Publications department have Windows 7 RTM from our volume licensing. There is no way this would have happened if it weren't for the free RC and beta versions AND me running RTM at home.
TechNet abuse isn't a black and white issue like straight out piracy. MS gets some benefits from a lot of the people who misuse the licenses.
Technet "Ideal": lab setup with multiple machines running VMs simulating a larger network, testing deployment, stability with apps, remote installs and migrations, etc, etc... all from one subscription to test for future fully licensed install without having to shell out 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars for something that might not work.
Technet "Wrong": using the above subscription licenses to deploy the real network, or handing out technet keys to friends and family with burned CD/DVDs so they don't have to buy their own copies.
Technet "Real": I want to sometimes play around with servers, VMs, and various business apps, but can in no way justify or even afford the cost of: 1 license per VM, 1 license per server times cost per client, and the cost of all the business applications. Without technet this leaves me 3 choices:
a) do nothing = me bored, MS unaffected but not getting any $$$
b) search for open source or free solution = me entertained, MS possibly losing future business due to me not being able to see their offerings still not getting any $$$ and possibly losing it later
c) pirate the MS software = me entertained pirate, MS doesn't get the $$$ they should but at least I learn their stuff so they may gain $$$ down the road from my recomendations to others (unless I teach them to also pirate)
Add the technet option and now I'm entertained legitimately, MS gets a relatively small subscription fee from me every year (which over time is likely far more over time than I'd pay just buying a few licenses since I'd only buy what I HAD to), I get more and easier access to their library, I get to help beta test upcoming products, and they get their recomendations from me to friends, family, business associates, and employers.
So while maybe "technically" you should buy licenses for your production machines I figure by the time I start actually feeling bad for not buying a few Win7 licenses my technet subscription will hit my CC again and I suddenly won't feel so bad any more.
Technet "Wrong": using the above subscription licenses to deploy the real network, or handing out technet keys to friends and family with burned CD/DVDs so they don't have to buy their own copies.
Technet "Real": I want to sometimes play around with servers, VMs, and various business apps, but can in no way justify or even afford the cost of: 1 license per VM, 1 license per server times cost per client, and the cost of all the business applications. Without technet this leaves me 3 choices:
a) do nothing = me bored, MS unaffected but not getting any $$$
b) search for open source or free solution = me entertained, MS possibly losing future business due to me not being able to see their offerings still not getting any $$$ and possibly losing it later
c) pirate the MS software = me entertained pirate, MS doesn't get the $$$ they should but at least I learn their stuff so they may gain $$$ down the road from my recomendations to others (unless I teach them to also pirate)
Add the technet option and now I'm entertained legitimately, MS gets a relatively small subscription fee from me every year (which over time is likely far more over time than I'd pay just buying a few licenses since I'd only buy what I HAD to), I get more and easier access to their library, I get to help beta test upcoming products, and they get their recomendations from me to friends, family, business associates, and employers.
So while maybe "technically" you should buy licenses for your production machines I figure by the time I start actually feeling bad for not buying a few Win7 licenses my technet subscription will hit my CC again and I suddenly won't feel so bad any more.
gman you are the man! You just saved me $250.00 I totally forgot about my UMUC MSDNAA account. Downloading Win7 Pro as I type this and canceling my pre-order.
That, as far as I'm concerned, is part and parcel of 'increasing market share'. A pool of proficient people skilling themselves up to be able to assist and advise feeds sales.And let's not forget that a lot of people here might not be "IT Professionals" in the technical sense of being qualified/certified and working in an industry/position which that qualification entitles them to, but they're still "IT people" in the sense of what Technet can arguably be described as providing for.
Just what IS an 'IT Professional' anyways? Microsoft doesn't provide a working definition, and there are no legislative requirements pertaining. (That's a rhetorical question, by the way. Please, people, don't waste space trying to answer it.) Truth is you're an IT Professional because you say you are one. Beyond that you're an active one or an inactive, a good one or a bad one, a qualified one or an unqualified one...
Take my own situation as an example. Completely self-taught, rather than professionally trained. Formerly a bylined technical IT journalist with a leading IT publication, although not currently active in that role except for occasional articles. Still 'keeping my hand in' by continuing to provide advice and assistance to a selct group of people on a private basis, and by the more 'hobby' approach of postings on boards like this, where the assistance and advice given has a rather widespread audience.
Does that make me an 'IT professional'? I kinda doubt that Microsoft would think otherwise.
Abuse of license terms is a different matter, though. Using technet licenses for 'live' operation or for machines which other people use?
I'll not venture an opinion one way or the other regarding whether or not Microsoft would privately 'condone' such behaviour. I'm sure of one thing, though. They wouldn't want to see people bragging their misdeeds in that regard!
Curious word to use, but what you describe is pretty much what I've described here.
Unknown-One
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Wrong, Windows 7 isn't officially out until the 22nd; up until that point, any Technet subscriber can claim they're evaluating the technically unreleased software, and will implement a commercial license as soon as one is officially available.
Deadjasper
2[H]4U
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Geeez, you hardasses need to get into religion. The way you preach MS as a god makes me want to puke. Truth is, it's none of your fucking business what someone does with their Technet sub so just STFU.
In actual fact none of us having this intellectual conversation about the proprieties of Technet licensing could really give a toss about your personal approach to using it, so no need to get abusive, defensive and self-incriminating!
Deadjasper
2[H]4U
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Intellectual ??? What's being discussed has nothing to do with intellegence and everything to do with MS cheerleading by By a bunch of MS fan bois who don't know the difference between opinion and fact.
You can read Ballmer's comments RE: Windows licensing complexities on slashdot today. They know licensing is complicated. And they know that consumers will use whatever loopholes exist in that licensing policy (ie Student Licensing, TechNet, MSDN, whatever) to get Windows and other software as cheap as they possibly can. That said, MS will not be changing their licensing policies, mainly out of fear of ticking off investors. That is straight from the horse's mouth.
So they know there is abuse of the program. But at the same time they maintain share of market this way. There is a lot of followon income created by keeping Windows as ubiquitous as possible. By ensuring Windows is everywhere, they ensure that companies like us license software. And that our clients have to buy more licenses to run the software we build in production environments. A couple installs of 7 won't break them when our clients purchase site licenses to be able to run familiar software.
For instance, I run 7 on multiple machines via licenses acquired through our company's Gold Certified Partner program membership. We are currently using these installs to evaluate our existing products for functionality before the retail release date. In addition, we are verifying internal processes and software work as planned as well. This is in fact the intent of such software licensing programs, and it is totally legal for us to do so. Just cause I surf the web and post to forums on those boxes does not negate that. It is part of the testing process.
For instance you can see my other post in this forum about Win 7 RDS not working properly. Or the fact that 2008 Server x64 IIS 7 SMTP services will crash and halt the service instead of generating a NDR if you use a malformed email address. These are determined through pre-production testing.
Sure there are unethical uses but MS themselves have turned a blind eye to many of them. It is far better to have a large installed user base, and to allow experts advanced access, than it is to litigate against every one of your customers.
So they know there is abuse of the program. But at the same time they maintain share of market this way. There is a lot of followon income created by keeping Windows as ubiquitous as possible. By ensuring Windows is everywhere, they ensure that companies like us license software. And that our clients have to buy more licenses to run the software we build in production environments. A couple installs of 7 won't break them when our clients purchase site licenses to be able to run familiar software.
For instance, I run 7 on multiple machines via licenses acquired through our company's Gold Certified Partner program membership. We are currently using these installs to evaluate our existing products for functionality before the retail release date. In addition, we are verifying internal processes and software work as planned as well. This is in fact the intent of such software licensing programs, and it is totally legal for us to do so. Just cause I surf the web and post to forums on those boxes does not negate that. It is part of the testing process.
For instance you can see my other post in this forum about Win 7 RDS not working properly. Or the fact that 2008 Server x64 IIS 7 SMTP services will crash and halt the service instead of generating a NDR if you use a malformed email address. These are determined through pre-production testing.
Sure there are unethical uses but MS themselves have turned a blind eye to many of them. It is far better to have a large installed user base, and to allow experts advanced access, than it is to litigate against every one of your customers.