Microsoft Updates Vista Licensing -- Again
As expected, Microsoft has softened a key element of Vista licensing, enabling (more like re-enabling, if you think about it) users to transfer their retail license from one system to another, without restriction -- so long as they aren't shared simultaneously.
Personally, I think that Microsoft floated this change to Vista knowing full well that there would be a ton of resistance. They may not have been sure exactly how much, but this was easy enough for a five-year old to predict. The cool thing for them, now, is that they get to trumpet how well they respond to customer feedback. And it makes other changes in the licensing seem much more palatable by comparison.
Microsoft's real goal is software subscriptions, so you can be sure that they will be ready to try this again. (Remember how many times they pushed the idea of WPA and WGA before they finally went implemented them? They are positively relentless.)
Microsoft definitely has a right, and even a need, to protect its intellectual property from piracy and misuse, but it needs to ensure that it doesn't cause customers to more highly consider alternative products in order to minimize the perceived hassle factor. They really need to work on multi-user pack pricing (outside of the extremely wonderful ActionPack for resellers and consultants) since they know that there are so many networked home installations, and that this is where a major temptation is with regards to piracy.
Technorati tags:
Licensing,
Vista,
Piracy
About Logik!
Andrew S. Baker aka ASB aka Logik!
Andrew is an accomplished, hands-on IT Executive with a solid track record of providing timely and cost-effective business solutions using technology. With over 16 years experience in Information Technology, he has proven to be effective both as a Team Leader and as an individual contributor in designing, deploying, securing and maintaining enterprise networks.
His personal interests include Astronomy, Basketball, Bible Study, Chess, Comics, Computers,
Family Life Ministries, Reading and Strategy/Role Playing games...
Some of his contributions include several whitepapers on technology and Information Security, the UltraTech Knowledgebase, various postings to technology mailing lists and forums, active participation on LinkedIn Answers, along with a number of interviews for articles published in industry magazines.
A condensed version of
Andrew's current resume is available here.