Software Assurance for Vista :: options demystified
Scott Braden has written a detailed article in Redmond Mag on that troubled topic of Windows Software Assurance licenses with particular regard for the upcoming Vista upgrade.
When you buy a PC from a store, it comes with a license. That license dies with the PC and is non-tranferable. The same is true with a shrink-wrapped, boxed version of the software.
Software Assurance is different in that it applies only to upgrades, but is transferable within limits.
So why not simply buy new PCs every three years or so when a new version of Windows hits the market? That is the challenge for Microsoft resulting from the lengthy delays in shipping Longhorn/Vista products. Customers with SA are complaining of paying for upgrades which never come. Recent “enhancements” to Software Assurance are the company’s way of holding the fort and protecting SA revenues. As for the enhancements themselves :
Microsoft recently announced changes to Software Assurance to be effective in March 2006. Among these are Windows Preinstallation Environment and Windows Vista Enterprise. Although these are being sold as ‘benefits of SA’ I actually view them as a reactive, restrictive move by Microsoft to protect their Windows SA revenue. Here’s why: In past versions of Windows, there was no ‘up charge’ for enterprise-type deployment tools. And in past versions of other products such as Windows Server, Microsoft offered ‘upgrade-only’ licenses to the Advanced or Enterprise versions.
Scott Braden highlights the dilemma of business customers caught out by the late shipment of Windows Vista. “The net effect is customers who have to renew their license agreements before March 2006 are forced to make a judgment call ~ based largely on Microsoft’s promises about new products that haven’t shipped yet.”
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POSTED IN: Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista
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