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Our corporate parent has some sort of deal with Microsoft that lets you purchase a legit copy for $10 (total with shipping and sales tax is about $27 if you wan

Our corporate parent has some sort of deal with Microsoft that lets you purchase a legit copy for $10 (total with shipping and sales tax is about $27 if you want the DVD delivered). The folks at the office (who have taken advantage of it) mention that they've also been allowed the 3-machine activation per key.

arethuza 16y ago
Sounds like an Enterprise Agreement - they are pretty standard for larger organizations. They seem to come with Home Usage licenses which were described to us as "free" but with a £10 delivery cost for the download!
- omh 16y ago
  From my brief conversations about Office licenses, I think that the Home Usage licenses are a side effect of the per-machine licensing policy for Office. Microsoft explicitly say that you need an Office license for the machine that you're sat at while running it, so if you're accessing a Citrix server from your home PC then that home PC needs an Office license (even if it's not running Windows). That means that the sort of places buying Enterprise agreements, with large VPNs, need a license for all of the PCs at home. So these basically come bundled once you're buying enough. I assume that the £10 cost is just for the media (rounded up a little!). We never got as far as offering this to our users though.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  A lot of companies avoided these as originally MS made the company liable for ensuring that the software was uninstalled from the home machine when the individual left the company. As a result the companies said screw that and just never made it available to staff (rightly working out that there was no way that could make that guarantee). I believe that this restriction has been lifted now though so some may revisit it.
  - arethuza 16y ago
    We were told that it was the individuals responsibility - with there being a clear hint that they didn't care.
    - Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
      As I said, they've changed it now but a few years back whatever they may have said when they spoke to you and whatever they hinted at, the contract and license said it was your responsibility very clearly.

arethuza 16y ago

Sounds like an Enterprise Agreement - they are pretty standard for larger organizations. They seem to come with Home Usage licenses which were described to us as "free" but with a £10 delivery cost for the download!

omh 16y ago
From my brief conversations about Office licenses, I think that the Home Usage licenses are a side effect of the per-machine licensing policy for Office. Microsoft explicitly say that you need an Office license for the machine that you're sat at while running it, so if you're accessing a Citrix server from your home PC then that home PC needs an Office license (even if it's not running Windows). That means that the sort of places buying Enterprise agreements, with large VPNs, need a license for all of the PCs at home. So these basically come bundled once you're buying enough. I assume that the £10 cost is just for the media (rounded up a little!). We never got as far as offering this to our users though.
Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
A lot of companies avoided these as originally MS made the company liable for ensuring that the software was uninstalled from the home machine when the individual left the company. As a result the companies said screw that and just never made it available to staff (rightly working out that there was no way that could make that guarantee). I believe that this restriction has been lifted now though so some may revisit it.
- arethuza 16y ago
  We were told that it was the individuals responsibility - with there being a clear hint that they didn't care.
  - Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
    As I said, they've changed it now but a few years back whatever they may have said when they spoke to you and whatever they hinted at, the contract and license said it was your responsibility very clearly.