4 ms·

> requires some juggling of licenses with associated turn-around times This! I've always said that a bit reason for FLOSS to win over the internet server-side

by cies 5y ago

> requires some juggling of licenses with associated turn-around times This! I've always said that a bit reason for FLOSS to win over the internet server-side is because scaling fast and juggling livenses is just too hard. Especially with the prying eyes of Oracle/MSFT/etc's powerful legal teams and hidden "phone home" code. Going with a LAMP stack was just to simplest way to keep moving at speed.

londons_explore 5y ago
What would have happened if Microsoft had put some clause in volume licenses that said "you can use a system unlicensed for up to 30 days before paying for a license". Then engineering can spin up loads of instances to test stuff and scale fast with minimal hassle, and it'll be the purchasing team playing catchup later, no longer in the decisionmaking path.
- throwaway2048 5y ago
  that trick might work once or twice, until a hard policy comes into effect after the company gets burned.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  People do that with EAs. Once they figure out that it’s happening, they have various means to detect it.
- brazzledazzle 5y ago
  For non-prod/qa/testing/dev stuff Microsoft provides MSDN/Visual Studio Subscriptions which provide specially licensed versions of their operating systems and software. Everyone who uses the MSDN software must have their own subscription and it can’t be used by real users/customers except in a limited dev/test capacity (e.g. UAT).
FridgeSeal 5y ago
I’ve had this very conversation with work colleagues. We can go through the inordinate-pain of acquiring a licence, and all that entails, or we can choose open-source solution and be making progress by the end of the day. There’s a dozen services I could buy for work that would probably improve things dramatically, for very little cost, but almost nothing is worth the pain of “get sign off. Get sign off again. Fill in paperwork. Wait n weeks. Get more sign off. Wait even longer for finance to do their thing.”

by cies 5y ago

londons_explore 5y ago

What would have happened if Microsoft had put some clause in volume licenses that said "you can use a system unlicensed for up to 30 days before paying for a license". Then engineering can spin up loads of instances to test stuff and scale fast with minimal hassle, and it'll be the purchasing team playing catchup later, no longer in the decisionmaking path.

throwaway2048 5y ago
that trick might work once or twice, until a hard policy comes into effect after the company gets burned.
Spooky23 5y ago
People do that with EAs. Once they figure out that it’s happening, they have various means to detect it.
brazzledazzle 5y ago
For non-prod/qa/testing/dev stuff Microsoft provides MSDN/Visual Studio Subscriptions which provide specially licensed versions of their operating systems and software. Everyone who uses the MSDN software must have their own subscription and it can’t be used by real users/customers except in a limited dev/test capacity (e.g. UAT).

FridgeSeal 5y ago

I’ve had this very conversation with work colleagues. We can go through the inordinate-pain of acquiring a licence, and all that entails, or we can choose open-source solution and be making progress by the end of the day. There’s a dozen services I could buy for work that would probably improve things dramatically, for very little cost, but almost nothing is worth the pain of “get sign off. Get sign off again. Fill in paperwork. Wait n weeks. Get more sign off. Wait even longer for finance to do their thing.”