Microsoft has cut the number of Vista Ultimate licenses available to members of its Software Assurance program, according to an article in Windows Secrets Newsletter by associate editor Scott Dunn.
Microsoft has cut the number of Vista Ultimate licenses available to members of its Software Assurance program, according to an article in Windows Secrets Newsletter by associate editor Scott Dunn. (MSFT/J.Anderson)
Members of the Software Assurance (SA), the program that allows IT departments to buy Microsoft software in bulk, were always allowed one copy of Vista Ultimate for each machine covered by the SA agreement. This was a part of the SA agreement since the launch of Vista in the corporate world. “For each Windows license covered under Software Assurance, you are eligible to run Windows Vista Ultimate on a desktop covered under Software Assurance during the term of your Software Assurance coverage,” the FAQ covering the agreement used to read.
“Microsoft originally touted Vista Ultimate as the OS that 'has it all',” said Dunn. "But any company that had planned to standardize on Vista Ultimate - or even use Ultimate on 10 out of every 100 workstations – will now have to pay significantly more to activate the OS on their desktops.”
New customers are now eligible to use only one copy of Ultimate per one-hundred copies of Vista Enterprise purchased. Customers who signed on prior to December are still covered under the prior agreement. If a customer has fewer than six-hundred Vista Enterprise licenses, a maximum of five copies of Ultimate are available.
Many companies seek Ultimate because it is the only version of Vista that has corporate features, such as BitLocker compression, in addition to the ability to play DVDs using the Media Center Edition multimedia player.
“In response to Windows Vista Enterprise customer requests, in February 2008, we are introducing a DVD Playback Pack that enables playback of DVD, MPEG-2, and 5.1-channel Dolby Digital files. This pack is priced at U.S. $4.32 per playback device,” Microsoft said, responding to questions about the change in licensing and complaints over the loss of Ultimate’s features.
Dunn points out that the Windows Vista Ultimate page of the Microsoft Volume Licensing site mentions three reasons to discourage corporate use of Ultimate. “…its inability to simultaneously activate on multiple computers, inability to set controls in Group Policy over various media features, and a 5-year support agreement versus 10 years for Vista Enterprise and Vista Business.”
“Microsoft has sent out mixed messages about Vista Ultimate," said Brian Livingston, editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com. "Microsoft's customers were sold one set of expectations but are receiving another."
View blog reactions
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment! (no registration required)