Software Licensing Featured Articles

Microsoft Licensing Almost Got Better-But Not Quite

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor

Microsoft (News - Alert) is a changed company—but not entirely.

When Microsoft missed the boat on mobile devices and the cloud, it looked as though the company’s days as an industry titan were coming to a close. But the company has made a remarkable adjustment in course, offering up a competitive cloud offering in Azure, and pivoting from its old desktop-based business model to one of cloud services. It has even shaken up its Windows empire in a big way, and recently the company announced that its much-touted forthcoming OS, Windows 10, would be a free upgrade for every current Windows user (which means most computer users).

Old habits die hard, however, and that’s true for Microsoft as much as for any of us. While the company has made significant strides in changing course, it still suffers from some of its old maladies. One of those maladies is the complexity of its licensing schemes.

Microsoft offers a dizzying array of different licenses for its various Windows versions, ranging from OEM licenses for the basic versions of Windows that come with new PCs, to a wide range of options for enterprise users. It has gotten so complex, that Microsoft now even offers a tool and support to help businesses figure out which license is right for them; its tiered Enterprise Assurance licensing scheme, which is meant for businesses with 250 or more seats, now requires advertorials to let businesses know that Microsoft will help with sorting through the licensing issue.

For a brief moment it looked like Microsoft had fixed this bad habit of complex licensing. Earlier this year, Microsoft said it would make Windows 10 a free upgrade for everyone, even those of us who use a pirated copy of the OS. This was a telling and appropriate move for Microsoft, as it signaled a true shift toward software services and away from OS versions and upgrade costs (issues that should not exist in the software-as-a-service age).

But, old habits die hard. Microsoft has gone on to include many clarifications to this initial series of announcements, clarifications that threaten to undo the simple licensing situation that comes from offering OS upgrades for free.

First, it excludes enterprise users. It has said outright that it will not offer this free upgrade to its enterprise customers, cash cows that they have been historically. Its recent verbiage also implies that business editions such as Windows Professional might not be free or include a free upgrade.

It also has backpedalled on the amnesty it granted to Windows pirates. While everyone supposedly can get their current version of Windows upgraded to Windows 10, the free upgrade will not magically make non-genuine Windows software suddenly become legal software. Pirated copies of Windows can upgrade for free, too, but these copies still are considered non-genuine. And this will hamper adoption of Windows 10, because I for one certainly wouldn’t pirate and then let Microsoft know through the upgrade process if there’s the possibility I will be prosecuted for using non-genuine Microsoft software.

So while Microsoft almost made a bold licensing move, in fact it looks like the company will not make the clean break for a simpler licensing scheme for Windows after all.

A pity. Microsoft has been doing a lot right lately. Too bad its licensing schemes are not among the successes.