Microsoft (News - Alert) has a reputation for being something of a dinosaur in today's mobile-focused world, but the company still isn't afraid to streamline its operations and ditch older products and services if needed. Perhaps the most famous example of this was the discontinuation of the Zune media player back in 2011. Now, another Microsoft offering is going the way of the Zune: the TechNet subscriptions service.

Microsoft announced the decision to retire the service in a letter to subscribers. As such, new subscriptions will no longer be available after August 31 and the subscription service will slowly go dormant as current subscribers' contracts end. Online TechNet blogs and customer support forums, however, will persist.

For many, this is a significant change as the TechNet subscription service has been available since 1998 and is something of a staple for Microsoft product users.

The service presents quite a value to IT professionals and PC users as it offers access to nearly all of Microsoft's desktop and server software with multiple product keys for a yearly subscription fee of a few hundred dollars.  Although the software provided through TechNet is licensed for evaluation purposes only, this restriction is part of the license agreement and isn't enforced within the software itself.

As one might imagine, however, this led many to abuse TechNet as a way to get Windows client and server upgrades and licenses at bargain prices. In other words, product keys would be used to activate Windows and other products on PCs, ignoring the intended evaluation only restrictions. What's more, pirates would often sell keys acquired through TechNet for very low prices.

As such, it's not too surprising to see TechNet get discontinued as Microsoft's attempts to battle this type of use have been unsuccessful over the years. Still, the more developer-focused MSDN Subscriptions service, which has much higher pricing, will continue to be offered.