RE: Cal, this is ridiculous and expensive.

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From: CB (CB_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/19/04 

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:45:11 -0800

You sure? I thought you could just run in 'Per Seat' mode and then you would
only need 50 CAL's (one per PC) regardless as to how many servers they
connect to.

As for 'is this fair'... that depends on your definition of fair and what
you expect from MS. It's not cheap, if that's what you mean. Cheap and fair
don't always go hand in hand. Where I work.. we use primarily Compaq rack
servers, EMC clusters, MS server/workstation OS's, and cisco routers.
Certainly not the cheap way out, but we made our decisions based on more than
just financial cost. We knew what we were getting.

I will tell you tho, that we are turning as many of our backend boxes into
Linux boxes in trying to eliviate the cost of the OS (no need to pay such
large premiums just for the convience of pretty dialog boxes). For example,
we have a paperless scanning solution that uses a linux backend with MySQL.
 Works great. Also, we try not to put any of our Windows boxing in the DMZ
so that they are able to be seen by the internet (after all.. it is MS.. and
we know what we are getting.. we prefer a more secure linux solution to be on
the internet side).

So again... 'fair' and 'price' do not always go hand-in-hand. That's all
very subjective stuff. Unfair would be if they told you they would give you
one thing, and then didn't deliver.

* on a side note.. I'm not sure, but I *think* that if you run your TS
services on Win 2k instead of 2003, you don't need an extra CAL for your XP
machine. I think XP machines come with a 2000 TS CAL in the license
agreement. I would check on that tho.. my memory is a bit fuzzy.

"Theo" wrote:

> Ok lets consider an organization that uses window server 2003, Exchange 2003,
> and terminal services. Organization has 50 window xp users.
>
> Inorder to meet all of microsoft licensing fees.
> I would have to buy 3 CAL liscensing for each and every single xp computer
> connected to the servers! ALso, the funny thing is I have to buy a CAL for
> each external users that access my server from the internet.
>
> Does this not sound ludicous and grossly unfair on microsoft to inpart not
> only that we have to pay for the initial cost of the software, but the amount
> of CALs require just to use the service is mind boogling.
>

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