Microsoft Server vs. Services

Learned something new listening to a RadioTFS podcast yesterday. I believe it was Martin Woodward who identified the meme that Microsoft products entitled "Services" are free but those entitled "Server" cost. Examples:

Windows Sharepoint Services: free
SQL Reporting Services: free
Windows Server: cost
SQL Server: cost
MOSS (Server): cost

And there's your odd tidbit of the day. I'm wasting precious brain cycles trying to find an exception to this rule. ;-)

Comments

Anonymous said…

One of the things I've learned in dealing with Microsoft is that the reason why licensing or even naming for one particular product is often not perfect isn't because the marketing people on that product are idiots (they usually are anything but) - however they have to work with-in naming conventions and licensing practises across the whole company. For a company the size and diversity of Microsoft that can be very complicated ;-)

Thursday, August 28, 2008 9:07:00 AM

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