I thought I'd get back to the list to let people know where I got to....
I considered two versions of windows, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008,
but since my software will work with either and Windows 7 comes in a
fraction of the price of Windows Server 2008, I decided to go with
Windows 7.
Next I looked at the various licenses for Windows 7, the first being the
OEM license. Unfortunately you can only get an OEM license with new
hardware, you can't buy an OEM license for hardware that you've already
bought. Unfortunately the hardware I buy doesn't normally come with an
OEM license because in most cases I won't be installing windows on the
machine (even within a VM), and in many cases where I do install a
Windows VM it's quite a while after the hardware has been bought. This
meant an OEM license wasn't an option.
Next I looked at Volume licensing, but before you can apply volume
licensing to a machine, it must already have an OEM license. Since we
know it doesn't from about, this excludes Volume licensing.
Next I looked at SPLA licensing (VM rental licensing), but like the
Volume licensing the machine must already have an OEM license. It's also
a requirement for SPLA that you own the physical hardware which in some
cases I don't. This excludes SPLA licensing.
Finally I looked at Boxed Retail licensing, and that seemed to fit the
bill. There's no restriction on who owns the hardware, it can be run
within a VM and I can buy it at any time. However, it is the most
expensive option, and it means I've got to manage lots of boxes and
piece of paper, which is a real pain.
I spent a lot of time talking to Microsoft licensing specialists to get
here, mainly because I couldn't believe Boxed licensing was the only way
to do it. If anybody else has any further suggestions I'd be very
interested, but I've got a solution that works, so I'm reasonable happy.
Cheers,
Anthony.
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