Single License for Dual Core at Microsoft
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Microsoft (Quote, Chart) said it has clarified its software licensing policies to address a new trend in microprocessors and to keep the pressure on its rivals.
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Microsoft Corp. does not plan to change its per-processor software licensing model when hardware containing dual-core and multicore processor technology for the Windows platform becomes available next year.
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Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday agreed to require only a single license for server software that runs on computers powered by a new generation of chips
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A pilot program at the Microsoft Download Center will require users to validate their Windows license in exchange for access to file downloads. Users with counterfeit software may find themselves locked out altogether.
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Flexible friend Microsoft has updated the licensing terms and conditions of its popular database for the benefit of virtualized computing environments.â¦
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On 19 October 2004, Microsoft announced that its software licensed on a per-processor basis will continue to be licensed on that basis when installed on hardware that contains dual-core and multicore processors.
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(InfoWorld) - In response to requests from some of its distribution partners, Oracle has changed the licensing pricing for some of its lower-end multicore servers in order to be more competitive with database rival Microsoft. Oracle made the move a few weeks ago and chose not to publicize it, unlike two previous changes in its multicore licensing that took place in July and December 2005 respectively. Details of the most recent licensing changes can be found here. An Oracle spokeswoman confirmed the move late Friday. Oracle announced distribution agreements with Tech Data and Ingram Micro in 2006 as a way to attract more SMB customers. Oracle used input from those distributors to put in place the right packaging and pricing to speed up its growth in the SMB market, according to the Oracle spokeswoman. Oracle's reseller partnership with Dell has also increased sales of Oracle's software in the midmarket. "We can go down into SMB, but Microsoft can't move up after two decades of attempts," the Oracle spokeswoman said. "We are now building on that success by adding more high volume distributors. Every deal we get from these new partners would have gone to Microsoft a year ago." Under the new changes that came into effect Feb. 16, Oracle has removed some restrictions on the licensing of its low-end SE (Standard Edition) and SE One (Standard Edition One) databases for multicore servers, making the cost of software substantially cheaper. The move brings Oracle more into line with Microsoft's pricing of its SQL Server database, chargingÂ per processor socket not by number of processor cores. Pricing for Oracle's higher-end Database Enterprise Edition remains the same and rather torturous because it depends on a formula that uses a variable processor factor multiplied by the number of processor cores to determine the price. The processor factor is 0.25 for Sun's UltraSparc T1 chips, but it is 0.50 for chips from AMD and Intel, and then 0.75 for all other multicore chips, including those from IBM. In July 2005, Oracle announced it would no longer charge an individual license for each processor core, instead defining each processor core on multicore chips as 0.75 of a processor. Then in December of that year, the vendor changed that model to bring in separate pricing schemes for different vendors' chips. At present, Oracle is without an executive to oversee its product pricing and licensing. Jacqueline Woods, who was vice president of global pricing and licensing strategy at Oracle, recently left the company to join General Electric. A GE spokeswoman confirmed that Woods had joined the company as global director of segmentation. Oracle wouldn't comment on Woods' departure or who will replace her. Â
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Microsoft and Turbolinux, a Tokyo-based Linux distributor, are cozying up with a patent cross-licensing deal and agreement to work more closely together, the companies said Tuesday.For users, one of the most significant elements to the deal is a pledge to work on a single sign-on system that will allow log-on to Windows-based and Turbolinux-based machines with one set of credentials.At present Windows and Turbolinux machines on a mixed network can&#39;t access a common authentication database, but their deal should change this, said Noriko Otake, a spokeswoman for Turbolinux in Tokyo.To further this work and other cross-platform projects, the two companies have also entered into a patent cross-licensing deal, specific details of which were not disclosed.Interoperability testing of single sign-on and other future projects will take place at Microsoft&#39;s offices in Beijing. Turbolinux is active worldwide but has its strongest footprint in Japan and China.Turbolinux will also add&#160;Microsoft&#39;s Live Search&#160;service to its desktop operating system.The deal expands cooperation between the two companies that is intended to remove some of the hassles of using Linux, said Otake. Earlier this year Turbolinux added Windows Media Player to its platform, allowing users access to the large amount of content online encoded in that format, and the company has also been working on support for the Open XML document format.Turbolinux also said it will participate in the Interoperability Vendor Alliance, a Microsoft-sponsored community of software and hardware vendors.For Microsoft the deal is the latest in a string of over 200 patent-licensing agreements signed since it launched an intellectual property licensing program in late 2003. Last week the company announced a similar deal with Japanese digital imaging vendor Olympus Corp., and previous agreements have included Novell,&#160;Fuji Xerox, Linspire, Kenwood, LG Electronics, Nortel Networks,&#160;and Samsung Electronics.&#160;
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Product will allow a server to run multiple operating systems, or multiple copies of the same operating system at a single time
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Microsoft announced that it will continue its per-processor licensing model with the introduction of dual-core and multicore processors.
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Opinion: The company&#39;s decision to keep per-processor licensing for upcoming multicore technology is a win for customers, but of more immediate licensing concern are grid, partitioning and utility computing.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has clarified how licensing for its current version of Windows Server works when paired with virtualization software. However, customers may face a whole new set of licensing rules once the next version, Windows Server 2008, is released later this year. In a white paper called "Licensing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 to Run with Virtualization Technologies," Microsoft outlines clearly how to license the current version of Windows Server -- Windows Server 2003 R2 -- for specific third-party virtualization technology, including VMware ESX, VMware Vmotion and SWsoft Virtuozzo. It also explains licensing for Microsoft's own System Center Virtual Machine Manager. The document can be found on a Web page that also includes previously released virtualization calculators that help customers determine the cost of Windows Server licensing in various virtualization scenarios. Virtualization has complicated server OS pricing because it allows more than one instance of server software to run on a single server, while traditional OS pricing has been per server, assuming that only one version of an OS can run on one piece of hardware. Virtualization allows software to be emulated via a virtual machine, and so run without having to be physically installed. But even if Microsoft has done enough to clarify how its current version of Windows Server should be licensed for virtualization scenarios, customers could find themselves needing new guidelines once Windows Server 2008 is released, something Microsoft expects to do by the end of the year. Formerly code-named Longhorn, the next version of Windows Server will have virtualization technology built in, which could preclude the need for third-party virtualization software. "We believe most customers will choose to use Windows Server virtualization, which comes as a role within Windows Server 2008," said Microsoft spokesman Patrick O'Rourke. "But customers still have the option to use third-party server virtualization software on Windows Server 2008." Pricing for Windows Server 2008 has not yet been announced. According to the Microsoft white paper, current virtualization pricing for Windows Server 2003 R2 is as follows: Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (SE) allows a customer to run only one instance of the software in either a physical or virtual way on a server. Users need to assign an SE license for each running instance of Windows Server on a system. Customers have more flexibility with the enterprise and datacenter editions of Windows Server 2003, however. They can run one physical instance of Windows Server and up to four simultaneous virtual instances with one Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition license, and can run unlimited physical or virtual versions of the software when Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition is licensed for every physical processor in a server Windows Server 2008 is currently available in a beta 3 version.
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If large businesses use tools such as Microsoft's Solution Accelerator Business Desktop Deployment package (assuming it's easier to use than it is to say), the administrative "best practices" those tools will help them adopt could save them somewhat more per PC than what they spent for the license, according to a Gartner study advanced by a Microsoft product manager who spoke with BetaNews.
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AMD has demonstrated the company&#39;s first dual-core microprocessors. Dual-core processors offer improved performance over single-core chips, especially in multithreaded applications.
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Attempting to move in on Parallels' turf, VMware on Tuesday announced the pre-order for a previously announced product that allows users to run any x86 operating system simultaneously.
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Dual-core microprocessors won&#39;t mean doubled software license fees, according to an announcement by Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft and Turbolinux, a Tokyo-based Linux distributor, are cozying up with a patent cross-licensing deal and agreement to work more closely together, the companies said Tuesday.