I thought this was an interesting article –
By Nicole Kobie, 5 Oct 2009 at 12:28
Confused man with his head in his hands
Microsoft knows its licensing is a problem, but don’t expect it to get any simpler anytime soon, chief executive Steve Ballmer has said.
At a Microsoft event today in London, the boisterous Ballmer was put on the spot when a question regarding the complexities of the software giant’s licensing gained enthusiastic applause from the audience of customers and journalists.
While he acknowledged the problem, Ballmer said it wasn’t likely to be solved anytime soon. “I don’t anticipate a big round of simplifying our licensing,” he said.
Ballmer admitted that Microsoft’s licences had some “gotchas” in the fine print, and said that “our people” shouldn’t necessarily be hassling companies over issues in that fine print. “I’m sure we have fine print we don’t need. We’re not saints,” he said.
Licensing is a complicated issue, but it seems that vendors make it harder than it needs to be.
