msdn academic allinance and license agreement

[apoorv_khurasia]

So my university has signed up for the msdn academic alliance. Along with the microsoft support we will now get for softwares we run all students can now download licensed copies of many MS softwares (useful for students so no MS Office but yes Visual Studios). The best part is MS Windows Vista Buissness Edition.

I was just wondering if it is worth downloading the CDs (five in all, no dvd writer for me) and waste (see below for reasons) my license key since I am quite sure that my computer won't be able to run Vista. But I am giving a serious thought to Windows 2003 Enterprise Server and see if it can run better on my server which is currently running my only copy of Windows XP Pro.

The worst part is the license agreement. All the same **** as in EULA (I have developed a compasionate feeling for it by the way, it does not make (ethical) sense to run a single copy of (EULA) softwares on multiple computers, but in addition to it if my computer breaks down for some reason (knock, knock, knock) and I need to re-install the software I am not allowed to do so. If I still need to run the software (ever wondered why?) then I need to contact my system admin ( a prof in our dept) to get a new key and "valid reasons" need to be given.

I have already made up one. Here it goes:- "Sir, the computer was running on Windows and entered the not responding mode and so I needed to hard reboot the comp, then the poor system got f**ked up and hence...." I made this reason beforehand because I am sure I will be changing my hardware quite often, moving parts from server to PC, adding new things etc.....

[Roxoff]

Why go to all that hassle and worry over windows license keys? Stick to CentOS, Debian or the server distros and you'll never have to worry about windows licenses again. You may need Visual Studio for some of your college work, but there are alternatives...

[benjamin20]

if they require visual stuions, it it final? like can you just use gcc or, you know, the actual standardized language or do you have to learn the specialy micro-modded language that is only useful for companies that also support the micro-modded code.

[Redman]

Friendly moderator notice (in advance):

Discussion alternatives for a Windows server situation is fine.
Turning this into an "anti-Microsoft" thread isn't. This has been mentioned many times before so let's try to keep it nice here.

[chadders]

It is definately worth downloading the FREE Microsoft software. But download it to a computer that has a CD/DVD burner. You can always use WineHQ or a Virtual PC to run the software if necessary.

[apoorv_khurasia]

You may need Visual Studio for some of your college work....

Actually no, none of my university work centers around Visual Studio or application development in general. It is a research based course (so mainly we use things like SML) and linux tools do all the other jobs (basic C/Java programming for data structures, tcl/ns for networks, gcc/linux source codes et al for OS and so on....).

Why go to all that hassle and worry over windows license keys? Stick to CentOS, Debian or the server distros and you'll never have to worry about windows licenses again.

All throughout my education I never actually required Windows but its always good to see how things go on that side of the wall (esp if the charges are nill ). The license is the bad part though but anyways incentive is good enough for me.

By the way here is something interesting. I think the underlying kernel for Windows Server behaves quite differently than Windows XP. My server is performing a lot better (less memory usage). I also noticed that most of the tweaks I used in Windows XP (like no themes, minimal user level services etc.) are a default here. Also these people provided most of the drivers for my hardware on the installtion CD itself so I did not require my drivers CD except for the sound system which I found out was disabled by default (who would listen to songs on a server anyway)

I also found out that the Windows philosophy of making things convinient for the end-user applies here too. They have included a lot of server managment and monitoring tools and its lot easier to do configuration compared to Windows XP. Also .Net runtime was available by default. I still have to wait for a long time before I can compare Windows Server with linux. Although I feel that it would be not fair to compare the two since they are essentially centered around different philosophies (end-user comfort vs better resource utilization).

It is definately worth downloading the FREE Microsoft software. But download it to a computer that has a CD/DVD burner. You can always use WineHQ or a Virtual PC to run the software if necessary.

My comp would almost qualify for the museums so virtual PCs are not an option with me. But I do have a CD burner and I am using it ruthlessly.