Broken Thoughts

I have been waiting for Windows Home Server since Microsoft announced the product.  I have been anxious to download it through my MSDN subscription and test it out.  As long time user, fan, and programmer of Microsoft technologies, I like to investigate their products so that I can recommend products to fill the needs of my clients, friends, and family. 

Someone I work with was showing me his copy of Home Server, which he purchased.  Very excited to test it for myself, I went out to MSDN, only to find that it is not available on MSDN.  After a little searching, I found this blog that talks about why WHS is not available on MSDN.

Apparently Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, did not plan subscriber volume licensing into Windows Home Server.  This means that without a significant change to the code, MSDN subscribers are out of luck if they wanted to try WHS. That’s right, the MSDN subscription you spent $1000 on will not get you a developer license of Windows Home Server.  This is a ridiculously foolish misstep for several reasons:

1.  Microsoft is upsetting people who spend 1-2k every year for their subscription.  If the users get upset enough, they will stop buying MSDN subscriptions.

2.  Windows Server 2008, which costs thousands of dollars, and Windows 2003 data center, which costs tens of thousands of dollars, are already available on MSDN, while the $180 WHS is not.

3. If Microsoft want users to actually use WHS, they should make it available to those who are normally advocates for their products.  Sure, we can download a 120 day trial, but that is not nearly enough time to fully test it, or in the case of many of us, develop products for use with WHS. We don’t want to have to reinstall the server every 120 days either.  No word of mouth from the developer community will hurt WHS sales.

4. Companies who develop windows tools that wanted to try to make WHS applications will have to spend $180 per developer.  For smaller companies or lone developers like myself, this isn’t exactly an option.  I’m not going to buy a copy of WHS, only to mess with it on my personal or production system.  I’m sure as hell not going to buy two copies.

If you order the trial version, you have 30 days before you must activate the product.  After activation, you have 90 days before the product expires. 

All developers and advocates of Microsoft products should go to the blog and express your disgust that developer licensing will not be available.  Maybe if enough developers are outraged, they will add in the subscription licensing.  After all, it’s why we bought the MSDN subscription in the first place.  As for me, I’m conisdering a linux option instead.