G
Guest
I want to preface this question with the fact that I am by no means a
licensing expert, I'm just asking in relevance to the information I've found
thus far.
I'm working at a new company that has no real licensing structure, the
previous guy would just run to office depot or some other retailer when a
computer was needed and buy whatever was on sale. The problem is this put a
number of XP home or media center and the newest ones have Vista home. All of
those products do not allow connections to a domain which I'm trying to
deploy.
I thought this would be a good case for volume licensing, I was vaguely
familiar with it, so I decided to look up more detailed information. What I
found was confusing and left me feeling it was a rip off more than a way to
save businesses money and streamline the IT process. So I'm hoping someone
here better experienced in volume license program can help set me straight.
First, I thought that when you bought volume license, you were buying a
complete install of Windows. It appears that is incorrect and it is in fact
just an upgrade. I had one reseller telling me it was illegal to sell a
computer without an OS, which I felt was just odd since I was able to find
multiple large scale retailers selling blank PC's, legality of a blank PC
aside, this did at least point me to one point of truth in that VLK's are
upgrade only, requiring a previous OEM or full Windows to install.
Ok, so now that I made it that far, I inquired as to what constituted a
valid version of windows, and was told only business edition versions
(basically XP Pro and Vista Business) qualify for the Vista VLK upgrade.
Which leads me to my basic question, how is this a value and why would anyone
buy this?
XP is being phased out slowly, none of the current machines I have qualify,
and hence my ultimate solution would have been to buy machines pre-loaded
with Vista business, in order to be able to use a Vista business VLK. Well if
I'm already buying Vista business, why the hell would I buy it again since
I'll need new machines with Vista anyway? Especially since once I buy all
that I need to then buy permission for the computer and the server to talk
(CAL).
Next, another thought I had as to how this might be a value, is that OEM is
tied to the computer it's put on, I thought that meant the business VLK would
allow me to decommission old machines as they age, and replace them with new
ones on the same VLK, esentially transferring the now unused license. But
again I was hit with more information that VLK's are 1 and done just like
OEM, use it on a machine and you can no longer use it again.
So ultimately it looks like my best option is to just buy new machines with
Vista business and to hell with even touching volume licenses, but my
curiousity won't let me drop it. Obviously people are buying VLK's, so where
am I going wrong in the value field?
I appreciate anyone's input on this, Thanks
licensing expert, I'm just asking in relevance to the information I've found
thus far.
I'm working at a new company that has no real licensing structure, the
previous guy would just run to office depot or some other retailer when a
computer was needed and buy whatever was on sale. The problem is this put a
number of XP home or media center and the newest ones have Vista home. All of
those products do not allow connections to a domain which I'm trying to
deploy.
I thought this would be a good case for volume licensing, I was vaguely
familiar with it, so I decided to look up more detailed information. What I
found was confusing and left me feeling it was a rip off more than a way to
save businesses money and streamline the IT process. So I'm hoping someone
here better experienced in volume license program can help set me straight.
First, I thought that when you bought volume license, you were buying a
complete install of Windows. It appears that is incorrect and it is in fact
just an upgrade. I had one reseller telling me it was illegal to sell a
computer without an OS, which I felt was just odd since I was able to find
multiple large scale retailers selling blank PC's, legality of a blank PC
aside, this did at least point me to one point of truth in that VLK's are
upgrade only, requiring a previous OEM or full Windows to install.
Ok, so now that I made it that far, I inquired as to what constituted a
valid version of windows, and was told only business edition versions
(basically XP Pro and Vista Business) qualify for the Vista VLK upgrade.
Which leads me to my basic question, how is this a value and why would anyone
buy this?
XP is being phased out slowly, none of the current machines I have qualify,
and hence my ultimate solution would have been to buy machines pre-loaded
with Vista business, in order to be able to use a Vista business VLK. Well if
I'm already buying Vista business, why the hell would I buy it again since
I'll need new machines with Vista anyway? Especially since once I buy all
that I need to then buy permission for the computer and the server to talk
(CAL).
Next, another thought I had as to how this might be a value, is that OEM is
tied to the computer it's put on, I thought that meant the business VLK would
allow me to decommission old machines as they age, and replace them with new
ones on the same VLK, esentially transferring the now unused license. But
again I was hit with more information that VLK's are 1 and done just like
OEM, use it on a machine and you can no longer use it again.
So ultimately it looks like my best option is to just buy new machines with
Vista business and to hell with even touching volume licenses, but my
curiousity won't let me drop it. Obviously people are buying VLK's, so where
am I going wrong in the value field?
I appreciate anyone's input on this, Thanks