| One of my biggest, most important responsibilities in | | | | the release of Office XP,it has, believe it or not, got |
| my day job is ensuringthat we have purchased all of | | | | even more confusing. |
| the software licenses that we require. It'smy job to | | | | Take a deep breath and see if you can follow this. |
| ensure that we are 100% legal at all times - which | | | | We purchased some 500copies of Office 95, which |
| fulfills one ofour corporate goals to be a completely | | | | we upgraded to Office 97, then upgraded to Office |
| ethical company. | | | | 2000. We looked carefully at Office XP and quickly |
| Most companies make it very simply for me and my | | | | decided we did not wantto install it on any of our |
| staff. If I want to license | | | | systems. We are happy with Office 2000. |
| Norton Antivirus, all I need to do is count the number of | | | | However, we might want to upgrade to the version of |
| machines on whichthe product is to be installed, write | | | | Office following that,or even the one after that |
| up a purchase order and call thesalesperson to order | | | | (Microsoft seems to be releasing a new versionevery |
| the product. It works the same with Conversion Plus, | | | | couple of years). In the past, we would simply pay an |
| Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, WinZIP and any of | | | | upgrade fee togo from wherever we were to the |
| the other hundreds ofproducts that we require to keep | | | | new version. |
| our company in business. | | | | No more. Now, we have to purchase what is basically |
| You would think that Microsoft would want to make it | | | | upgrade insurance by aparticular deadline (it was |
| easy for people like meto give them money. I know | | | | September but this seems to have been moved to |
| that if I were in their shoes that's what I woulddo. | | | | February). We also have to pay to upgrade everything |
| I should stop for a minute and explain that I love many | | | | to Office XP at thesame time. If we do not do this, we |
| Microsoft products. | | | | will wind up paying over 200% more if wedecide to |
| Windows 2000 (server and professional) are very | | | | upgrade at some point in the future. |
| solid, well-thought-outoperating systems, and the Office | | | | Okay, so Microsoft is forcing us to pay now for a |
| 2000 suite is easily the best in theindustry. Internet | | | | product which we may ormay not want in the future. |
| Explorer is far superior to Netscape and has been | | | | Personally, I believe they know that Office XPis not a |
| forseveral years now, and Visio 2000 is one of the | | | | product which most people want - in fact, I don't know |
| most versatile flowchartingtools available anywhere. | | | | of anysystem manager anywhere who is even |
| Unfortunately, purchasing and licensing Microsoft | | | | considering upgrading to the newversion. Why not? |
| products is nowhere nearas pleasurable as using their | | | | The user interface is significantly different |
| office suite. My god, they make it sodifficult to | | | | (requiringretraining), the performance is poor (requires |
| purchase licenses that I've often considered | | | | more hardware to operate) andthe benefits TO THE |
| (especiallyrecently) switching the entire company to | | | | USER are completely nonexistent. |
| Unix and WordPerfect just tosimplify my life. | | | | It gets worse. We have decided to go ahead and get |
| Okay, let's take the Office suite of products. In a sane | | | | the upgrade insurance andupgrade our product on |
| world, you would dothis one of three ways: | | | | paper. However, we definitely do not want to install |
| - You could just buy everything (Word, Excel, Access, | | | | Office XP on any machine at any time. Thus, we |
| PowerPoint and so on) | | | | simply want to make thepurchase to retain our rights |
| - You could purchase the "base" kit, then purchase | | | | to upgrades in the future. |
| additional licenses forthe pieces that you needed. For | | | | We are allowed to install the older versions as much |
| example, spend $75 on the base, then add $40for | | | | as we want under theterms of the license |
| Word, and perhaps $10 for PowerPoint, and then don't | | | | agreements as long as we purchase enough licenses |
| purchase Access. | | | | ofthe new version to cover it all. So we went to |
| This could all be done with a licensing key. | | | | purchase Office XP |
| - Just purchase each piece separately. | | | | Professional, then found ourselves in an interesting |
| Naturally, Microsoft didn't choose any of these | | | | position. |
| methods. What you haveinstead is a number of | | | | We originally bought the Professional edition because |
| "suites", each a different mix of products. Forexample, | | | | we wanted Publisher. |
| if you just need Word and Excel, you could purchase | | | | Unfortunately, Microsoft has decided to remove |
| Office | | | | Publisher from Office XP |
| Standard. If, on the other hand, you also need Access, | | | | Professional (in fact, they have also removed |
| then you need topurchase Office Premium. To make | | | | Frontpage - no huge lossconsidering that Frontpage |
| matters even worse, depending upon how manyof | | | | XP is not an improvement over 2000). |
| each product you want to purchase you can use | | | | This introduced lots of confusion into the picture. After |
| different discount scales. | | | | much study andhours of phone discussions with |
| It's enough to make one pull his hair out in frustration. | | | | Microsoft, we determined that we couldinstall Office |
| But wait, it getseven worse with the operating | | | | Professional 2000 with Publisher for each of the |
| systems. You want Windows 2000 server, thenyou | | | | Office |
| need to purchase a license for the server, a license for | | | | Professional XP licenses that we purchased. If, |
| eachworkstation (Windows 2000 Professional) and a | | | | however, we did upgrade to |
| Client Access License (CAL)for each workstation that | | | | Office Professional XP, then we would need to |
| needs to access a server. And, of course,depending | | | | purchase one additional |
| upon how many of each you buy you get a different | | | | Publisher license per machine. |
| discount scale. | | | | It would be so much easier if we could just purchase |
| Oh, we're not finished yet. You also have the choice of | | | | 500 licenses for Word, |
| ordering Backoffice,which contains many of the server | | | | 500 for Excel and 500 for Publisher. We would be |
| products sold by Microsoft. It may (or maynot) be | | | | happy to purchase amaintenance agreement for the |
| cheaper to get one Backoffice license than, say, an | | | | whole mix. We don't need Access or PowerPoint,yet |
| Exchangelicense, a SQL license and a Windows 2000 | | | | due to the way Microsoft has it all structured we have |
| server license. Then you've got toremember if you | | | | to purchaselicenses for them. Sigh. |
| purchase Backoffice or the separate products for | | | | Now I have to go figure out how to upgrade and |
| your serverin order to purchase either Backoffice | | | | license my Windows NT and |
| CALs or the individual CALs for eachproduct. And, of | | | | Windows 2000 machines. It's enough to make me look |
| course, each product has it's own discount scale | | | | into the mirror to see if |
| dependingupon how many you purchase. | | | | I have any more gray hairs. |
| Now, with the impending release of Windows XP and | | | | |