Cloud Computing: Microsoft to shut down TechNet subscription service
July 1, 2013
Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Ed Bott.
Good night, TechNet. The online Technet blogs and customer support forums will live on, but Microsoft announced today in a letter to subscribers that it plans to retire its venerable TechNet subscriptions service. New subscriptions will no longer be available after August 31, 2013, and the subscription service will shut down as current subscribers’ contracts end.
Microsoft has offered TechNet subscriptions for most of the modern Windows era, debuting in 1998 as a massive packet of CDs, and evolving into a download option as broadband connections became common. The services have historically been one of the best deals around for frugal IT professionals and PC enthusiasts. For an annual subscription fee of a few hundred dollars, subscribers get the right to download virtually all of the desktop and server software Microsoft sells, with multiple product keys…
The software is licensed for evaluation purposes only, but that restriction is part of the license agreement and not enforced in the software itself. As a result, a lot of enthusiasts used TechNet as a way to get cut-rate Windows client and server upgrades and licenses. Those product keys would up activating Windows on PCs deployed for everyday use instead of hewing to the “evaluation only” restriction…
Read more from the source @ http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-to-shut-down-technet-subscription-service-7000017541/?s_cid=e589&ttag=e589