Technet retiring

Being a boomer, I'd have to say that with all that's gone one in the least months that Microsoft has made a concerted effort to turn its corporate back on all legacy products, support for them, and pretty much all of the people over the last few decades that have helped make them successful.

They've decided to do this in a clean sweep fashion, pretty much changing everything, and how they interact with the IT world, as evidenced by what is now happening to TechNet, not to mention their pushing and coercion to use their cloud services, etc. It looks like their free product trials will replace the subscription services of the past, offering not for resale in-house use.

I hate to use the word conspiracy but I don't doubt that in the inner circles of Microsoft, figuring how how to pry people from their current last generation's software is a huge topic. We're just seeing the results of those efforts come to life.
 
Linux, here we come! I'm no fanboy of any flavor but people are realizing through mobile devices that Windows is not essential anymore. The are discovering they can do what they want mostly within other OSes... which is Internet and email. There is very little reason many PC users can't abandon Windows, except users tied to Windows due to other software requirements.

I'm sure if someone is given the option of purchasing an upgrade of Windows, which is likely to force a hardware upgrade as well OR just putting... say... Linux Mint on the box for just the cost of labor, people will likely choose the latter.

Linux Mint has the look and feel of the older flavor of Windows (like XP) but with the "app store" ease of a mobile device when it comes to installing software packages.

If I didn't have to use Windows to stay up on supporting it, I would have already abandoned it completely. With the increased adoption of cloud apps, the OS flavor is no longer all that important.

Now is the time when M$ should be making their OSes more accessible but instead they continue to alienate the average user. I can see M$ going the way of Dell and only dealing with the enterprise customer base to stay alive.

M$ is scrabbling to get market share in the mobile world with reckless abandon. They see the future and it isn't good for them.

The real question for us is... Do we see the future and how are we preparing to get ahead of the trends to take advantage of it? Serious changes are coming (and already happening) which will revolutionize the consumer computing market. Those of us that think we can do business the same way we did a few years ago will be looking for new jobs at the nearest Verizon kiosk.

More than ever, we, as technicians must adopt more technologies and learn to support them well. For us, the biggest money makers today were not even things we offered just a couple of years ago. What kept us in business only a few years ago, now barely shows up on a monthly revenue graph.

PS - even more evidence M$ is crapping on YOU: http://www.crn.com/news/mobility/24...tners-fuming-at-surface-slight.htm?cid=nl_crn
 
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We'll I try hard NOT to deal with consumer Windows users. Business is a different game entirely, and Linux, in that area, will be the OS of the future well INTO the future. As long as the server room has Windows, and biz types believe they need Word to write a memo, Outlook to read an email, or Excel to add numbers, Microsoft will have it's due, rightly or wrongly.

As far as the cloud, it may be a nice place to visit, esp. if you've know little else in your computing life, but the (lack of) security to hacking, password jacking, wholesale stealing of data (in the cloud) should have the alarms going off in everyone's head. Strangely, with regular new reports of compromised data and passwords being spread (sold) far and wide everywhere, there seems only to be silent resignation.

NONE of my business clients would dream of loading their lives into the clouds any more than is essential to survive. If Microsoft is desperate to get to the cloud, they may find their business partners and customers NOT following and deserting them for any number of reasons, as the reasons they just seem to be multiplying day by day lol. Anyone else need a gun to shoot themselves in the foot like MS is so good at? Just saying... Win8 (fail), Technet (shut down), Surface (unavailable), SBS (terminated) ... can the layoffs be far behind?
 
I agree with spin. I love tech, wondering what things will be like in 5 years. MS needs to do a mix of old and new in my opinion. That's to say that let ppl keep their classic windows looks. In fact offer a traditional start button and menu in their App Store for 10-15 per head. That would likely sell like hotcakes. Keep options for those who want traditional programs and not apps in the cloud. I don't mind email in cloud but don't want to live in the cloud.

At least one place I help, they don't even use wifi bc of privacy concerns much less cloud. They were running old versions of WordPerfect, having issues. Install LibreOffice, bingo, reads all their files printing issues went away. If people ever wake up and realize open office and LibreOffice and similar applications do what they need and they are low cost and or free, Microsoft may have a fight.
 
Steve202 said:
Good luck with that. When I first started I signed up but kept getting rejected. When I asked why they wouldn't answer.
Click to expand...

lol. you were right. denied today. not sure why, I guess I'll just let it go since they obviously won't reply anyways.
 
Booyah!!!! Mine ends on 10/14 but they are still letting people renew so I renewed. According to Technet I have over 11TB in downloads available so I needed the additional time. No way I could get that all done by 10/14 without Charter shrinking my pipe.
 
I've been a subscriber to the savetechnet listserv and a "solution" just came up. Not sure how it works outside of the US but I would think that it would be similar.

Apparently there is a work around, for the time being, to keep being able to get technet subscriptions without being porked by having to buy a MSDN. If you buy a VLK of something you can then add to that. It has to be a quantity of 5 to meet the licensing. So you could buy a Technet for the normal price, around $260 VLK and then get something like 4 Microsoft DVD playback for Vista to make up the rest (some $8/ea so $32). Of course final pricing is determined by the reseller. Here is an article about that "technique".

http://www.infoworld.com/t/office-software/how-buy-microsoft-volume-license-the-cheap-213214
 
nlinecomputers said:
Technet is not a Volume License product????
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'm failing to understand what one has to do with the other. One of the reasons ms is retiring the program is too many less than reputable folks out there view the subscription as a way to make money by using the licenses on customer machines or forgoing vlk services. Msdn will eventually get cut down or slimmed down. Action pack already got minimized. All because people use these as an end run around legit licensing.
 
Technet is on the VLK list. Check the download and you will see 4 entries for Technet.

https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/...open-license-estimated-retail-price-list.aspx

We all know that many unscrupulous techs are using Technet in violation of the EULA/T&C's. That is not the issue as M$ has made up their mind on standalone Technet.

The question is how does a small IT support company get the same benefits. Buying the software outright and buying MSDN are out.

At this point it looks like one can sign up with a reseller for MS Open License and once that is completed/approved Technet can be added to a VLK purchase. I'm waiting to hear back if the available software is the same as what we get in Technet right now.
 
nlinecomputers said:
Doesn't matter. Product is still being discontinued. End of this month those SKUs will be dismissed.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure.

From http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/ms772427.aspx

The last day to purchase a TechNet Subscription through the TechNet Subscriptions website is August 31, 2013. Subscribers may activate purchased subscriptions through September 30, 2013. The TechNet benefits portal and the subscriber downloads page will remain available for non-Volume Licensing subscribers through September 30, 2014.
Click to expand...

That implies that VLK Technet may stay active after that date.
 
Yes. So will mine. My subscription expires in March of 2014. You can't buy NEW subscriptions at the end of the month. Current subscriptions are valid for the period you purchased it for. I don't think any of the subscriptions are longer then one year even on VLK.
 
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