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Useless Git

Useless Git

Useless Git

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1 Jul 2007
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Dundee
Just been looking at this and have a couple of questions for any subscribers.

A basic sub is £133 in the first year and £99 per year to renew.

It says on the site downloaded software is for evaluation purposes and not for use in a commercial enviroment.

The Questions.

1 - Could a home user sign up?
2 - If you let your sub lapse does the software stop working?

If the answer to both these questions is Yes it would be like renting Windows and Office Proffesional for about £2 per week and always having the latest versions available to download.

After the first year it's £400 every four years which is less than it would cost to buy Windows and Office at retail prices, this leads to one last question.

3 - Is this as too good to be true as it sounds?
 
Evalutaion purposes means just that, evalutaing, not on a live system.
So if you were checking your actual emails and playing the games you would normally play, then you have broken the licence agreement.
A production environment, is a live system, as in day to day usage.
 
There's nothing preventing a home user from signing up, but the wording of their T&Cs is actually as follows: "You may not use the software in a live operating environment, in a staging environment, or with data that has not been backed up. You may not use the evaluation software for software development or in an application development environment." That seems to effectively prohibit a home user as well as a corporate entity from using it for anything other than evaluation purposes, although in practice such a condition would have course be impossible to police.

AFAIK the software remains working post-subscription, but again you'd presumably be in breach of the terms of use: "In order to access or use subscription services that may be available to you, such as software downloads, technical support and product keys, your subscription must be active."

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/cc294422.aspx

There's often a fair amount of... errr... lively discussion about some of Microsoft's licensing terms, but I do think in this case their intent is reasonably clear. :)
 
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