Re: [Fsfe-uk] [ALUG] Microsoft and schools (fwd)

[Alex Hudson]

On Sat, 2003-12-06 at 18:36, Philip Hunt wrote:
> > Or that UK Schools have agreed to licence more software, but at a
> > better discount - i.e., spending 60M instead of 50M, but getting 70M
> > worth of software: there's a 10M saving right there!
> 
> The Becta page <http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/press_out.cfm?id=3099>
> says it's up to individual schools to buy what they want, so no such
> deal has been made.

A-ha. I think I get it now:

        "If you purchase software under Microsoft Academic Open
        Licensing then to get the best pricing under the Becta Microsoft
        Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) you should move to either
        Select Licensing or School Agreement Licensing."
        
If I'm right - and forgive me, I don't know the MS licensing models
inside out - this means that in order to get access to discounted
software, schools have to sign up to a subscription-based licence?
They're moving people away from MS Open - which isn't necessarily
subscription-based, as I understand it - and Student Select, which also
isn't. They seem to basically be allowing people to access the volume
channel (i.e., software assurance) scheme without having the volume. 

Also, MS appear to be playing something of a blinder within the reseller
channels. Rather than pass the saving on to the customer, they're
passing it on to the reseller, who will be taking a slice of the action.
This probably makes selling an all-MS solution far more attractive now,
so it wouldn't surprise me if schools started buying more MS stuff over
the next few years. All on subscription. Nice.

Cheers,

Alex.