Welp TechNet subscribers, You have been hoodwinked, Technet will be no more and if you want a subscription you will have to purchase an MSDN sub for the minimun of $700. per year. BAD Form Microsoft: TechNet Subscriptions Microsoft is retiring the TechNet Subscription service As IT trends and business dynamics have evolved, so has Microsoft’s set of offerings for IT professionals who are looking to learn, evaluate and deploy Microsoft technologies and services. In recent years, we have seen a usage shift from paid to free evaluation experiences and resources. As a result, Microsoft has decided to retire the TechNet Subscriptions service. Microsoft will continue to honor all existing TechNet Subscriptions. Subscribers with active accounts may continue to access program benefits until their current subscription period concludes. IT professionals who would like to purchase a new TechNet Subscription or renew an existing subscription may do so through August 31, 2013. Subscribers may activate purchased subscriptions through September 30, 2013. We are committed to helping customers through this transition phase and will remain focused on providing IT professionals with free access to a broad set of TechNet assets that support the needs of IT professionals around the world. To learn more about free and paid technology evaluation resources for IT professionals, see the chart below. More background on the retirement decision and implications for current subscribers is available in the TechNet Subscriptions FAQ. This page includes additional information for retail and direct subscribers, as well as those that receive it through Microsoft programs such as Not-For-Resale (NFR), Volume Licensing (VL), IT Academy (ITA), Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Thank you for your understanding as we increase focus on growing and investing in our free offerings to better meet the needs of the IT professional community. So Actually a year from September 30th I suppose it's dead. GRRRRRRRRrrr!
This seriously has me pissed off to no end. Guess it's back to me using alternate activation methods for my test environments.
I didn’t renew 6/30/2013 because I didn’t want to lose my perpetual keys for 1 year keys. Cannot find any info if the perpetual keys will go on as in the (old) license agreement?
For what I do now Office 365 is looking pretty good. 5 computers for 99 bucks a year. Should work for a couple of years while Microsoft strives to make themselves irrelevant.
Sorry Guys, Didn;t know it was already posted. Debating to either cough ip the extra $300 bucks per, or just become a pirate Yarrrrrr
If you used a technet subscription just for the purpose of obtaining legit keys for your own use you did not follow up to the licensing terms en agreement of the subscription and you already have been a pirate all along. Either buy the proper licences, or don't use it... you don't buy a Mercedes if you can not pay for it, why would this be different with software?
I guess I'm ok with this. One of the main reasons (for me) for technet subs, would be to acquire all the relevant ISO's for Windows, Office, etc. I've never understood why MS don't offer these for download freely. Makes legit IT peep's lives much easier. Doesn't affect pirates, they would find a way to get the ISO's anyway.
Ok so how about for someone like me who primarily used technet for a lab setup I use to help support customers via phone when necessary, and I don't want to have to re-install said evaluation software every 180 days. So for those purposes, my only other recourse is to crack it from now on. I can't see the point of buying retail for a test lab.
A test lab you say, personal or professional use? You talk about support customers so logically i suspect business use...pay for what you use! When it is for professional use then you have other options like MSDN subscriptions, the few extra bucks don't harm a business that is 'using' it For personal use 180 days testing a OS is quite generous..You don't expect a Mercedes dealer to let you test drive a Mercedes for 180 days, do you? So what? First of all, i do not 'work' here, i hang out here and yes i might use some pirated MS software for personal use. I am not the one complaining Microsoft finally closes down one of it most abused subscription service, am I?
It's even worse... according to a blog post of Paul Thurrott, a MSDN subscription that equals what you got out of TechNet is at least ~ $6,000...
Technet is for the IT Pro, not the average schmo dude. I know of plenty of companies that use technet for their test labs to stage scenarios for support etc.. You cannot seriously expect companies to buy a copy of Windows Server, Exchange and anything else they might need just because a customer needs help reproducing and diagnosing an issue do you? This is exactly what technet was purposed for. Production environments require actual licenses.
I guess my old subscription (Aug 2010-11) will enable me to keep using software of that time perpetually. However, for me that includes win 7 and office 2010. So I have to install and activate both by sep 2013. I use win 8 with office 2010 (do not like office 2013 because of its eye-unfriendly interface). A new subscription from Aug 12 gave me keys for win 8 and office 2013, but at that time, the new subscription agreement said to use it only for 1 year. Let us see what happens here. Will MS show it as non-genuine after Aug 2013.