@Kyanar said:
@pauluskc said:Even better, spend $349 and get all M$ software for one low price. Anyone need ten licenses of O2K7 Enterprise, 10 licenses of Vista Business, 10 licenses of Visio 2K7 and more? Direct from the horses mouth: https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455
Becoming a Microsoft partner does entail more than just wanting free software. You do need to have an actual reason why you wish to do so. And I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who uses the "M$" misnomer does not have a legitimate reason for being a Microsoft partner. That said, the Microsoft Action Pack is essentially a subscription, not products. If you do not pay annually to continue to use the Action Pack contents, your rights to use the software is revoked.
I hope you don't guarantee any software you develop in the same manner as you guarantee someone's bloggy comment code relating to their reasons... Having owned my own web development Inc. for about 9 years now, such things as the MPP is a generous and integral part of my continued success. Whilst I may not have sold thousands of copies of Windows Server Data Center Edition to Google or any of the other Fortune 10's, I have helped them (M$) generate business over the years. The requirements for being a MPP are also extremely lax. I have never distributed the software and have only used it under the license I received with it - business purposes of partner program member.
I would think of it more as a software assurance subscription. I subscribe to it one year, and continue my subscription into the next and lo-and-behold, I receive an automatic upgrade to the latest software. That really helps me out as a M$ solution provider. Which I rarely do any more because of the blossoming OSS pool out there, but once in a while someone insists on a solution from the billionaires. Oh and I read their license extensively. I do think that the software assurance is worth $350 per year for the multiple licenses and etc that I receive.
And it's interesting to note that becoming the Microsoft Partner is what's free. The Action Pack does cost $350 per year. So it has absolutely nothing to do with getting "free" software as you put it.
One last point... if a 10 year old kid types l33t, does that make them an instant elite hacker extreme? you should relax your witch-hunting scheming a hair...
....and I'm workin on relaxing my defensiveness. :)