Hmmm to me it just seems that Microsoft is beginning to realize what Red 
Hat already knows. The real value is the service.

Carl P.

Jim wrote:

>MS seems more than willing to encourage its corporate customers to 
>investigate alternative sources of software.  From the article below, MS 
>is considering replacing its perpetual licenses with a fixed-time license. 
> Now just how much more encouragement will an IT executive need?  He can 
>pay MS now AND pay MS later.  This is obviously a response by MS to either 
>force its customers into its upgrade scheme to insure corporate profits 
>(MS's, of course).  Even if you find no compelling reason to upgrade to 
>MS's latest and greatest, you may still be forced to pay them to continue 
>to use your current not-so-latest-and-greatest incarnation of their 
>software.
>
>http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5851009.html?tag=tp_pr
>