Can Ya Help A Licensing Newbie Out with MS Licensing?

Okay I've always worked for large organizations in the past, and they've always had enterprise licenses to purchase as much MS software and have as many users connect to it as they wanted to, so I never gave a second thought to it.

Now that I'm in business for a small upstart, licensing is seemingly like a huge headache. My head is spinning trying to figure it out. No wonder we all love open source software so much.

We are using FreeBSD/Apache/MySQL/PHP as our web server. Clients obviously will initially connect through this machine.

It will make calls to a Microsoft server to do video streaming, via Microsoft Media Streamer Server. The streamer will either be on Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP Pro, or possibly .NET. As far as we know, MS Media Streamer is free and there are no licensing issues with it at this point. So we are trying to figure out the best possible OS platform to run our streamer on.

After pouring hours over Microsoft's licensing website, I'm more confused than ever.

Here's what I know so far. The servers have 3 different licensing options:

Per server
Per seat
Per processor

In our case, we are only starting out with 2 processors, so I assume the best option is to purchase a 2 processor license! (Last I checked, it was $40 per client connection using a per seat or per server license). The per processor option is also new to me since I last checked also.





But if the licensing modes cost different amounts, how do I not contact Microsoft, I have to purchase the license from them, right?



Is Microsoft applying licenses only to their application and enterprise servers? Windows 2000 Server will ask for the per seat or per server option upon installation...

Am I making this too complicated? Can I simply buy a 2 processor license, even though there will be up to 100 people, for example, simultaneously connected to the server? (Though technically it's in a gray area -- is the FreeBSD the "client," or is the actual remote person connecting through BSD the "client?")

Has anybody recently had to deal with MS licensing?

Bleh. I need sleep.

Okay, all I've found so far is just more confusion.

It seems everyone is pissed off and confused by MS licensing policies. Personally I think they are shooting themselves in the foot here. The whole point of trying to take away UNIX servers from organizations is that Windows servers are cheaper. Yet the new licensing schemes go against that trend. Microsoft is turning into the very thing it has hoped to replace.

Combine that with the uncertainty of the number of end users on the Web, and this looks like an ill conceived licensing plan.



http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/...ArticleID=23292




http://www.win2000mag.com/Articles/...ArticleID=23200

I found out the answer!

For people using IIS authentication, you can get a Unlimted License for $1000-$2000.

http://www.software-street.com/micwin20inco.html

For those of us using external or anonymous authentication, we don't need to buy ANY licenses, just pay for the OS.





Our users aren't using Windows file and print services.

YES!!!