February 17, 2010 at 8:29 am
Mauricio Ramirez (2/17/2010)
In the world of software, SQL SERVER is irreplaceble. You can not switch to another sql server engine like you change pants.
You certainly can't change on a dime, but you can't necessarily change any investment that quickly. If you owned 10 Toyotas, you couldn't, or wouldn't necessarily change them tomorrow to Hondas in your company either.
It is harder to move to another platform, but you can over time. Your post shows that you have done that with a move to MySQL. If that works for you, then you've made the decision to move away from SQL Server.
The point was slightly tongue in cheek in that it isn't that easy. You can do it, but it's hard and this is a "somewhat" unfair way of raising prices on people, IMHO.
February 17, 2010 at 9:17 am
In most businesses, because they deal with physical inventory, there don't subtely increase their prices in this manner.
Ha! I think you ought to read the book "The Undercover Economist" by Tim Harford. It explains a lot about pricing, including why a certain famous coffee chain can get away with charging an extra $1 per latte for 'Fair Trade' coffee when the additional cost of buying the 'Fair Trade' coffee is only something like $0.02 per cup. (Hint: People pay for snob appeal. Of course that would never happen in the computer industry, right Apple? :-D)
Robb
February 17, 2010 at 9:22 am
Some snob appeal, some payment to ease conscience, some support for a good cause.
Thanks for the book note, I'll check it out.
February 17, 2010 at 9:23 am
Microsoft is un unfair business partner to its customers whether final users or developers. And I believe that Oracle and IBM are too.
I moving away from this slavery of modern times to freedom, and advise everybody to do that.
M.
February 17, 2010 at 9:42 am
Mauricio Ramirez (2/17/2010)
*snip*un unfair business partner to its customers whether final users or developers. *snip*
All big businesses are this way, even open source has this to a degree. Why do you think so many packages have branches.
CEWII
February 17, 2010 at 10:01 am
I'd disagree that blanketly Microsoft is unfair. They are a business. If you think that everyone should use open source or free products and that developers should continue to enhance them out of the goodness of their heart, I'd say you were an unfair partner for taking advantage of a developer's work.
Wanting to be paid for your efforts is not an issue. That's fair to me, and I think if MS wants to move forward and charge more, they can. I do think it's unfair that we cannot buy an older product that meets our needs.
February 17, 2010 at 10:18 am
Steve Jones - Editor (2/17/2010)
I do think it's unfair that we cannot buy an older product that meets our needs.
I agree.
February 17, 2010 at 10:21 am
I have to disagree with skjoldtc. Software does age. Not in the bits themselves, per se, but the hardware they run on. I have some programs designed for Windows 95. The bits are fine, but they won't run on XP, let alone Win7 (glad I don't need them anymore:-D).
February 17, 2010 at 10:34 am
Clive Chinery (2/17/2010)
Steve Jones - Editor (2/17/2010)
I do think it's unfair that we cannot buy an older product that meets our needs.I agree.
Doesn't this exist outside the world of software? They stop making X and start making Y. X still exists and can be bought but the quantity available is ever shrinking. How many things on Ebay are not made anymore, you can still buy them.
But just because I want product X that fits my needs, there is no obligation for the company that made it to continue to make it available to me. There are other channels available to me..
Does this make sense?
CEWII
February 17, 2010 at 10:36 am
As a secondary point, there is also product support, I am willing to support an older product for a period of time, but not forever.
CEWII
February 17, 2010 at 10:50 am
I'm not sure of the channels or resale of software. Some licenses allow it, some do not. I think that's an issue, but I'm not sure what it is.
In terms of support, I'm not asking for more support. If I buy SS2K5 one day before mainstream support ends, I get one day of support. They can tell me that there's no support the next week if I call. However there are lots of stable pieces of software that work fine.
For example, I have a friend that has a key card lock system for their office. It runs embedded NT 4 for the software, which isn't being sold any more. If they wanted to stand up a second office, assuming they had a license for the key software, they would have to buy a (much more ) version of Windows 2008 right now instead of the cheaper NT 4. They couldn't even buy an NT 4 license at their original cost from 1996!
February 17, 2010 at 11:17 am
Steve, do you know how much the price increase is?
February 17, 2010 at 11:24 am
we were quoted 15% for enterprise edition, 25% for standard edition.
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February 17, 2010 at 11:34 am
michaelJon (2/17/2010)
Does this not create a new opportunity for some sort of “marketplace” to be setup where businesses can sell their old licenses to others looking for previous editions, and then use that to finance their own upgrade?I’m pretty sure I have an old SQL server 2000 standard license laying around if any one is interested 🙂
(This is just a brain dropping and I do not know what the legal implications are of selling old licenses or even if such a service already exists)
It's not well known, but AFAIK, virtually all software sold by Microsoft (and Oracle, and IBM, ...) has non-transferable licensing. What that means is that although you can move it around freely within a company (as Gana suggested earlier), you may not transfer it from one company to another.
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February 17, 2010 at 11:36 am
george sibbald (2/17/2010)
we were quoted 15% for enterprise edition, 25% for standard edition.
Thanks George. This is very helpful.
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