Licensing changes mean Redmond's IoT plan brings cheap VDI Microsoft has just posted some advice on how to do Windows desktop virtualisation (VDI) on the cheap. Redmond is infamous for insisting that if you use a thin client to run virtual desktops, you'll have to send it $US100 a year for the privilege. That charge is called the Virtual Desktop Access licence and comes over and above …
I thought this article was going to say that clients running 7 or 8 embeded didn't need a license, but bringing them into SA is stupid. It might be cheaper than the VDA but,
1. the saving in the cost of the license will be negated by the extra money required for a thin client running windows embeded over something running a linux or wyse OS.
2. SA is still a subscription that you have to keep paying rather than being a perpetual license.
Agreed with Fuzz. Still requiring SA is stupid, especially as you pay above and beyond to have a thin client with Windows Embedded anyway.
VDA is now the single biggest road block to VDI for any organisation. It's a joke. MS somehow think they are getting a piece of a pie they don't deserve, when all they are doing is accelerating the push for people to have all of their applications delivered separately from the OS and be done with even needing Windows at all.
Microsoft should be giving away embedded windows licences and VDI usage permissions for free, as a mechanism to keep corporate users on a windows desktop platform regardless of how they access it - so they can still sell the OS licenses, AD infrastructure and Office tools that bring in all the real money.
With the ongoing shift to web based enterprise SAAS applications (including tools being built for internal usage by major corporates) MS is increasing the risk of some big corporate CIO's (who aren't under Redmonds thumb in other areas) suddenly taking a look at the cost of deploying and maintaining windows desktop environments in general, deciding "f**k it" and using the massive opex cost savings of binning MS at the desktop level as the justification to work through the pain of rejigging their remaining critical apps into web based tools.
By the same token - developers building applications for remote delivery are only too aware that non Windows OS's are now the norm (via IOS, Android), and that web-apps are the only realistic way to deliver a platform agnostic product, because who wants the hassle of designing and coding every version umpteen times? Chuck the UI in HTML5, do all the heavy lifting on a server backend, and be done with it.
If MS's goal was to smother VDI in the crib to protect its stranglehold on the Desktop market, then they've largely succeeded - but the world doesn't care, as the need for end to end VDI is diminishing right in line with the demand for windows desktops in general - with more and more users adopting a non-MS devices (e.g. fondleslab) as a primary device at home and work, developers are now building their tools to be inherently agnostic of the platform they end up running on.
MS are winning the battle with VDI, but loosing the platform war. Once they loose the that fight, they then loose the user familiarity vector that currently allows them to push the 'money' products (Office, Windows etc) into the stack.
The utter contempt and arrogance of the company defies belief.
Are we that stupid to believe that MS is giving something away - when VDI licensing should have been included in SA in the first place.
The biggest joke and utter rip-off is CALS. On UNIX and other operating systems you don't have to pay a rip-off tax for the benefit of "connecting to a server".
Where are the EU/US administration officials when you need them - this is monopoly abuse.
I can't wait for the day when this company has to come crawling back to it's customers tail between legs!
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