RE: [TCLUG:22812] Licensing of NT in a linux vs nt whitepaper

[Liz Burke-Scovill <kethry@winternet.com>]

Actually, when doing research for another company that I used to work
for, my understanding on the EULA with respect to end user licenses stated
that if you had for example a 5-user license, that meant 5 users actively
logged on to the machine. Since web access is anonymous access, my
understanding of the terms meant that those anonymous users would not be
counted as users in this case. This was a very important point for me to
get clarification on, because in the situation I was in, there were 15
people who needed access to a machine, but we only had 7 machines
available. Therefore there were more than 15 logon accounts required (if
you include process accounts, etc), but no more than 7 people would be
logged on at any one time. Since NT user licenses don't come in
"denominations" of under 5, we purchased a 10 user license, which also
allowed for room to grow should they decide to purchase more workstations.
So NT server requirements basically license out concurrent login sessions.
Since web users technically don't "log in" with a username and password,
my understanding is that you should be safe. 

And in reality, trying to guesstimate web usage when you purchase the
server license is pretty iffy at best. One of the selling points
(especially to small companies who choose to go Small Business Server for
example) is that it would allow companies to host websites in house and in
SBS's case a relatively (when compared to NT 4.0 or 2000) cost effective
way.

Oh, btw, Hi! My name's Liz...I've been lurking for about a week, getting a
feel for how things are around here. Linux-wise, it's something I play
around with at home...I'm still looking for a distro that I really like,
so I don't have anything stable - YET.

Take care, all, 
Liz Burke-Scovill

On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Austad, Jay wrote:

> I think when you license NT for 5 users, you are supposed to have no more
> than 5 people connected to the box at any one time viewing web pages or
> whatever.  I think the same goes for MS-sql products.  If a person accesses
> a page on the webserver that hits the database, they count as one user in
> the database.  
> 
> I doubt most companies abide by this rule and just buy the "cheap" 5 user
> license.  
> 
> Jay
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Tanner [mailto:tanner@real-time.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 10:49 PM
> To: tclug-list@mn-linux.org
> Subject: [TCLUG:22812] Licensing of NT in a linux vs nt whitepaper
> 
> 
> Since I have never really used NT for anything, I am not sure I totally
> understand the licensing agreements.
> 
> I am writing a paper comparing linux to nt from a cost prospective (money).
> 
> Now, I see you can get NT 5-user for around $1000 list. Attempting to read
> the
> EULA confuses the hell out of me, so I am going to ask the list.
> 
> If you use NT as the operating system for a web site, can you run your web
> site
> on just a 5-user license? Even if you take (cough) millions of hits a day on
> this box?
> 
> Reading the EULA it seems that you have to purchase an unlimited-user
> license
> because the 'net represents unlimited users of this machine.
> 
> Is the correct? The info I want seems to be in the EULA but I cannot pull it
> out
> of all the legalise that is in there.
> 
> * Next Topic *
> 
> Doing a similar thing for Postgres vs MySQL vs MS SQL server vs MS Access.
> 
> MS Access seems to say single user, so as a db backend to a busy website, is
> the
> NT box the 1 user? 
> 
> Again, EULA for MS SQL Server is confusing. There seems to be issues
> about users and simulanteous connections. If you use MS SQL server as the
> back-end, do you need to have unlimited users, or will the 20-user version
> work
> for a busy web site?
> 
> I'd be happy to share this with the LUG, so people will have a reference to
> it
> for other Linux vs NT sales pitches.
> 
> 

-- 
Imagination is intelligence having fun...
e-mail:  kethry@winternet.com
URL:  http://WWW.winternet.com/~kethry/index.html