So it’s nice that Microsoft’s CIO is promising simpler, shorter licensing pacts, but customers wonder when the promises will become reality.

Pound for pound, Microsoft software licenses have to be some of the most frustrating documents around. They are complex, they are long, and software buyers at big companies hate them. Perhaps even more than they hate Oracle licensing agreements, which is really saying something.

So, when Microsoft’s CIO Jim DuBois told the Wall Street Journal last week that the vendor has boiled down a key contract from 250 pages to 8 pages, buyers took notice. But they didn’t believe it.

Paul DeGroot, a Microsoft licensing expert and CEO of Pica Communications, said that the company’s year-old Microsoft Product and Services Agreement (MPSA) is indeed a workable 8 pages. The catch is those 8 pages are just the tip of the iceberg.

SOURCE: fortune.com