My ZDNet colleagues Ed Bott and David Gewirtz are both fed up with Microsoft over software licensing issues, albeit for different reasons.

Ed is annoyed with Microsoft over its poor communication of its Windows editions and David just wants to line up Microsoft’s legal department in front of a firing squad.

Let’s be absolutely clear — figuring out software licensing, regardless of which vendor you are dealing with, is never fun. I never enjoyed it when I was an IT consultant in the financial sector, I hated it when I worked as a systems architect at IBM, and I certainly don’t enjoy it today in my role at Microsoft.

Dammit Jim, I’m a technical solutions professional, not a lawyer!

I can’t tell you how many times a week I need to have conversations with my partners about things that are possible from a technology standpoint, but impossible to do from a licensing standpoint.

More often than not, I need to bring in a licensing specialist to clarify language. And then if we can’t figure it out, the specialist has to reach out to others that are SMEs on the specific product licensing that can give me an official reading.

SOURCE: zdnet.com