{"id":588,"date":"2006-03-07T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-07T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwilson.me.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm"},"modified":"2007-03-09T15:04:44","modified_gmt":"2007-03-09T15:04:44","slug":"why-open-source-software-is-not-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm","title":{"rendered":"Why open source software is not really free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--114295639031268967-->There&#8217;s a common misconception that open source software is free &#8211; as in doesn&#8217;t cost anything &#8211; and conversely that proprietary software is expensive.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d often wondered how this was aligned with the sale of packaged distributions of free software (it turns out I&#8217;m not the only one &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/business.timesonline.co.uk\/article\/0,,9075-2051196,00.html\">a UK trading standards department were also confused by the sale of Firefox CDs<\/a> &#8211; thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/yro.slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=06\/02\/23\/1330220\">Slashdot<\/a> via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slashdotreview.com\/\">Slashdot Review<\/a> for causing me to laugh out loud about that one&#8230;).  Actually, it  turns out that open source software is only free as in free speech &#8211; not as in free of charge.  Sometimes it is free of charge too, but the two most common open source licensing models (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/\">GNU<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensource.org\/licenses\/bsd-license.php\">BSD<\/a>) do not prohibit the sale of &#8220;free software&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>GNU (a recursive name &#8211; GNU&#8217;s Not Unix) is a project, started by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stallman.org\/\">Richard Stallman<\/a> in 1984 to create a free Unix clone, managed by the free software foundation (GNU\/Linux is the kernel developed as a result of that project). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/philosophy\/free-sw.html\">GNU&#8217;s definition of free software<\/a> says in part:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li>The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).<\/li>\n<li>The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.<\/li>\n<li>The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).<\/li>\n<li>The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<p>&#8220;Free software is a matter of the users&#8217; freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;&#8217;free software&#8217; does not mean &#8216;non-commercial&#8217;.&#8221;<\/ol>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/gpl.html\">GNU general public license<\/a> (GPL) encourages free software, but all enhancements and changes to GPL software must also be left as GPL.  In effect, the software is free to enhance, but not necessarily free to purchase.<\/p>\n<p>Where code is derived from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.berkeley.edu\/\">University of California at Berkeley<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/BSD\">BSD project<\/a>, a separate licensing agreement applies.  Many commercial software vendors prefer to use the BSD license, because it lets them wrap open source code up in a proprietary product.  As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linuxformat.co.uk\/\">Linux Format<\/a> magazine paraphrased this month, &#8220;In a nutshell, the BSD licence says, &#8216;do what you like with the code &#8211; just don&#8217;t claim you wrote it'&#8221;.  The BSD code would still be free, but the developers don&#8217;t have to release all of the source code for the entire product.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst I&#8217;m writing about non-copyright licensing agreements, it&#8217;s worth mentioning <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/\">creative commons<\/a>.  Not limited to software products, this is a licensing alternative to copyright for all creative works, building on the &#8220;all rights reserved&#8221; concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary &#8220;some rights reserved&#8221; approach.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really interested in the rise of Linux as an alternative to Windows; however it&#8217;s not about stripping out software purchase costs.  Purchasing a version of Linux with a predictable development cycle and a support entitlement (e.g. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.europe.redhat.com\/software\/rhel\/\">Red Hat Enterprise Linux<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.novell.com\/linux\/suse\/\">Novell\/SUSE Linux Enterprise<\/a>) can be just as (or even significantly more) expensive as a copy of Windows and management costs need to be considered too.  For as long as the majority of IT organisations are geared up to provide almost exclusively Windows support, Linux support costs will be higher too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a common misconception that open source software is free &#8211; as in doesn&#8217;t cost anything &#8211; and conversely that proprietary software is expensive. I&#8217;d often wondered how this was aligned with the sale of packaged distributions of free software (it turns out I&#8217;m not the only one &#8211; a UK trading standards department were &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why open source software is not really free<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3,59],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-linux","tag-software-licensing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why open source software is not really free - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why open source software is not really free - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There&#8217;s a common misconception that open source software is free &#8211; as in doesn&#8217;t cost anything &#8211; and conversely that proprietary software is expensive. I&#8217;d often wondered how this was aligned with the sale of packaged distributions of free software (it turns out I&#8217;m not the only one &#8211; a UK trading standards department were &hellip; Continue reading Why open source software is not really free\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-03-07T18:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-03-09T15:04:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@markwilsonit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Wilson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"headline\":\"Why open source software is not really free\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-03-07T18:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-03-09T15:04:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\"},\"wordCount\":619,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"keywords\":[\"Linux\",\"Software licensing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\",\"name\":\"Why open source software is not really free - markwilson.it\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-03-07T18:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-03-09T15:04:44+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/2006\\\/03\\\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why open source software is not really free\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"markwilson.it\",\"description\":\"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \\\/dev\\\/web\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468\",\"name\":\"Mark Wilson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\",\"width\":800,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Mark Wilson\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/uploads\\\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/markwilsonuk\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/markawilson\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/markwilsonit\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.markwilson.co.uk\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mark-wilson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why open source software is not really free - markwilson.it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why open source software is not really free - markwilson.it","og_description":"There&#8217;s a common misconception that open source software is free &#8211; as in doesn&#8217;t cost anything &#8211; and conversely that proprietary software is expensive. I&#8217;d often wondered how this was aligned with the sale of packaged distributions of free software (it turns out I&#8217;m not the only one &#8211; a UK trading standards department were &hellip; Continue reading Why open source software is not really free","og_url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm","og_site_name":"markwilson.it","article_published_time":"2006-03-07T18:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2007-03-09T15:04:44+00:00","author":"Mark Wilson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@markwilsonit","twitter_site":"@markwilsonit","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Wilson","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm"},"author":{"name":"Mark Wilson","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"headline":"Why open source software is not really free","datePublished":"2006-03-07T18:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-09T15:04:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm"},"wordCount":619,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"keywords":["Linux","Software licensing"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm","name":"Why open source software is not really free - markwilson.it","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-03-07T18:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-09T15:04:44+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/03\/why-open-source-software-is-not-really.htm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why open source software is not really free"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"markwilson.it","description":"get-info -class technology | write-output &gt; \/dev\/web","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/98f61365e7c39d6be942174b8c4de468","name":"Mark Wilson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1","width":800,"height":800,"caption":"Mark Wilson"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/image-4.png?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1"},"description":"A Chartered IT Professional, with recent experience in technology leadership, IT strategy and practice management roles, Mark Wilson is an Enterprise Architect in the Advisory and Management Group at risual. During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. Mark is also well-known on social media and maintains an award-winning blog.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/markwilsonuk\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/markawilson\/","https:\/\/x.com\/markwilsonit","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCWHlZCoHRTocdvtrOJ2IL4A"],"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/author\/mark-wilson"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2006\/09\/wget-for-os-x.htm","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":0},"title":"wget for OS X","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 1 September 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"One Linux utility that I find very useful is wget. Last night I found out that Mac OS X 10.4.7 doesn't include wget and I was a bit stuffed... luckily I found Quentin Stafford-Fraser's OS X port of GNU wget. I needed to refer to the blog post comments to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Useful Software\"","block_context":{"text":"Useful Software","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/useful-software"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1069,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/05\/microsoft-licensing-part-1-client-and-server.htm","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":1},"title":"Microsoft Licensing: Part 1 (client and server)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 13 May 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks back, I found myself spending the evening in a conference room at Microsoft's UK headquarters, listening to a presentation about software licensing. For those who say I should get a life - you're probably right and I'm sure there are better things that I could have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1073,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/05\/microsoft-licensing-part-7-how-to-buy-microsoft-software.htm","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":2},"title":"Microsoft Licensing: Part 7 (how to buy Microsoft software)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 26 May 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing the series on Microsoft licensing, I'm going to look at how to buy Microsoft software. Basically, there are three ways to buy a license: Full packaged product (FPP) - purchased from a retailer and typically a single box contains a single license. Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) - software supplied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1075,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/06\/microsoft-licensing-part-9-useful-links.htm","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":3},"title":"Microsoft Licensing: Part 9 (useful links)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 17 June 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When I set out to write a series on Microsoft software licensing, I never expected there to be a total of nine posts. For those who missed the others, they were: Client and server. Licensing without CALs. Server products. System Center products. Virtualisation. Forefront security products. How to buy Microsoft\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1074,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/06\/microsoft-licensing-part-8-software-assurance.htm","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":4},"title":"Microsoft Licensing: Part 8 (software assurance)","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 10 June 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In my earlier post on how to buy Microsoft software, I mentioned Software Assurance (SA). SA includes upgrade rights for all software released during the period of the agreement along with a number of additional benefits. Purchased as part of a volume license agreement or on an individual product, SA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Microsoft\"","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/microsoft"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1511,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/08\/basic-math-lesson-for-american-software-companies.htm","url_meta":{"origin":588,"position":5},"title":"Basic math lesson for American software companies","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 25 August 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, et. al. please take note that the US Dollar price for your product multiplied at the current exchange rate, plus 15% value added tax (UK sales tax at today's rate) is a lot less than the price you charge us for your software. For example: The Apple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Waffle and randomness&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Waffle and randomness","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/inane-waffle"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}