virtualization licensing

[Matthew Gillen]

The subject of licensing windows guest OSes came up a while back, and I 
was looking into it for M$ products for work today.   The previous 
thread was about XP, but I'm looking at their Server line, which they 
actually sort of expect people to use in virtualization environments. I 
know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I think this is comical:

Their licensing for virtualization is so convoluted that Microsoft has a 
"Calculator" tool to help you find the most cost-effective 
virtualization when you need multiple instances of windows.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/calc_1.htm

In my example, I needed 4 virtual hosts.  For Windows Server 2003, I 
could either get the one license of Enterprise Edition (for $2300), or 
FIVE instances of the Standard Edition (at $720 each).  Even within the 
same "server" product, they have variations that completely change the 
licensing requirements.  The interesting thing is that they have a FAQ 
entry that says the "4 free virtual hosts" you get with Enterprise 
edition don't depend on using MicroShaft's virtualization software; 
you're explicitly allowed to use any virtualization software.

Matt