Partners indignant about Microsoft

Free licenses discontinued

Martin Fryba | Davina Spohn, 11.07.2019, 10:48

Partners indignant about Microsoft

Microsoft will discontinue free software licenses for its partners from 1 July 2020. Partners criticize this measure and fight back.

Partners want to use an online petition to persuade Microsoft to reverse the free license ban.

According to the amended Internal Use Rights (IUR), Microsoft will stop issuing free licenses to its partners on 1 July next year. This means that many applications as part of a Microsoft Action Pack such as Windows, Server, SQL Server, Share Point, Office, Teams or Dynamics will no longer be available to partners free of charge. Microsoft refers to commercial licensing, i.e. partners should purchase the required products.

Normally, software manufacturers in particular encourage the issue of free licenses to their partners so that they can familiarize themselves with the products in detail and thus provide their customers with the best possible advice.

Triggered by a Twitter post by MVP Steve Mordue, the Microsoft community reacted to this step with great incomprehension, and in some cases with scorn and sarcasm. This is a particularly hard blow for smaller partners.

"Counterproductive", grumbles one Microsoft partner. Another even wants to nominate his manufacturer for an award "for the stupidest idea of the year".
The frustration over this partner-unfriendly regulation from Microsoft is so deep that a petition is already underway to persuade Microsoft to reverse this decision. Over 1,000 partners have already joined the call on Change.org.

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