I usually try to avoid being fanboy or MS basher, but there are some moments when you can’t stand it anymore! What triggert this post was Paul Thurrott’s post on Vista’s new license, however this was just the last drop. Some stuff that irritates me:

• At home I dual boot between Ubuntu and Windows 2k3 SBS which was a gift from MS. What kills me is the text on the box of Windows: Includes 5 Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Client Access Licenses for Devices and/or Users. This is a typical example for MS trying to get more money than it should. If I want to have a stronger server, I should pay for the hardware not the software!
• The updates last week went seamlessly on the few boxes I’m responsible for, however on one of them it kept insisting that I don’t have a valid license. Now it must be known that we are a big company and only buy equipment from big vendors in big quantities so surely that computer had a valid license! But because of MS I had to waste several hours to find the site admin and ask him to check the situation so that finally I can apply the patches. What should have been a 30 minutes top outage for that server (yes, server!) became several hours. Thank you MS!
• Read MS’s reasoning for the restrictions: less than X% of the users need this. First of all: how do you know that? Was it told you by a market research company team / company? I’ve read yesterday a report issued by market research company who claims to have more than 30 years of experience in the field about technology and they couldn’t get even their wording about economics right, let alone technology! Secondly: get it into your head: that X% covers your enthusiast base (you know, technical evangelist) and techies who do the support work and the recommendations. The most valuable people you have! Thirdly: usually I’m don’t talk politics, but I see a very good analogy: let’s eliminate the constitution, because only Y% needs it (and I’m sure that Y < X). Think about it!

My opinion: move to free software where you don’t have to put up with this crap and you can concentrate on doing what you have to do!

Update: as the guys over at the Splitcast forums pointed out, I’m not the only one dislikeing MSs business practices.