The UK looks to be the only country where user organisations have
been attempting to ward off the clumsy, high pressure bid by
Microsoft to totally revamp its software licensing structure.
Moving from a perpetual to a subscription basis could end up being
a good thing in the long-term, but users have been asked to make
fundamental commitments to complex schemes, based on insufficient
information for no obvious benefit in too little time.
That is why, fired up for a long campaign, groups have written to
Microsoft and to Government and are preparing submissions to the
Office of Fair Trading. Contrast this with the muffled silence on
the issue in the US, where Microsoft exerts a quasi-feudal
influence.
It is encouraging that British users do talk to each other. They
have pure-play user groups and organisations to facilitate this.
Licensing, which lends itself to divide and rule, is exactly the
sort of issue that can best be communicated by word of mouth, not
e-mail. In the process several of Microsoft's Achilles' heels are
being exposed. For example, large users are now worried about
lock-in with Microsoft.net.
Microsoft UK has an unenviable job - having to obey orders from
people with deaf ears in Seattle and thereby jeopardise future
growth. The £600m of Microsoft UK may be small beer in global
terms, but our users are trend-setters.
At one recent large meeting on the issue, every single user
believed that, in licensing terms, they would end up paying more
for no additional benefit.
The least Microsoft can do is to set up a central system where
users can feed in their current licensing arrangements and
requirements and have the actual costs of the different options
printed out.
That would help to alleviate the appalling customer relations that
have flared up so quickly and unnecessarily.