# Microsoft Business Startup offer for Tech Companies



## deargas (15 Jan 2009)

Hi,

Thought this might be of interest to startup technology companies.

Microsoft are giving your company free access to practically all of it's software, including MSDN, Windows Servers etc. to new technology companies (started less than 3 years).

The only charge is $100 when you LEAVE the program, so there are no start up costs.

I myself have availed of the offer, and was up and going in less than 2 days.

here's the link;

[broken link removed]


(I've got no affiliation with MS)


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## boskonay (15 Jan 2009)

deargas said:


> Hi,
> 
> Thought this might be of interest to startup technology companies.
> 
> ...



HOsting providers have also partnered (including www.hosting365.com) and are offering assistance with the programme, and MS powered web / infrastructure / hosted servers at massive discounts, and in some cases free...


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## Eblanoid (15 Jan 2009)

Startups (and everyone else) might also be interested in Open Source software, which is not a temporarily free marketing gimmick, but software written by dedicated people and companies who want to avoid overly-restrictive software licensing:

http://www.opensourcewindows.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software

Ooh, and Open Source software rarely costs a cent.

For instance, why buy Microsoft Office when there's a perfectly good alternative, OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org), which can open and save Microsoft Office files?


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## deargas (21 Jan 2009)

Ah now,

It's not a marketing gimmick. You get licenses for nearly every microsoft product to use for your company for up to 3 years.

How is that a marketing gimmick. 

If anything it's a direct acknowledgement of open source software being so successful.

Openoffice is a bit crap. office 2007 is also crap.

Personally i have office 2000, and have never seen the need to upgrade to anything else.


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## Eblanoid (21 Jan 2009)

deargas said:


> It's not a marketing gimmick. You get licenses for nearly every microsoft product to use for your company for up to 3 years.
> 
> How is that a marketing gimmick.



It's a marketing gimmick in the same way that offering consumers a "reduced" (or no) fee for their first X months with a phone/broadband/cableTV service is.  Even more so when there's a competitor offering an almost identical service for free!

For three years the startup gradually becomes more dependent on "free" Microsoft software, through staff training, knowledge buildup etc.  The business has no idea what the cost of _continuing_ to use the software will be from year 4 onwards.
If the startup invests the same amount of time/energy in familiarising itself with Open Source software it can be 99.9% sure of the cost of this software into the future (because Open Source software is, with few exceptions, free).  The startup is even free to modify the Open Source software.



deargas said:


> If anything it's a direct acknowledgement of open source software being so successful.



Yes, so why not encourage more use of Open Source by weaning companies on Open Source software, rather than the latest even-more-resource-hungry Microsoft offering?



deargas said:


> Openoffice is a bit crap.



How so, exactly?

From the point of view of the _average_ business user is the _latest_ OpenOffice 3 lacking significant _useful_ features that the latest Microsoft Office would have?


deargas said:


> Personally i have office 2000, and have never seen the need to upgrade to anything else.



Well, having to pay for the upgrade is a disincentive, surely. What was the last OpenOffice version you actually tried using?


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## Frasier (22 Jan 2009)

I'd have to agree that the free to use products are really quite mature and can compete with Microsoft products very well.

Open Office 3.0 is certainly a good office suite and as good as the microsoft offerings.  Most people would not use any functionality that is available in MS Office that is not available in Open Office.

Linux is also providing good alternatives to the Microsoft server and desktop operating systems.

It's all a matter of weighing up the pro's and con's of each model.  In the end, nothing is free...


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## deargas (26 Jan 2009)

How about this;

I posted this as a helpful recommendation to anyone starting up in the software industry, aimed at developing Microsoft based software. 

If you, as an open source advocate, don't like or want to use Microsoft based software, good luck. I have no problem in that.

I don't have the time or inclination to start the usual cat fight about closed vs. open source software. I run a business, not a charity.


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## extopia (27 Jan 2009)

Useful info, deargas, thanks for the original post.


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## Eblanoid (27 Jan 2009)

deargas said:


> How about this;
> I posted this as a helpful recommendation to anyone starting up in the software industry, aimed at developing Microsoft based software.



I replied as a helpful recommendation to anyone starting up in the software industry, aimed at developing great software.



deargas said:


> I run a business, not a charity.



Oh come one!

You imply that Open Source is used by mere "charities" and not real businesses. Google, IBM and Sun Microsystems develop and use Open Source software: are they charities?

For anyone who's interested, here's:
Google's Open Source web browser: http://www.google.com/chrome
IBM's Open Source WebSphere Application Server: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/community/
and the Open Source Eclipse IDE which it contributes to: http://www.eclipse.org/
Sun's Open Source offerings, which include the Java programming language, MySQL relational database, OpenSolaris operating system: http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/index.jsp

I also run a business, I find that not having to pay any licence fees to Microsoft saves me a considerable sum.  I'm simply letting people know that there are viable alternatives out there.

Interesting to note that you could not give any reason why OpenOffice was "crap".


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## deargas (28 Jan 2009)

as I said, I'm not interested in getting into a cat fight about open / closed source software. I just highlighted the offer. Go find some other fire to stoke.


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## amgd28 (28 Jan 2009)

Hi deargas,
I looked at the link and it says to sign up, my company needs to be recommended by one of their affiliates. I have looked throuhgh the list and I don't have an association with any of them. How did you find this element of the sign-up?


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## deargas (28 Jan 2009)

amgd28 said:


> Hi deargas,
> I looked at the link and it says to sign up, my company needs to be recommended by one of their affiliates. I have looked throuhgh the list and I don't have an association with any of them. How did you find this element of the sign-up?




Same here. I just completed the application form, then a guy from Microsoft emailed me with the contact details, saying I could partner up with one of their affiliates / mentors - forget what they termed it, or if not he could sign me up directly. Took the direct option.

I think it took around 2-3 days to get up and going. Have full msdn subscription.


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## amgd28 (30 Jan 2009)

That's good to hear. Thanks, will post on how I get on


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