So Microsoft is making its Server 2008 Foundation product available only to purchasers of a new computer. This seems at first glance to give hardware manufacturers a nice spiff: hey, the only way customers can get S2008F is if they buy one of your shiny new machines. It also seems to diss the customer by saying, in effect, we doubt you can handle the installation of this product, so we’re not going to let you do it yourself, on your own (possibly perfectly good) hardware.
How to justify tying an OS purchase to a machine purchase? Microsoft could take the position that Server 2008 Foundation targets small companies that don’t have the expertise to install a server OS. Which seems like baloney, as even the smallest companies typically have a computer advisor or consultant to help them with setup, maintenance, troubleshooting, and upgrading. There are lots of such IT consultants and even highly trained ones generally don’t charge any more per hour than a good plumber or car mechanic. (Less highly trained ones have been known to work for beer and pizza.) Perhaps Microsoft wants to ensure adequate hardware horsepower for its new OS, but you certainly do not need today’s latest and greatest hardware to run Server 2008 Foundation. There are lots of modern workstation-class PCs that could easily run a 15-user server OS without breaking a sweat.
Whenever I hear that a company is restricting the sale of its products to a somewhat artificial “tie-in” scenario, I suspect that the company either doesn’t actually have enough faith in those products to let them succeed or fail on their own merits, or is tying the products together for some ulterior business motive having nothing to do with the customer. There are exceptions; for example, you would not expect a hospital to buy an MRI scanner without also buying the bundled operating software. But when a general-purpose server operating system is being touted as a solution for small businesss, forcing that small business to go buy new hardware that they may not need (or may not want to buy, in these times) seems a little silly. If you’re trying to do small business a favor, creating an OS tailored for their needs is a fine and noble idea. Making small firms buy a new server to get that OS, so as to curry favor with your buddies in the hardware world or perhaps reduce the number of support calls you receive, is substantially less fine and less noble, at least in my view. What do you think?
Recent posts:
