Re: [tlug] No, Really... Windows Is Free

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Dave M G writes:
 > Curt,
 > 
 > Thanks for responding.
 > 
 > > I'd be curious to hear your considered opinions on "oversales," for lack
 > > of a better term, of things like Windows.
 > 
 > I don't know if "over sales" represent anything other than inefficiency, 
 > although it's very possible I'm not fully understanding a core issue you 
 > are expressing.

I don't think it's inefficiency on the part of the buyers,
necessarily.  First, some of those excess licenses are simply based on
buying a box, and finding out that Windows comes bundled.  shoganai,
na....

More interestingly, I think it's a hedge against certain kinds of
risk, and also the fact that people want to buy a license for the
lifetime of the box, at least, rather than rent on a period to period
basis.

One risk that I have in mind is peak-load usage.  We had a software at
Scuba-die called "S" for statistics, and there was a 50-seat license
based on the nominal 40-person cap on the course that used so many
seats at once.  Well, as luck would have it, one year Dick Cheney
taught the course, and shot thirty of the kids in the forehead when
aiming at duck.  So the next year we had this overhang of kids who
should have passed, and they relaxed the course cap.  Of course this
turned into a shambles as 60 students tried to access the licenses
simultaneously, and people who had been burned once started to start
up a process and keep it running whether they were actually doing
computations or not, etc.

Another, possibly less plausible, is expansion.  In a large
bureaucratic organization, it may be easier to get a 50 seat license
now, than to get a 40 seat license now and expand to 50 when you need
it.