EES - Requires existing windows licence to upgrade. What about Macs and Servers?

[DCUK6]

Just read somewhere that EES supports Macs. These obviously don't have a windows licence.

Does this mean that to use a EES key on them I would need to buy xp/7/8 for each one and then I can use my EES key.

 

What about servers. Is there a cheap way of doing this? Looking at a new Dell server and the OS adds on £500.

 

Cheers

[FN-GM]

You can use Windows client os on a mac. Remember though you will need a base licence. Mac does qualify as a base licence, however not sure if you are using bootcamp.

 

Don't forget you have office for Mac as well.

[Chris_]

Just read somewhere that EES supports Macs. These obviously don't have a windows licence.

Does this mean that to use a EES key on them I would need to buy xp/7/8 for each one and then I can use my EES key.

 

What about servers. Is there a cheap way of doing this? Looking at a new Dell server and the OS adds on £500.

 

Cheers

 

If you license the Windows OS via EES with Software Assurance you can install Windows 7/8 Enterprise etc on any qualifying desktop, if it has a XP Home, Vista Home license etc.. Macintosh is also in the list of qualifying operating systems so no additional licensing is needed.

 

With servers, depending on whether it's physical or virtual there are various different options. You can licensing Windows Server Standard with Software Assurance for around £26 per year. If you're in a virtual environment and you have live migration, you need a server license per host that the server could run on. It could work out cheaper to license Windows Server Datacenter (licensed per 2x CPU) instead for around £150 per year, this would cover you to run unlimited copies of Windows Server on the server and allow for live migration.

 

I'm not a MS licensing expert and the information I've given you has probably all changed since I read up about it all...

[jmak]

My reseller told me that I don't need an existing OS for eligibility for servers under the EES scheme - and several on here chimed in to support that view. Don't know about Macs though.

[fiza]

The Apple OS is seen as a qualifying OS for EES so you are covered.

[FN-GM]

If you want a source that Mac OS is a qualified upgrade, please see the attached.

Qualifying for Windows Volume Licensing.pdf

[DCUK6]

Thanks FN-Gm, remember seeing something similar before.

 

Cant seem to find a server version. Guessing this is just server 2003+

[tmcd35]

Probably worth double checking how you want to set up the Mac and what the terms of the qualifying license upgrade is. I have a feeling you need to replace the original OS with the upgrade one from EES - so no bootcamp or virtual machines. You need to uninstall OS X from the mac and install Windows in its place...

 

For servers - volume licence versions of the OS, including EES, are full products not upgrades. You don't need an original OS on the server, just the license from EES or other VL agreement.

 

Edit: Just double checked out of curiosity and it seems if you have Software Assurance with your upgrade licence then you can use bootcamp and run both OS X and Windows on the same machine.

Edited April 1, 2015 by tmcd35