Dual boot Apple MAC & Windows - Is Windows covered by Schools Agreement?

[mikeTP]

I am being told by different Licensing providers different stories regarding Mac & Windows dual-boot licensing. We have a large quantity of Macbooks that dual boot Windows XP (soon to be 7) using boot-camp. One tells me that our Schools agreement covers the installation whilst the other tells me that I need a full license for the Windows installation as the Schools agreement only covers upgrades. I'm chasing an answer from Microsoft but any advice on this would be gratefully received.

[john]

Schools Agreement only covers upgrade licences, so to dual boot the macs you will need full packaged products, this could be say Windows 7 Home and then you can use schools agreement to upgrade that to Windows 7 Enterprise.

[FN-GM]

I have read on the Microsoft site you can use MAC OSX as the base licence and upgrade from that. This was a few years ago so i am not sure if this still is the case. So in that case you dont need a seperate licence as well.

[Arthur]

See pages 92-93 of the latest Microsoft Product List for Volume Licensing (Direct Link). Apple Macintosh is listed under the valid qualifying OSs to upgrade from.

 

However, to be able to continue using Mac OS X in addition to Windows 7 you need to have Software Assurance (at least that's how I understood it).

[riffleman]

Apples are only included in the school's agreement to cover use of Office for Mac and to provide you with the CALs necessary to contact windows based servers.. You cannot use your school agreement to cover you for dual booting. The school's agreement is an upgrade license and requires the base machine to have it's own licensed version of Windows. So you would need to purchase an additional license for windows to cover the Mac. Edited February 21, 2011 by riffleman

[Arthur]

What does this mean?

 

http://i.min.us/ilyOfu.png

[riffleman]

Arthur, it means exactly what my previous post says: that Apples are included in the agreement to provide them with CALs to access Windows servers and Office for Mac. You are still required to purchase a Windows license to cover the Upgrade rights.

[riffleman]

Having looked a little further into this, it appears I owe Arthur an apology.

 

Macs are covered under the schools' agreement, as per this document http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/4/3d42bdc2-6725-4b29-b75a-a5b04179958b/Licensing_Windows_and_Office_with_Mac_VL_Brief_Oct08.docx

 

You require a SA licence, which the school's agreement provides, as long as the Mac has been included as one of your desktop count.

[john]

That's interesting I've not seen that one before, always told if I wanted to keep the Apple OS on it I had to buy a MS Licence and have seen macs in places with them. Maybe this is one for a MS Q&A for clarification as part of the EES talk on Thursday to get it confirmed as it is still the case.

[timpaxton]

Having looked a little further into this, it appears I owe Arthur an apology.

 

Macs are covered under the schools' agreement, as per this document http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/4/3d42bdc2-6725-4b29-b75a-a5b04179958b/Licensing_Windows_and_Office_with_Mac_VL_Brief_Oct08.docx

 

You require a SA licence, which the school's agreement provides, as long as the Mac has been included as one of your desktop count.

 

So as you read it, as long as we have Software Assurance, we can run both OS X and a Windows flavour on a Mac (actually up to 4 OSs(!) according to that document) without the need to buy a retail version of that Windows flavor, or have a Windows COA stuck to the Mac?

 

I'm not currently on a Schools Agreement, but am going to go get EES (which includes Software Assurance), and think from this thread that I'll be covered to run Windows and Office on my Macs without any further purchases as part of my Full Time Equivalent count. Anyone disagree with me, and if so could you point out why?

[Arthur]

A few years ago, even OS/2 qualified...

 

http://ladylicensing.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/product-high-light-windows-desktop-os-what-is-a-qualified-base-license-in-volume-licensing/