Has anybody tried to license the use of Office Web Apps for use via an in-house installation of Sharepoint 2010? According to Microsoft, Office Web Apps via Sharepoint 2010 may be used by any primary user of a device that is licensed to use Microsoft Office. Unfortunately this rules out students as confirmed by the Education License team at Microsoft. The only way to therefore license students to use Office Web Apps via Sharepoint 2010 is to ensure that they are licensed to use Microsoft Office. One way to do that would be via the Student Option in a Schools Agreement.
However, what's frustrating to me is that by the time you've done that (and if you happen to have the hardware, a TS server license and a TS external connector, both relatively quite cheap) then you may as well offer a Remote Desktop solution with a full implementation of Office. I was hoping Microsoft would implement some special right for schools, after all, Live@Edu is free and includes Office Web Apps so given that we're already spending tens of thousands on a Schools Agreement, you would assume that this would be acceptable?
Perhaps Microsoft will tweak the licensing model for Sharepoint in schools when they officially announce the Sharepoint Uluru project but that could be up to 6 months away and I was hoping to take out a new Schools Agreement so that we can install Windows 7/Office 2010 over the Summer. Has anybody else given any thoughts to the use of the Office Web Apps via Sharepoint 2010, have you had the same licensing headaches or did you manage to find a work around?!
Simon
