Platform Independent Licensing
Hi,
I thought that the following information on platform independent licensing might be of interest to you as I have been asked some questions on this recently
Microsoft Excel, Office Standard Edition, Office Professional Edition, PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, Word and Works are “platform independent” licenses. A platform independent license allows for a specific product to be used on any computer platform (e.g., Intel®-based, Macintosh) that the software runs on, provided that the version is the same or lower as the original version that was licensed. For instance, a customer who acquired Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Macintosh may choose to use that license to run Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows or Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows NT, but could not use the license to run Microsoft Excel 7.0 for Windows 95.
The components of a product may vary by platform. In this case, a customer may run only the components of a product that are included in the version they choose to deploy. For example, if a customer licenses Office Professional for Macintosh, but chooses to run Office Professional 2003 for Windows, the customer is not licensed to run Virtual PC 2004 (Windows), since Virtual PC 2004 is not included with the Windows version of the product.
Further, a customer who enrolls a platform independent license in Software Assurance is eligible to use the most current version of that particular product which is available during the term of the upgrade protection coverage, regardless of platform (as long as only one version is installed/used at a time). For example, a customer who has a Word for the Macintosh license enrolled in Word for the Macintosh Software Assurance or Upgrade Advantage is eligible to switch and use the most current version of Word for Windows that is released during the term of their coverage.
Microsoft SQL Server is a “platform independent” license. A platform independent license allows for a specific product to be used on any computer platform that the software runs on, provided that the version is the same or lower as the original version that was licensed.
Further, a customer who enrolls a platform independent license in Software Assurance is eligible to use the most current version of that particular product which is available during the term of the upgrade protection coverage, regardless of platform (as long as only one version is installed/used at a time).
As always please feel free to contact me with any queries you may have on
Speak to you soon.
Ciara