Let's Define Irony, shall we?
You know, what gets me is the dichotomy that exists with WS08. It's actually more about
Microsoft than WS08 though. I absolutely LOVE WS08 as far as technical features go. It rocks. It's truly an amazing product. But, and there is a "but" here, there's that ugly-ass activation crap. It's like looking up to see the hottest chick on Earth standing there with no clothes on, waving a finger for you to come over. When you get there, you find out she has AIDS. I'm sorry, I know this upsets some people, but I just ran into an issue with Microsoft's TechNet KMS activation service that gave me that same feeling you get when you've eaten too much Mexican food and had a little "accident" while bending down to fetch a book off the shelf at Barnes and Noble. You know, when the surroundings are really, really quiet. It just accentuates the pain of it all that much more.
I had a server running on a TechNet license of WS08 for almost a year. Upgraded from back in the Longhorn beta days. It was fine until it realized that I was no longer working for the same employer that owned that particular TechNet subscription. It decided I was no longer Geniunely Advantaged and rendered my server semi-crippled with constant naggings to re-activate with a new product key. To be 100 percent honest with you, I had completely forgotten about it until the nagging started. WS08 runs pretty solid and rarely requires my attention, so I simply ignored it until that started. So I used my product key from my most-recent employer and that worked. I was working for a Microsoft Gold Partner as a infrastructure services consultant after all. But then after a few weeks, I was laid off due to lack of work, and am (hopefully) about to move into another job. So I'm sure that at some point soon the KMS sentinels (a la Matrix) will sniff it out and kill it expeditiously. So, what do I do now? Rather than wait for it to die at an inopportune moment, I think I'm going to be proactive and degrade my home network to stay legal.
I still have my trusty old WS03 Ent Server license I was given at the WS03 product launch a few years ago. Totally legal, and keyed for 25 clients. Remember those? They came out when SQL 2005 launched, or around that same time. I got the bag of swag goodies and the cardboard folding thing with the DVD disk inside and the product key stamped on the cover.
So, I'm torn. I have my "evaluation" license of WS08 that I'm using for the Blogcast Level5 Guides, but my home network is going to go back to WS03 very soon. Sad, but necessary. As much as I love WS08, I can't stay with it. Alas, another reason to crack open yet another bottle of wine and drown my sorrows. Oh wait, I don't have a job yet, so I can't afford wine. That leaves me with sniffing bathroom cleaner. Maybe if I do enough of that it'll make me think going from WS08 to WS03 is truly an "upgrade". I'm kidding kids. Don't do drugs (or bathroom cleaners), they'll make you end up writing pointless blog rants. :)