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I've PMed @randvegeta this before but, a legit price comparing site (widely used in Germany) lists Windows Server 2016 ESD licenses for 1 PC from ~20€:
https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/5227917_-windows-server-2016-standard-24-kerne-en-oem-sb-microsoft.html
It is quite well explained on
https://teknologya.com/difference-between-the-oem-retail-and-esd-license/amp/ how ESD licenses (electronic dl/no disk) are cheap to get but generally one must also keep in mind the potential for abuse is quite high. An ESD license could be just from anywhere so it's important to find a trusted seller. Your key (especially if purchased via ebay) could be:
Taken from some education program and sold illegally.
Valid, but not meant to be sold.
Aquired using stolen CC details
Purchased in a region where Windows keys are sold cheaper than in Germany/US..
.
.
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In all cases your key could be invalid from the beginning, or if you are lucky be valid and work for a while (or if you are lucky forever) and then suddenly be deactivated later (google "Windows: You might be a victim of software piracy" message). At the end of the day it's your bet to make. I wouldn't use it for business practices but if you want to use it for personal use you can give it a go. Not all licenses definitely are offered illegally. Technically your key could get deactivated multiple times and your could re-purchase quite often before you'd be losing money, assuming each one would last a year at least. From a german legal POV I'm pretty sure as someone mentioned earlier that these type of offers are legit (ofc not the illegal use case) in so far as that the (avg. non tech savy) buyer can not (easily) tell whether the offer he purchases is illegal or not. Idealo is a legit price comparing site and if purchasing through it, it also states "100% safe purchase bla bla", TrustedShop.. That said only the person offering the keys would be at risk if these are indeed illegal keys, theoretically. Practically if they are selling illegal keys they are probably sitting somewhere safe heaven. To be honest I once also bought my Windows 7 Key from a site which later got shutdown for dubious activity. The key kept working forever. At the point of purchase I wasn't as aware of all this circumstances mentioned above and a teenager though. Just saying, as an end-user my license never stopped working
TL;DR: Your call. Private use probably okay (check with your country laws).
I kinda like systemd and pulseaudio.
hides
You can't run but you can hide.
You have to forgive him, he is from the 1980's and is probably doing cocaine like it is water.
I heard that Pulse became usable when Potterking stepped aside. Others had to fix it just so their Skype would work.
That can't be true, Skype has never worked on Linux. At least my friend keeps yelling that in anger.
If you do not renew the SPLA, then there is no agreement. And so it would not be reasonable that the host bare any responsibility or have any obligations at all. Must be down to the end user.
I saw it working once.
That isn't how Microsoft licensing works for server licenses in a DC. The end user can not obtain SPLA, the datacenter / hardware provider will need to provide the SPLA licenses as they are tied to the company providing the equipment if I recall correctly. So if your dream is to have no responsibility to Microsoft but allow end users to use their operating systems on your servers then your gonna have problems with that as that is not how SPLA works.
In all cases with SPLA they hold the provider of the hardware and services responsible for enforcing the license agreement on their network / in their DC. That is why it is called a 'Service Provider Licensing Agreement".
Cheers!
That seems absurd. If we have no agreement with MS and do not provide Windows to our clients, and the client installs the OS themselves, in what universe does the host bear responsibility for their client's actions?
Then they would need to buy full retail licensing and / or work out Licensing them selves with Microsoft before proceeding. Though normally in a DC setting this is handled by the DC / provider as it is MUCH cheaper to license through SPLA Than through fully licensing servers.
All that said, I will default back to what @qps and @Clouvider said to begin with, if you are really concerned about this, you should contact your Microsoft representative for your business and discuss this with them directly. Only then will you fully understand the licensing terms and how they are handled for your business, your customers and even in your locality.
Cheers!
We currently have an SPLA and this is how our clients, for the most part, obtain their licenses. But like with almost every other service of which we are technically resellers (any kindof recurring license and domains), it just seems not worth the effort. Need to calculate if things actually cost more to run than the generate in revnue. If not, will either have to drop it or raise prices on those items until it makes financial sense.
But this is a simple calculation. I don't see any issues here.
Numbers of cores * price per core * 1.X = $end Customer price
X being your profit margin on the license.
Chuck into WHMCS / whatever you're using and be done with it?
Perhaps even generate a product report and see how many cores you've sold per SKU and do some auto-reporting from there?
You don't want to try to go through the Microsoft audit, deployed at your expense, in accordance with the contract, to save a few $, not worth it.
I dont want to deal with any 3rd party licenses at all. Wont be subject to an audit without an agreement in place. Ergo, no costs incurred if we just stop offering MS licenses.
Its never as easy in the real world as planned.
That was under TempleOS, not Linux.
Now I remember...
It must have been TempleOS 12.04.
EDIT2:
I mean Xubuntu.
That would probably have been Losethos, so you are forgiven.
The thing is Linux iso is sometimes very dangerous. You need to do the same shit every time you reinstall your pc. By using eBay license you got only valid serial number. There is no harm can be done by a bunch of number and string.
Also I prefer to pay stranger $5 than and be done with it, rather than having to find Linux iso, go to shady website, download Linux Iso, and God knows what that iso contains.
Using ISO from MS website, and using MS Serial makes your life much more simple. As long as the law doesn't say it's illegal, why should we give a fuck what MS says. Nobody above the law, including MS.
Erm, there were cases in court across Europe, where people using unreasonably cheap licenses from doubtious sources / like eBay for $5, were found to be at fault.
So no, it’s not Microsoft who is somehow above the law, it’s you who know you’re pounding stolen software knowingly to try to game the system.
Yeah, those shady Linux isos with provided hashes hosted on major CDNs and universities around the world. Super shady.
Or did I miss that that post was meant to be a bizzaro joke?