“We found out when it’ll ship. Now we know what it’ll cost.
Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) during the past week has been briefing
customers and certain reseller partners on the pricing for its
Windows 2000 operating system SKUs, due to be available
commercially on Feb. 17, 2000.”
“While it’s not as complex as Active Directory, Microsoft’s
Windows 2000 pricing scheme offers many different price points for
the product, depending on volume and the platform from which
customers are upgrading.
Windows 2000 Professional, the client, will cost $219 as an
upgrade from previous Windows 95 and 98 clients, or $319 if it’s
not an upgrade. To migrate from Windows NT 4.0 Workstation to
Professional will cost $149… For Windows 2000 Server, a 10-user
version will cost $1,199 and a 25-user SKU will run $1,799.
Upgrading from older versions of NT or from Novell NetWare will
cost $599 or $899, for 10- and 25-user versions respectively.”
“As part of its Windows 2000 pricing changes, Microsoft is
‘clarifying’ its client access license (CAL) policy…
effective with Windows 2000, Microsoft will charge users a
per-user CAL fee if they authenticate against a Windows 2000 Server
or Advanced Server. For those who, instead, tend to run
multiple browsers against their Windows 2000 servers, Microsoft
will charge $1,999 for a new Internet Connector license, giving
them the ability to run an unlimited number of Internet
clients.”