Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Multi-device, sure, but RDS? that's what I don't know.
It is just a device. There is nothing special about RDS.
But there is... You need a proplus plan to deploy to RDS. MS doesn't say which plans are proplus, aside from the obvious proplus, which doesn't include any services like email.
ProPlus includes Acess, I'm pretty sure. So if Business Premium doesn't include Access, it's not ProPlus - that's my guess anyway... and one of the things that lead me to believe that you had to have E3 or better.
I just looked Access does appear to be part of BP.
Unfortunately, BP is not considered ProPlus, as my attempt to use shared activation and it prohibiting me from doing so, led me to posting.
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I found this, the poster says what @wrx7m just said - BP is not ProPlus, therefore you don't get shared activation, therefore you can't use it on RDS or in any of the situations the OP has.
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I am contacting our VAR for our ERP to see if we can use Open Office or Libre Office. I might do the same in the conference rooms now, too; we are now using Slack instead of SFB/Teams, so that need is no longer there.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
And MS's own posting
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-applications-service-description/office-applications-service-description
It's funny that they list perpetual/VL options for shared computer activation. Those are licensed by device, so you don't need shared computer activation. It is irrelevant.
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@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have O365 ProPlus or E3 or higher.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have E3 or higher.
That chart you linked to in the previous post doesn't list E3 or higher in that matrix. Did you see something that shows E3 or higher will allow shared computer activation/are considered proplus plans?
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VAR replied saying our ERP only supports Microsoft office products. So, I can probably get away with Open or Libre in the conf rooms. I am still wondering if the RDS will work, despite what they say.
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@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have E3 or higher.
That chart you linked to in the previous post doesn't list E3 or higher in that matrix. Did you see something that shows E3 or higher will allow shared computer activation/are considered proplus plans?
I didn't look for a link - I know we've talked about it before here and E3 definitely qualifies... I know once upon a time it didn't but that was changed a few years ago.
I did find a link talking about Microsoft 365 (not O365, but M365) does support shared activation.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-365-Business-Blog/Shared-Computer-Activation-for-Office-in-Microsoft-365-Business/ba-p/472994 -
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
VAR replied saying our ERP only supports Microsoft office products. So, I can probably get away with Open or Libre in the conf rooms. I am still wondering if the RDS will work, despite what they say.
Well, you could try creating a hard link between excel.exe and the OO sheets.exe (assuming that's it's filename) and assuming the passing of data is the same between excel and OO, then you should be good.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have E3 or higher.
That chart you linked to in the previous post doesn't list E3 or higher in that matrix. Did you see something that shows E3 or higher will allow shared computer activation/are considered proplus plans?
I didn't look for a link - I know we've talked about it before here and E3 definitely qualifies... I know once upon a time it didn't but that was changed a few years ago.
I did find a link talking about Microsoft 365 (not O365, but M365) does support shared activation.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-365-Business-Blog/Shared-Computer-Activation-for-Office-in-Microsoft-365-Business/ba-p/472994Yeah MS 365 is a different animal. I think it is funny that MS office 365 chat team can't even answer the question. I am not surprised, though. Their licensing is so convoluted, it is ricockulous.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
VAR replied saying our ERP only supports Microsoft office products. So, I can probably get away with Open or Libre in the conf rooms. I am still wondering if the RDS will work, despite what they say.
Well, you could try creating a hard link between excel.exe and the OO sheets.exe (assuming that's it's filename) and assuming the passing of data is the same between excel and OO, then you should be good.
I am not entirely sure how deep the integration goes with Excel. In this case, it might only be looking for the default program to open it up after running the report.
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@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
VAR replied saying our ERP only supports Microsoft office products. So, I can probably get away with Open or Libre in the conf rooms. I am still wondering if the RDS will work, despite what they say.
Well, you could try creating a hard link between excel.exe and the OO sheets.exe (assuming that's it's filename) and assuming the passing of data is the same between excel and OO, then you should be good.
I am not entirely sure how deep the integration goes with Excel. In this case, it might only be looking for the default program to open it up after running the report.
Exactly... in that case, you change the default and bam it works.. again, assuming that OO accepts the data stream the same way that Excel does.
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It also just occurred to me that it may only be a "convenience" thing to view it in the RD session. They might not even need that and instead, access the report from a shared folder, directly from their laptop, which would have a license.
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The ERP's dependency might be actually be ACE, and not Excel itself
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920 -
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
The ERP's dependency might be actually be ACE, and not Excel itself
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920Hmm. I don't know about that. We don't have access installed on the ERP server or any of the other systems.
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@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
The ERP's dependency might be actually be ACE, and not Excel itself
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920Hmm. I don't know about that. We don't have access installed on the ERP server or any of the other systems.
It's a shared DLL, just installing Excel would install it on a system
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@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
The ERP's dependency might be actually be ACE, and not Excel itself
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920Hmm. I don't know about that. We don't have access installed on the ERP server or any of the other systems.
It's a shared DLL, just installing Excel would install it on a system
That's some pretty crappy software using that engine if that's the case.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
The ERP's dependency might be actually be ACE, and not Excel itself
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920Hmm. I don't know about that. We don't have access installed on the ERP server or any of the other systems.
It's a shared DLL, just installing Excel would install it on a system
That's some pretty crappy software using that engine if that's the case.
If they specifically want to create a feature which is an integration with Microsoft Excel, should they not use the tools provided by Microsoft to do so?
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@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@flaxking said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
The ERP's dependency might be actually be ACE, and not Excel itself
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920Hmm. I don't know about that. We don't have access installed on the ERP server or any of the other systems.
It's a shared DLL, just installing Excel would install it on a system
That's some pretty crappy software using that engine if that's the case.
If they specifically want to create a feature which is an integration with Microsoft Excel, should they not use the tools provided by Microsoft to do so?
Absolutely not. That's considered one of the biggest, most amateur and/or "don't care about users" programming blunders. It's one of the most common red flags for bad software. Calling it the "tools provided by Microsoft" makes it sound logical, but when you describe it as "tools provided by Microsoft that require the end users to purchase, maintain, support, and constant fix integration with a tertiary product", then it is clear why only a total idiot or truly uncaring developer would do it. And as it is the second most well known "total screw up" for software development inclusions, there is absolutely no viable excuse for a programmer doing it (the most well known is hard coding to SQL Server for no reason.)
This is one of the standard "free for developers, screws the customer" tools that is used as the industry wide example of how lazy developers are lured into making bad software in order to forcible funnel money into a vendor. And it raises the actual cost of the end product, while generally making it flaky and unstable. We make a fortune supporting software that works this way because the MS Office products deregister or have problems all of the time and it is impossible for the software makers to support it. It literally makes their software "not work" reliably.
It's also one of the most common examples of what huge blunders happen when developers get to make decisions without the insight and oversight of operations teams. Because using these tools is easy for the devs, at the cost of totally screwing the end users and operations teams.
