

$50 AWS Credit for Microsoft Windows Server Instances on EC2 - kmfrk
http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/global-solution-providers/microsoft/aprilcredit/

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powertower
Does anyone have the details on how Amazon is licensing Windows Server / on
what terms?

Is the OS licensed to Amazon, to the customer, is this a custom licensing term
deal from Microsoft, am I supposed to provide the serial key, how is
activation handled, etc?

Is Amazon "renting" the OS? How is this possible?

The only thing I've been able to locate is this...

> Q. When I import a VM of Windows Server 2003 or 2008, who is responsible for
> supplying the operating system license?

> When you launch an imported VM using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008,
> you will be charged standard instance hour rates for Amazon EC2 running the
> appropriate Windows Server version, which includes the license to utilize
> that operating system within Amazon EC2. You are responsible for ensuring
> that all other installed software is properly licensed.

[http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#When_I_import_a_VM_of_Window...](http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#When_I_import_a_VM_of_Windows_Server_2003_or_2008,_who_is_responsible_for_supplying_the_operating_system_license)

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wmf
They do say "standard rates ... include the license". Amazon presumably gets
Windows licenses through SPLA. [http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/licensing-
options/spla-pr...](http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/licensing-options/spla-
program.aspx)

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benologist
This is awesome. It doesn't appear to require Windows though:

Amazon CloudFront, Elastic MapReduce, ElastiCache, Route 53, S3, EC2, SQS,
Simple EDI, VPC, AWS Data Transfer, SNS, DynamoDB, RDS, SES, AWS Elastic
Beanstalk, SimpleDB, and Simple Notification Service $50.00

~~~
yardie
_The $50 AWS Service Credit offer is limited to Amazon EC2 instances with
Microsoft Windows._

Looks like it is limited to Windows to me.

~~~
benologist
It says that but when it hit our account it listed all those other services
beside the credit...

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PaulHoule
That ain't bad, even used as directed.

If you've got some reason to run a desktop app in the cloud, setting up
Windows in EC2 and connecting to it with RDP is as easy as falling off a log
-- for Windows, MacOS and Linux clients.

You certainly can connect to a Linux X desktop in EC2 from any of those
platforms but it's much more trouble to set up, even on Linux.

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tillk
If Windows is not your game, you can use this credit to run FreeBSD on EC2:
<http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/>

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jamesu
Anyone know how far $50 worth of credit will go on a typical Windows Server
instance?

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option_greek
On demand small instance will cost you approx $83 per month on 100% usage. A
micro instance is free for new users. You can calculate most of the costs
using their calculator:

<http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html>

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option_greek
the url says aprilcredit.. do they give out these credits every month :)

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webwanderings
I haven't looked at the source details, but few months ago there was a
promotion for the whole year worth of free EC2 (Windows, Linux).

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crankyadmin
heh... you can't even pay me to use Windows. Nice.

~~~
Karunamon
I think you meant to go to slashdot instead of news.yc

