
AWS Free Usage Tier now Includes Microsoft Windows on EC2 - jeffbarr
http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/01/aws-free-usage-tier-now-includes-microsoft-windows-on-ec2.html
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daniel_levine
Another option for devs seeking free .NET on AWS is AppHarbor
(<https://appharbor.com/>) (YC W11) which has a free plan and also provides
great deployment, build, add-on etc support.

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fierarul
I'm always a bit irritated when I see that companies provide new customers
dreamy offers but the old customers get nothing (and are effectively
subsidizing that).

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ridruejo
If you already qualified for the free tier, you will still be able to have
access to it, so it is not only for new customers but also for existing
customers that qualified

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espo
The free tier is only for new customers. If you've been using AWS for years,
you will not get this offer to test a Windows-server in the cloud.

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ridruejo
If you already qualified for the free tier, meaning that you are already
enjoying it because you signed within the last year, then it still applies to
you. So it also applies to existing customers (who qualify for the free tier)

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rbanffy
I think what fierarul means is that old customers, who have been using AWS for
years, don't qualify for free tier while their money is being used to pay for
it.

I am not sure it makes me happy either.

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ridruejo
I know what fierarul means, he is the one that did not understand my comment.
As an aside, I find it kind of funny that people would feel "irritated" by a
move like this. The end goal of this for Amazon is to eventually get more
customers in the paying tiers, which in turn will lead to them lowering their
costs and passing those savings to all users (like they have been doing
consistently). I, for one, think it is a great way of promoting EC2 and an
alternative to, say, spending that money on Google ads.

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rbanffy
I completely understand why Amazon is doing it and it's certainly their cloud
to promote as they see fit. In fact, I am not sure why Microsoft doesn't do
that with Azure.

In any case, I am a bit sad I no longer apply to the free tier.

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PaulWaldman
Azure does have a free 3 month trial. <http://www.windowsazure.com/en-
us/pricing/free-trial/>

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nhoss2
_Along with 750 instance hours of Windows Server 2008 R2 per month, the Free
Usage Tier also provides another 750 instance hours to run Linux (also on a
t1.micro)_

Does that mean you can run two t1.micro servers concurrently?

Edit: yes it does - <http://aws.amazon.com/free>

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Seth_Kriticos
Only one instance is free, and only for the evaluation period (1 year I
think). You can buy more / bigger instances and do as you please though.

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Hrvoje
Does anything stops me from creating new Amazon account after one year and
copying all data to new free instance?

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wiradikusuma
Remember that you need to provide credit card information, and they're pretty
smart to check that "you already have an account".

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shibboleth
Ethics aside, I've had no issue when creating an alternate account with the
same CC info.

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CarlHoerberg
last time i tried windows in micro instances it wasn't usable. just to
download and install all windows updates on the first boot took something like
6 hours due to the heavy cpu throttling (something that took a couple of
minutes on a small instance). but maybe it's fixed now?

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nilsbunger
The way to do this is start the image as a small or large instance, apply all
patches, install SW, then restart it as a Micro. When you need to install
something again, restart the server as a larger instance type first. It's a
pain.

The Micro instance is actually _very_ fast for 5-10 seconds of CPU time, but
is artificially throttled to _very_ slow (like <5% CPU) after you use a few
seconds of CPU.

I'm curious how people use Micro Instances in production, b/c you have to
manage the CPU time very carefully, and the machine becomes unusable if you
exceed it.

I've been able to use it as an interactive windows or linux shell in the
cloud, but not much else.

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vnuk
Although they've increased free tier EBS limit to 30 GB, all windows images
have root images of exactly 30 GB. So if you're planning (like me) to use both
windows and linux instances in free tier you have to either install windows
from installation media snapshot (on a EBS volume which is smaller than 30 GB)
or pay for overage on EBS storage ...

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ridruejo
At $0.10 / Gb, it is cheaper to pay the extra storage than go through the
trouble of installing from scratch

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vnuk
You're probably right, but this is kind of fine print that isn't really
visible (especially to new users) so it is important to put it in plain
sight...

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FreshCode
This is great news for .NET devs. Any good tutorials on setting up an ASP.NET
MVC application to run on a free micro-instance?

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Natsu
Will this do?

[https://aws.amazon.com/articles/3592?_encoding=UTF8&jive...](https://aws.amazon.com/articles/3592?_encoding=UTF8&jiveRedirect=1)

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donavanm
Wonder if the FreeBSD 9 AMI on a "windows" t1.micro is also free tier?
<http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/>

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cperciva
It should qualify, yes.

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fool
I wonder if MSFT is subsidizing the cost? Either way it seems that market
economics has now dictated that server operating systems are free as in beer.

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tnuc
I doubt MSFT would subsidize the cost, they are competing with Azure.

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corin_
Think about how they make money from Android while competiting with Windows
Phone. They're clever enough to realise you can make money from multiple
angles.

