Can someone, anyone, explain to me, how can Microsoft get away with *charging extra* for additional concurrent RDP sessions on a self-hosted instance of Windows Server?

And not only that, but apparently also charges extra once the box gets over a certain amount of system users, too.

As a Linux admin that's used to working in teams over SSH, it just completely baffles me.

It would be terrible if such a practice was in free software... But a system, that one already *pays* for to run?

Or did I understand something wrong from a colleague that claims that this is the reason why I can't get an account on one of our Windows Servers?

Dear @Aldar ignorance is bliss here. Just wait until you find out how the database licensing works. You pay for every user that even trough an application uses data stored in MS SQL. Not concurrent users but actual per client licenses. To have your app available over the internet (so you don't know the users) you need a specific license that allows unlimited clients. As you can guess this is not cheap. MS is relatively mild compared to the Oracle extortion.

I mean I don't have an issue with license models and paying for *good* software but when it is genuinely nearly impossible not to violate licensing or need 6 types of licenses just to have a client use an app I'm out.

We needed at least a day a year to validate whether we would still be compliant and we are not an MS shop. That's just for some basic internal administration and office stuff.

I thought they were unlimited? 🤔 Enlighten me

@AtuM that explains why everyone wants to be a partner.

As for oracle it is much worse than you can imagine. A few of their practices came out a few years back. They have gotten away with it due to clever court settlements.
So they literally change the licence conditions so companies violate them. Than they sue the those companies with outages high fines. Than the case gets settled for compared with the original fine a also on the wrist. So the client thinks they dodged a bullet. Along with the settlement they sign away any rights to discuss what happend. If they talk about it they go bankrupt.

Just look at what they did with JDK11. Perform an upgrade and you are fucked over by a different licence you never knew you agreed to.

@jkommeren its called Client access licenses(cal) and must be buyed for additional for the server licenses which are buyed per core.

@stop right 😝 booo

I loved how one could enable it with a simple hack in normal windows though 😁 though i guess not strictly legal, using a 7 digit code to get unlimited rdp cals is probably more illegal? 🥳

@jkommeren when you fake cal licenses ms is faster on your feet, than you can think. Their legal team is only beate by the oracle legal team. And both are highly profitable, especially when suing companies.