This is actually very good news, suffice to say that a lot of the wierd rules and counts and inexplicable stupidity of the old system have now been removed, and that everybody starts over on a 2-year cycle as of July 27th.

http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community ... aspx?cg=sp

If you're a nonprofit, and you're paying for Microsoft software, bluntly you're doing something wrong without joining this program. Many of my clients are on it. This covers Office, operating systems, server and CALS, pretty much everything you want and pretty much dirt cheap or less.

This is good advice and I've used Tech Soup once in a while....

and they offer more than Microsoft products --e.g. you can also get programs from companies like Intuit and Symantec.

Anyone trying to use it for the first time should be aware that in some cases you're likely to swap quite a bit of your time to obtain some of the products they offer, and may have to download a copy, rather than get a CD that can be used to install the program..

Often all you can get an older version of a product at a decent price, but one which still can be quite usable.

Bob Heavenrich

It's become pretty typical for corporations to donate computers to nonprofits - but with a formatted hard drive, no operating system, no nothing. Replacing those is usually not cost effective at retail prices. Thanks, but....

With this program you can replace what most people want and need - a licensed copy of your operating system and a licensed copy of Office-whatever, usually for under (or way under) $50 per unit including media to go on those donated computers.

And its not just Microsoft. It's amazing what they have, including Cisco hardware. You need to check it out. I'd hope you all look at this like I was offering free boiler tubes!

TechSoup doesn't seem to offer plain Windows for a wiped PC. They only offer upgrades to Windows 7 from a "business-class" edition of an older Windows (98, XP Pro, Vista Business).

The only exception is the "Get Genuine" program, which works precisely ONCE - EVER. That is a one-shot "get legal" amnesty program intended for organizations who in the past have been pirating Windows by intent or negligence. Negligence as in, presuming a corporate-donated PC comes with a Windows license, or buying a cheapie PC at Walmart that has "Windows Home" on it. Can't use Windows Home in a nonprofit. Not that most people care, but I know this crowd is pretty conservative when it comes to copyright law, can't copy this 60 year old technical manual to help a museum, don't wanna see private-collection pictures put on the internet, etc.