Msdn Enterprise Subscription
MSDN has earnestly offered a subscription package were major developers have access and terms to use nearly all the Microsoft applications that have ever been released to the public. Msdn Enterprise Subscriptions are sold on an annual basis, and cost up to $10,939USD per year per subscription or more, as it is available in several levels. Holders of such subscriptions (except the lowest library-only levels) receive new Microsoft software on DVDs or via downloads every few weeks or months. The software generally comes on specially marked MSDN discs, but contains the identical retail or volume-license software as it is released to the public. The Ultimate Subscription is the Msdn Enterprise Subscription, it also costs the most.
There are several places you can get cheaper MSDN Enterprise Subscriptions, you just need to use google to find them !
The software functions exactly the same as the full product but the MSDN end-user agreement stops use of the software in a business or corporate inviroment. This is a legal stoppage regardless of the technical one. An example is, that MSDN sometimes includes the latest windows os, ( such as XP and VISTA ) server software such as SQL server 2005 dev tools such as Visual studio, and software such as Microsoft office and mappoint.
A business caught with an office full of PC’s and servers running the software included in an MSDN subscription without the appropriate non-MSDN licenses for those machines would be treated no differently in a compliance audit than if the software were pirated off the Internet.
Microsoft’s MSDN license agreement makes a specific exception for Microsoft Office, allowing the subscription holder to personally use it for business purposes without needing a separate license – but only with the “MSDN Enterprise Subscription” and even so only “directly related to the design, development and test and/or documentation of software projects” as stated in the MSDN licensing faq. As would be expected, any software created with the development tools (like Visual Studio), along with the run time components needed to use it, isn’t restricted in any way by Microsoft either – such software can and regularly is used for business production purposes. The license agreement refers to several other items in the subscription and grants additional similar exceptions as appropriate.
