Microsoft Action Pack - what can it actually be used for?

[Willie Trombone]

Reading that, I struggle to figure out where action pack licenses are legal to use.
Does anyone know? Why would anyone sign up with such restrictive license terms?

 

[Corelli]

You have to be a developer, product specialist or so

Reading that, I struggle to figure out where action pack licenses are legal to use.
Does anyone know? Why would anyone sign up with such restrictive license terms?

You have to be a Microsoft Certified Developer or Product Specialist and subscribe to this. Then they will send you action packs to use. Basically if you develop Windows Apps its great if you need to do integration without having to buy all the Applications. You can install various instances fully licensed when testing. If you leave them, your licenses will be cancelled.

 

[Venomous]

Is this the first time you've seen anything related to an action pack?


The licenses you may use to improve your business.
They remain valid for as long as you pay the renewal.
MS offers better support should you need help.
You will get access to the latest software as they develop/release it.

If you had bought it in the XP days you would have licences for windows and office products to date.

 

[Venomous]

You have to be a Microsoft Certified Developer and subscribe to this.

Nope.

I am not, nor have I ever been one of those.

I sell, repair, service, offer network support etc, etc, etc, etc.


These licences come in handy, as they are often relesed early, thus allowing you to become more familiar with products before clients need assistance regarding any.


It must be noted that MS has often refused a licence in the past, as they give only to candidates they feel meet with their (ever changing) criteria.

 

[Willie Trombone]

I've been an MSDN premium subscriber in the past, I'm now with a much smaller team.
How would you say the Action pack differs from the MSDN sub?

It's pretty confusing - I get that it can't be used for direct revenue generation - I read that as I can't host client's software on an Azure instance licensed under the action pack. I can, however, develop the entire system on the action pack? I mean, what defines direct revenue - if I'm developing software and billing the client, can I use the action pack licenses for that? Can I send mail to the client using Outlook 2016 licensed under the action pack?

Lastly, it comes with 5x Office 365 E3 subs (enterprise). That's great for us now, I'll use our existing domain for the outlook mailboxes, but what happens when we add number 6. Can I add a single Office 365 business essentials license for that one user, or do I have to pay for an enterprise license because of the action pack?