Microsoft softens limits on its Windows Web Server

When Microsoft starts shipping Windows Web Server 2008 real soon now, the licensing terms and conditions it will require of its customers will be different than they were for prior versions of the company's Web-server version of the product.

Customers will be able to use any type of database software, with no limit on the number of users, with the Web-server SKU based on Windows Server 2008, according to Microsoft. CRN first reported the change in the database-licensing terms for Windows Web Server 2008.

With the Windows Server 2003 Web Edition product, Microsoft customers were not allowed to use the product with "non-enterprise database engine software, such as Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine, licensed to support not more than 25 users at one time," a company spokeswoman said on January 4.

(Just a reminder: Microsoft is phasing out support for SQL Server Desktop Engine, a k a MSDE.)

Like the Windows Server 2003 Web Edition product, the forthcoming Windows Web Server 2008 product does not require any Client Access Licenses (CALs), as do other SKUs of Microsoft's Windows Server.

I wonder with which other "non-enterprise databases" Microsoft is expecting customers to use Windows Web Server 2008. (Can you say MySQL?)  Other candidates?