(PeteCresswell) wrote:

Per VanguardLH:
MSDN subscriptions:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy.aspx

An MSDN subscription will start you at around $700. You think that is a
good-value purchase for just 6 licenses of Windows 7 that alone would
cost $400? Like volume licenses, all installations from an MSDN license
are to be distributed within the same organization that has the MSDN
subscription.

Actually, I'm partial to the MSDN route because I like to fool
around and I'm assuming it includes a *lot* of stuff in terms of
development environments and servers as well as MS Office.

If you look at the MSDN subscription page to which I linked, you'll see
that you only get the operating systems in the $700 package. The
toolkits, SDKs, and driver kits are available separately as free
downloads. Yeah, they're included in the OS-only MSDN subscription but
they also available separately and are free.

Sounds like it's either retail copies or MSDN for my particular
situation. (all the PCs are in the family - albeit not under the
same roof)

For 6 family hosts, getting two 3-pack OEM products at newegg for $400
each (for $800 total) would be more expensive than the MSDN OS-only
subscription at $700 (for the first year; renewals cost $500). You get
to continue using the software after the subscription expires (i.e., you
only buy the subscription for 1 year and then drop it); however, read
below on the conditions under which you are permitted to use the
software provided with that subscription!

MSDN subscriptions are used by those that develop and demonstrate their
software using Microsoft's products. It is for use in test environments
on development hosts. It is NOT supposed to be used for production
hosts (which what your family members have). When a software
development company buys an MSDN license that's because they are
producing software that uses those Microsoft products. They ARE a
software developer. A company that merely wants to provide Windows
workstations to their employees do NOT buy an MSDN license (since they
aren't developers) but have to buy a *volume* license.

Read:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/cc150618.aspx

If everyone in your family are programmers and are producing programs
that operate using Microsoft's products then the MSDN subscription will
work. I really doubt that's what your family does.

MSDN = MicroSoft *DEVELOPER* Network

Are all your family members actually developers producing, distributing,
and possible selling MS-based programs? Your family doesn't qualify for
MSDN licensing. It appears that not even you qualify for it.