Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials 64B 1-2CPU - Academic

[Perryg114]

Any reason I can't use the academic version of Server 2012 Essentials? What is the difference from standard Essentials? Does is require proof that you are an academic institution? Trying to find a replacement for WHS that does not cost $700. I can get this for around $300.

Perry

 

[Ketchup]

If you can download it and get a key, you are good. It is generally the same version it says it is. The MS EULA will probably stipulate limitations to an academic version, but that doesn't necessarily mean the software itself will be limited in any way.

 

[Perryg114]

THere is also an HP version out there that is supposed to be a full version not the academic version. I wonder if you can only use it on HP machines or something. Why is it called HP?

Perry

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Two years later, I found this thread in a search and was compelled to "re-animate" it like some corpse in a George Romero movie. But it asks the same question I've been asking again.

Of course -- we're all looking for price breaks when we're not spending money on software for business or commercial use. This is because we're not making money with a home-server and software used exclusively within the home and for the home.

So -- here we are. I have a WHS-2011 home server configuration on a Q6600 CPU, a Striker Extreme 680i motherboard, and some other parts that are much more current than those. The motherboard had been in storage and probably only has between 3 and 4 years on the odometer. The CPU was a "pull" from an OEM system, and I picked it up from an established reseller for comparative chump-change given the original price of the Q6600 when first released.

The server isn't "letting me down" in some way, but I plan on turning over hardware and OSes that are becoming dated or may lose support. So for more than a year, I've had a replacement on the back burner. And I think I found the Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials "Academic" on Amazon more than a year ago for maybe $280 -- certainly a saving over the regular Essentials box. And at that time, I had read forum discussions that would lead to an easy conclusion that academic pricing did not come with academic "enforcement." Pretty much, that's what I see in the older posts on this thread.

Soon, I will install and set up the server to EVENTUALLY replace WHS. I might have just chosen to buy the full-blown Server 2016 Essentials, and the outlay would be reasonable for a non-academic license despite WHS-2011 having cost me only $50 when I purchased it.

But 2012 R2 will do just fine. If I later replace it with 2016, I'll have plenty of time to save the additional change.

I just hope I don't have any regrets or drawbacks over this. I was once entitled to purchase academic licenses that were enforced or otherwise required to produce a school-ID photocopy. I'm not looking for an entitlement, but just a good price. People could argue "You don't need a server" or "buy or build yourself a NAS with a built-in OS function." What are we going to do? Stream movies and music throughout the house; back up workstations daily; store important files.