In the past, the answer to this question has been to purchase a copy or license from the NSIT Solution Center. Now there is now another option - the Microsoft Campus Agreement.
The Microsoft Campus Agreement is "a non-perpetual, annual license that is based upon the number of Faculty, Staff and Students that are currently enrolled/employed at the University of Chicago." This means that current Faculty, Staff, and Students of the University of Chicago can install and use the software purchased via the license agreement for 12 months from the date of purchase. At the end of the license agreement, the University can then renew the license agreement; if the University decides not to renew, then we must un-install the software and discontinue use.
Hold on a minute there! You get the RIGHT TO USE the software, WHILE YOU ARE a current Faculty, Staff or Student of the University. You do NOT own the license; that remains the property of the University of Chicago -- you simply are eligible to use the license while you are affiliated with the University.
Other than dealing with the inconvenience of not having your own personal copy of the CDs and manuals AND not being eligible for complimentary technical support from Microsoft, there are none - although I'm sure there will be those whose opinions will differ.
Due to recent changes made by Microsoft, you can only obtain media for the latest covered software products by purchasing them from the NSIT Solution Center. There are separate versions of the media for Departments and Students.
For more information, click on the Obtaining Software link on the left.
The NSIT Support Line (773 834-TECH) will be providing up-and-running installation
support for the software made available through the Microsoft Campus Agreement.
Individuals are NOT eligible for complimentary telephone support directly from Microsoft,
but you can certainly feel free to utilize whatever WWW-resources that Microsoft provides
as well as their for-pay offerings.
Faculty and Departments may purchase copies of the Office or Windows CD-ROM through the NSIT Solution Center for $25/ea using a Departmental Order form DP62 ONLY - no other forms of payment will be accepted. The CDs purchased from the Campus Computer Stores via this method will still remain the property of the University of Chicago, and must be surrendered upon request at the cessation of your relationship with the University. Faculty and Staff may not purchase their own individual copies of the Campus Agreement software unless the purchase is made using a Departmental Order form DP62; since the Campus Agreement software may only be used for work purposes only, this should not present a problem.
Students are eligible to purchase special "Student"
CDs from the NSIT Solution Center. These student CDs may contain
Microsoft Product Activation technology which limits the number of unique
installations that can be performed and also requires that the software be
activated by Microsoft within 30 days to continue use.
Students and Staff members still retain the option to purchase their own copy of the
"Shrink-Wrapped" Academic Edition, Full-Packaged-Product from the Campus
Computer Stores for the normal Academic price. The Academic Edition, Full-Packaged product
license becomes the property of the eligible individual who purchases it and may
be used for work and personal use - whereas the license being used through the
MS Campus Agreement always remains the property of the University of Chicago and
may only be used for work purposes.
No. The size and complexity of the Office Suites and the Operating Systems makes floppy disk distribution problematic at best. To be honest, do you really want to deal with an installation that requires inserting and removing 40-50 floppy disks over the course of about 3 hours?
No, only the CURRENT versions are available through the University of Chicago Microsoft Campus Agreement. If you wish to run current versions of these products, then you should upgrade your machine to meet the minimums, or acquire a new machine which will be able to run the software.
No, the Campus Agreement only provides us with Win-32 Operating System UPGRADE rights. You must already have a legally licensed Microsoft Operating System on your machine to upgrade to Windows XP or Windows Vista.
No, the Campus Agreement does not include any database software for the Macintosh. In fact, Microsoft no longer actively markets a database product for the Macintosh platform (FoxPro 2.6 was the last database product that was released by Microsoft for the Mac). The main Database product that Microsoft develops - Access - is currently only available on Windows. FileMaker Pro is probably your best option for a Mac database at this time; contact the NSIT Solution Center for pricing and availability.
Yes, this is allowed as long as those individuals it is loaned to meet the current eligibility criteria.
Students are NOT permitted to loan/lend their copies of the Student Media. Each copy of Student Media has a unique Product Key through which Microsoft has implemented Product Activation, which limits the number of possible installations using a particular key. In accordance with the Microsoft End-User License Agreement, student users may install a copy of Microsoft Office on a single computer, then install a second copy of Microsoft Office for their exclusive use on a portable computer. For other Campus Agreement software, student users may install a copy of the software on a single computer only. If a student were to lend/loan their copy of the Student Media, then they would find that no more installations are possible once the install limit has been reached and the associated activation has been performed. Student Media for Office 2004 for Mac OS X doesn't currently implement Product Activation, but will not allow two copies using the same Product Key to run simultaneously on the same network segment (this does not prohibit secondary use of Office 2004, since secondary use does not permit running both the primary and secondary copy simultaneously) - so sharing of media is also not permitted.
If you already have media for a specific product, you may use that for additional legal installations for eligible users. For some products - such as Office and Windows - you will find that Microsoft has implemented certain "features" which do not allow multiple installations to occur from the Shrink-Wrapped Academic Edition package. The Departmental versions of Office 2007 Enterprise, Office 2004 for Mac OS X and Windows XP Professional that we make available through the NSIT Solution Center do NOT have the multiple install "features", so these should be used for large scale deployments.
The product use rights for the software covered by the Microsoft Campus Agreement differ by product. Windows Operating System product use rights permit use on only one computer, so the student media limits the number of unique installations to ONE (reinstallation onto the same computer is permitted) for Windows XP Professional and Vista Ultimate upgrades. The usage terms for the Office products (Office 2007 Enterprise, Office 2004 for Mac OS X) permit a "secondary use", so the student media should allow TWO unique installations (NOTE: When Office is installed on a secondary computer, both installations can only be used for school-related purposes only - no personal use). The product use rights for the other Campus Agreement software only permit use on ONE computer, so the student media may only permit you to perform ONE installation.
The Microsoft Campus agreement includes Core CALs which include Windows Server CALs - however, it does NOT (and has never) explicitly included Terminal Server CALs. Used to be you could get around the need for purchasing Terminal Server CALs/tokens by using the "Desktop OS Equivalency" allowance in earlier Windows Terminal Server license versions - that allowance is gone as of Windows 2003 Server.
The Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services licensing terms permit Windows 2000/XP to access a Windows 2000 server using Terminal Services without a separate Terminal Services CAL. Since the University is covered under a Microsoft Campus Agreement, we essentially have the right to run Windows XP Professional (the latest 32-bit desktop version of Windows) OS on our desktops, so "Desktop OS Equivalency" is allowed from any machine that could be licensed to run Windows XP via the Campus Agreement to a Windows 2000 Server running Terminal Services, without purchasing a TS CAL/token. Microsoft has some information about this at Microsoft's page about Terminal Services Desktop OS equivalency.
However, this is changing effective with the Terminal Services in Windows Server 2003, but there is a grandfathering clause/transition that will allow us to use this "Desktop OS Equivalency" through 12/31/2005. See Microsoft's Word Document about the Terminal Services Transition Plan for more information about this.
If you need to obtain the TS tokens from the Microsoft clearinghouse please email licensing@uchicago.edu and we will provide you with the information needed to obtain these from Microsoft.
The Campus Agreement provides coverage for Office Professional on Mac OS X, which includes Virtual PC for Mac OS X. Virtual PC for Windows is NOT covered by our Campus Agreement, however Microsoft recently made Virtual PC 2007 for Windows a free download from their site, so you may obtain it directly from their site.
Due to the delay between the release of Office 2004 for Mac OS X Standard and Professional, we initially released just the Standard version back in August. The only difference between Office 2004 for Mac OS X Standard and Professional is the inclusion of Virtual PC for Mac OS X as a separate "Disk 2" in the Professional version. As of Winter Quarter 2005 we still had substantial quantities of Office 2004 for Mac OS X Standard media available and initially decided not to replicate Office 2004 for Mac OS X Professional media. At such time as our stock of Office 2004 for Mac OS X Standard runs out, we will then offer Office 2004 for Mac OS X Professional media.
Microsoft is NOT making separate student media for Virtual PC for Mac OS X available - we will only be offering Office 2004 for Mac OS X Professional media for students. Students who have already purchased a set of Office 2004 for Mac OS X Standard will be permitted to purchase a set of Office 2004 for Mac OS X Professional.
There are some limited Proofing Tools installed by each particular version of Office, however Microsoft makes available a more comprehensive set of Proofing Tools for Office 2003 for Windows that is *not* included in the Campus Agreement called "Proofing Tools for Office 2003". Departmental users can purchase licenses for Proofing Tools for Office 2003 via the University Academic Select Agreement through the NSIT Solution Center - the cost is approximately $20/license ($25/set of media) - licenses purchased via this method can only be installed on University-owned machines and not on student-owned or personally-owned machines. Students and Faculty/Staff wishing to use Proofing Tools for Office 2003 on their personally-owned machines, will need to purchase the boxed-version of Proofing Tools for Office 2003. In the past, Microsoft had only made the boxed-version of Proofing Tools for Office 2003 available directly from their www-site, but they appear to now offer it via other channels - including the NSIT Solution Center (who will special order this item on request, it may not always be in-stock). The cost for the boxed-version of Proofing Tools for Office 2003 is approximately $75.