[tech] Purchase of Windows Licenses for UCC

[Oscar Hermoso]

Hi tech@,

TL;DR: Windows keys are $13 each, we can only ever make 1 order, how many
should we buy?

Full explanation:

For a while now, we've been trying to get our hands on some more Windows
keys for the club. Rather than just buying the keys or trying to pinch them
from a CompSci studying fresher, we decided to register the club as a
charity and purchase them through TechSoup/ConnectingUp. Each key only
costs a small administration fee. We successfully applied for a charity
under the subcategory of Advancing Education and now we've hit a speedbump.

So Connecting Up (the international partner of TechSoup) has two offers;
1. Microsoft Windows Pro Full Operating System – Get Genuine
2. Microsoft Windows Operating System Upgrade

The first is $13, allows a computer with older versions of Windows,
counterfeit Windows, or Linux to be replaced with a Genuine version of
Windows Pro 10.
The other choice costs $21 and only allows for an upgrade from any genuine
version of Windows to Win 10 Pro. Naturally, we'd be purchasing the first
choice.

Problem: We may only make one "Get Genuine" order, ever. So we need to get
the number of keys right. UCC is trying to get a larger clubroom space,
maybe one day we'll have more than 5 Windows machines.

Also, there's two forms of key distribution.  Key Management Service (KMS)
or Multiple Activation Key (MAK). We have to choose one. This is actually
pretty simple though because the keys will only activate through KMS if we
have 25 Windows computers trying to authenticate using the KMS. Hence, our
only choice is the MAK. Unfortunate disadvantage of MAK: re-images will eat
away at our activation count and at some point, some poor sucker is going
to have to call up Microsoft and ask them to reset our count.

I think I've covered everything. Anyway, the reason that I'm sending this
email is so that someone else can let me know if I've done anything wrong
and also so I can get some opinions about how many Windows keys we should
purchase.

Kind regards,

[CHS]
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