Why is it piracy?

Windows Server 2022 and CALs are not a separate product or code base from Windows 11. Windows 11 is a limited use case of Windows 2022 under which you commit to not using the Server 2022 features. The instant you don't do that, you are using a stolen copy of Windows Server and you haven't just started using the server without a license (in production), but also without CALs. So the amount of piracy goes from what seems like a small "misuse of a product under a TOS" to intentional "federal piracy".

One would hope that someone in the veterinary field, having been required to get college educated, would not need a middle school education in following the rules. This isn't hard stuff, at all. Any receptionist could figure this out if they wanted to, that a doctor can't really makes me worried for the poor animals that they don't understand.

Basic ethics, basic English. Nothing technical here. It's a super simple contract that everyone, everywhere is aware of. Lots of people willing to pirate software, but that doesn't mean that they don't understand it.

@CCWTech said in Can you run a desktop OS as a server to run AVImark Veterinaty Software?:

Finally, the official Hardware Requirements for Avimark specifically mention using a Windows 10 PC (running Desktop Windows, not Server) as being acceptable for a smaller office. So are you suggesting that Avimark's own Hardware Requirements recommend an illegal act?

This is actually something we talk about in IT all the time... how vendors and software companies have no knowledge of, experience with, or responsibility to oversee your licensing and how it is totally the job of any adult to understand when you are talking to a professional or when you are talking to a random person.

Asking a software vendor what your contract with Microsoft says? Why would they know? That's like asking Ford the speed limit on a highway. The cops know the speed limit, Ford knows how to make the car go that fast. Ford isn't responsible for knowing or enforcing some town's speed limit.

Avimark answered honestly... IF you had a license that allowed you to use Windows 11 that way, it will work. They are responsible for the software aspect of that question, their answer has nothing to do with the IT side of things. And outside of the US, there are many countries (Bolivia, for example) where the TOS don't apply and it absolutely makes sense. So it's not a blanket "illegal" question of intentional software piracy.

@CCWTech said in Can you run a desktop OS as a server to run AVImark Veterinaty Software?:

then that would pretty clearly imply that you CAN use it for server purposes under 20 users. It literally has file sharing built in.

Yes, Microsoft TOS is clear that using it as a FILE SERVER is allowed. AviMark is a database, not a file server. So clear violation as it doesn't use the singular allowed method under the TOS.

@CCWTech said in Can you run a desktop OS as a server to run AVImark Veterinaty Software?:

Second, I don't believe that it violates the Windows 10 TOS. And, again, this is very commonly discussed among experts.

LOL, he seems to have a very loose definition of expert.

@CCWTech said in Can you run a desktop OS as a server to run AVImark Veterinaty Software?:

First, even if it was a Terms of Service violation, that would not make it illegal. TOSs are considered civil matters. It is not "illegal" to violate one. So, no, it isn't illegal.

Pirating software is theft. Theft is illegal. In an office like that, typically licensing would be above $10K so it isn't just illegal, it would constitute grand theft. Piracy is often taken as a federal matter, as well.

@Obsolesce said in Not much luck with Linux Distro's:

@scottalanmiller said in Not much luck with Linux Distro's:

The hardware is fantastic to the point that I put up with it and am thrilled with how well it works.

Yes definitely this.

At least it has improved. Twenty years ago I could not have made it work at all.

@AdamF said in COLO Switching & Power:

@scottalanmiller said in COLO Switching & Power:

How many switches do you anticipate needing in the colo?

I'm just looking 2 replace 2 at this point.

LOL, so it IS a small office switch anyway. You should be thinking of it the same way we think of a 15 person veterinary office at that size.

@AdamF said in COLO Switching & Power:

@scottalanmiller said in COLO Switching & Power:

@AdamF said in COLO Switching & Power:

@travisdh1 Thanks for that info. I've used HP switching before, but that was probably 15 years ago. I know Juniper is fantastic, and so is the price tag.

If my environment was really big, I might choose Juniper, for sure. For small, both our full CoLo deployments and our "might as well be colo" scenarios, we've found the Unifi system just gives us the visibility that we need.

I always thought of Unifi as "local small office" equipment. I even have Unifi in my local office. I've not even considered it in the past for full CoLo.

Their primary design is for ISP datacenters

How many switches do you anticipate needing in the colo?

@AdamF said in COLO Switching & Power:

@travisdh1 Thanks for that info. I've used HP switching before, but that was probably 15 years ago. I know Juniper is fantastic, and so is the price tag.

If my environment was really big, I might choose Juniper, for sure. For small, both our full CoLo deployments and our "might as well be colo" scenarios, we've found the Unifi system just gives us the visibility that we need.

@AdamF said in COLO Switching & Power:

For those of you that have workloads in a COLO facility, what are you all using for network switching? Ideally, I'd like to upgrade a network switch I have to a new switch with dual power supplies. (1 power supply goes to PDU 1 in the rack and the other goes to PDU2 in the rack) Any product recommendations for a 24 or 48 port managed switch with dual power supplies?

What products/solutions are you using for single corded equipment for power redundancy? An automatic transfer switch of some sort?

We used to use Ubiquiti EdgeSwitches in CoLo. Now we use their Unifi switches.

After scouring countless sites and articles, only thing that could fully read the drives was UFS Explorer. $700 later and many, many crashes, we are starting to have a reliable process of recovering the data. We have to use UFS Explorer and recover as raw disk images. Then attach those raw images to new VMs manually. Then do a Windows recover to each one.

@Obsolesce said in Not much luck with Linux Distro's:

@CCWTech gotcha.

Yeah I've been on Mac the last few months. Still trying to learn to like it, there's a lot of minor annoyances or quirks and quality of life differences that make it harder to get used to. I still prefer Ubuntu over MacOS for work, and Win11 strictly for personal use.

Two years on MacOS and my opinion is... it's nowhere near the polish of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is SO much better. Every little task is faster, easier and more obvious on Ubuntu. And everything looks better. MacOS is generally stable, but not completely.

The hardware is fantastic to the point that I put up with it and am thrilled with how well it works. I just wish Ubuntu ran on this hardware And that I could get Final Cut Pro on ubuntu.

@CCWTech said in Not much luck with Linux Distro's:

@Obsolesce said in Not much luck with Linux Distro's:

@CCWTech gotcha.

Yeah I've been on Mac the last few months. Still trying to learn to like it, there are a lot of minor annoyances or quirks and quality-of-life differences that make it harder to get used to. I still prefer Ubuntu over MacOS for work, and Win11 strictly for personal use.

Not sure what changed, and maybe I am speaking too soon, but after trying Nobara I reinstalled Fedora, and no crashes in 2 days...

Could just be that tehre is a new driver since then.

@scottalanmiller said in Practical RAID Decision Making:

The latest on the StorageCraft Blog from me: Practical RAID Decision Making. A whole lot less on the nitty, gritty details and a lot of practical, high level thinking to guide you to quick, simple decision making around spindle-based RAID levels.

I just found this link and discovered that ArcServe bought StorageCraft and removed my writing credits violating my author agreement!

For later when people find this...

https://mangolassi.it/topic/18166/windows-10-goes-to-sleep-outside-listed-sleep-times/53

@Dashrender nice

@JasGot said in Is the domain .Local a real problem in a private lan that has no public facing services?:

@scottalanmiller said in Is the domain .Local a real problem in a private lan that has no public facing services?:

Nothing in the Windows world uses it. Mac uses it, and some isolated Linux stuff. Really minor in most cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.local

That what I had read also. Thanks. They are keeping .local during the transition!

If it causes any problems (unlikely), there are workarounds too. It's never a show stopper.

@WLS-ITGuy Typically we use the time to rebuild. Any VM should, in theory, be quick and easy to rebuild. If it isn't, it's the perfect time to make it so.

If you absolutely have to convert rather than move through application migration, then there are disk conversation tools that change the format. There's very little needed for the migration.

@EddieJennings said in ZFS Pool Online but Cannot Import:

You may want to seek out Jim Salter's content concerning ZFS. This is the community he's started since leaving the ZFS subreddit.

https://discourse.practicalzfs.com/

Like everywhere else, not one single thing similar to this issue