Microsoft has announced the retirement of the TechNet Subscriptions service

[psyko666]

Microsoft has announced the retirement of the TechNet Subscriptions service

Microsoft will continue to honor all existing TechNet Subscriptions. Subscribers with active accounts may continue to access program benefits until their current subscription period concludes.

IT professionals who would like to purchase a new TechNet Subscription or renew an existing subscription may do so through August 31, 2013. Subscribers may activate purchased subscriptions through September 30, 2013.

Microsoft remains committed to providing IT professionals with access to the resources and technical assets they need to learn about, evaluate, and deploy Microsoft technologies, including those listed in the grid below.

More background on the retirement decision and implications for current subscribers is available in the TechNet Subscriptions FAQ.

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/nl-nl/subscriptions/ms772428.aspx

[Beamslider]

LOL they got tired of it being abused....They have been tightening down on it for the past couple years.

[DKT27]

Seems that it basically comes down to this:

Why did Microsoft make the decision to retire the TechNet Subscriptions service?
As IT trends and business dynamics have evolved, so has Microsoft’s set of offerings for IT professionals who are looking to learn, evaluate and deploy Microsoft technologies and services. In recent years, we have seen a usage shift from paid to free evaluation experiences and resources. As a result, Microsoft has decided to retire the TechNet Subscriptions service and will discontinue sales on August 31, 2013.

Microsoft will focus on growing and improving our free offerings for IT professionals, including evaluation resources through the TechNet Evaluation Center, expert-led learning through the Microsoft Virtual Academy, and community-moderated technical support through the TechNet Forums.

Improved Free Offerings for IT Professionals Include:

• TechNet Evaluation Center: Free evaluation software with no feature limits, available for 30-180 days. Includes rich evaluation resources and TechNet Virtual Labs, which enable you to evaluate software without the need to install bits locally.
• Microsoft Virtual Academy: Free online learning site, with over 200 expert-led technical training courses across more than 15 Microsoft technologies with more added weekly.
• TechNet Forums: Free online forums where IT professionals can ask technical questions and receive rapid responses from members of the community.

[stylemessiah]

Yep, it was getting hammered by every man and his dog.

In general i think they have also become less interested in "partnerships" with IT professionals. To me they have turned into a company that dictates how their products are to be used, you only have to look at Windows 8 and server 2013. They refused to listen to reason for over a year about the GUI alone.....

[Ramjade]

Which means no more untouched windows iso to download?

[Beamslider]

Don't think Microsoft is doing away with digital river so there will still be untouched downloads.....There is always MSDN as well.

[stylemessiah]

Don't think Microsoft is doing away with digital river so there will still be untouched downloads.....There is always MSDN as well.

Lol, yes, MDL will still be relevant for DR/MSDN downloads :)