How does MSDN Professional differ from and MS Action Pack?

[Mark Gambo]

How does MSDN Professional subscription differ from and MS Action Pack subscription? I am currently an Action pack subscriber but I want to know if it is worth the money to upgrade.

Mark

[mendhak]

I hadn't heard of it before, but I did find this article

http://www.petri.co.il/ms_action_pack_subscription.htm

So it's most likely meant for you to do your own work, but you don't get multiple-install licenses for it as you would with MSDN. Further reading tells me that it's essentially a cheaper version of MSDN and very restricted.

What can you do with it?
As well as limiting who can subscribe to the Action Pack, there are restrictions as to what the software provided can be used for. The detailed terms set these limits out as follows: "The licenses are provided for use at your primary business location only and must be used only for your internal business purposes, application development and testing. The licenses are NOT intended for employee personal use at home, for hosting customer's applications, or for installation at a customer site and may NOT be resold, transferred, or assigned to any third party."

However, the general introduction to the license agreement is somewhat wider, referring to: "internal business needs as well as evaluation, demonstration, testing, and education".

Frankly, I don't see how you can live with this.

[RobDog888]

I used to have the Action Pack subscription. Its basically the same thing but you get less. The operating systems come with 10 installation licenses (5 numbers activatable 2 times each). Eitherway, both subscriptions are for internal use, non-public use for testing, development and learning/increasing your skills on the newer technology.

[szlamany]

I also used to have Action Pack - it was truly inexpensive compared to MSDN subscription.

I believe that led to a Small Business Partner arrangement I have with MS - although I'm really not too sure if that is really where it came from.

That partner arrangement has given me offers of advertising breaks and other co-ad ventures - none of which I have actually used though.