At registration, the DDC attendees got a bag of stuff.  Included in the bag was a copy of the most recent issue of The NT Insider and (among a ton of other things) a CD box containing a "promotional copy" of Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, complete with a license key on the back.

At the end of the conference, if you took the time to fill out the long, multi-page, green conference feedback form, you got a box containing a Windows XP x64 Edition "Commemerative CD", also complete with a license key on the back.

Ever cynical, most of the folks here at OSR chucked away or ignored the box with the Server CD.  "Obviously a limited-time, evaluation-only, copy," said one of my colleagues.  "Duh! You think Microsoft is gonna just throw a free copy of Server in everyone's bag?  Look how much work they made you do filling out that form to get a copy of XP x64 Edition.  Get a clue, will you?" said another (you can probably guess who this was).

I wasn't brought-up to just throw good stuff out. So, I actually took the Server x64 disc and the XP X64 disc and tossed them, one at a time, into the CD drive on my test box and booted the system.  And, guess what?

The Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition is a full retail copy, worth about a thousand bucks retail.

The XP x64 Edition disk that you only got if you were a good boy or girl and filled-in your feedback forms?  That's a 360-day evaluation copy!  If it was a full copy, it'd be worth $160 retail.

See!?  It pays to check these things out.  Sometimes you get a very pleasant surpise.

Thanks Microsoft for such a nice gift!!