For the first time, Microsoft will offer user-based Windows licenses to enterprises, a change one expert called “substantial” but another downplayed as unlikely to have much of an impact.

Neither believed that the changes would herald Windows-by-subscription any time soon, even though Microsoft licenses its “rent-not-buy” Office 365 by the user, not by each device.

“This is the first time that Microsoft has introduced ‘user’ with Windows from a basic licensing terminology basis,” said Daryl Ullman, co-founder and chief consulting officer of Emerset Consulting Group, a firm that specializes in helping companies negotiate software licensing deals. “So in that regard, this is a substantial change.

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