SharePoint Designer Licensing Changes

I thought I would take a moment to address the licensing changes that were recently announced for SharePoint Designer 2007.

As of April 1, 2009 SharePoint Designer became a free download for SharePoint customers. The reasoning behind this change is outlined in an Open Letter to Customers that you can view here.

Microsoft realizes that customers who have Software Assurance on SharePoint Designer will question the value of their investment and to that end, those customer gain upgrade rights to Microsoft Expression Web for the period of their SA coverage.

Expression Web is Microsoft’s tool for empowering Web Designers to deliver modern, dynamic and interactive web sites. In future versions, it will be deliver that same value for SharePoint Sites.

For more in depth information on these changes you should take a look at the following resources:

• Open Letter to Customers outlining the changes
• Frequently Asked Questions regarding the changes
• Video interview with Tom Rizzo discussing the changes future roadmap (linked here and embedded below).

My personal feeling is that this is a very positive direction that has the potential to bring together the great capabilities delivered by SharePoint and the entire Expression suite of tools.