Microsoft expects me to buy a separate, full Windows license for each virtual machine I create, for each host machine I run it on.
Yes, that's what the license says.
In practice, what corporate VM users do is get MSDN licenses, which are assigned to the developer. I have one. It's basically a license to not worry about licensing: I can run as many copies of whatever I like, so long as it's "for testing and development purposes". I think there's a different volume licensing programme available if, god help you, you wanted to run a production datacentre on Windows.
Edit: this is obviously a big reason why Windows is never going anywhere in the cloud space outside of Azure.
Thanks. That's what I was afraid the answer would be.
The cheapest MSDN subscription (OS-only) is $699/yr. For that price I could buy about 6 copies of Windows 10 Home edition. Or 2 new laptops each with a Windows license included. Sheesh.
True, but I don't think anyone really buys an MSDN subscription just for installing a copy of Windows. I haven't looked into the actual licensing terms, but my MSDN subscription (not the cheapest version) only allows me to claim five license keys per Windows version through the UI. If you need six licenses just to make up the cost of the cheapest MSDN subscription, you're probably using your MSDN subscription incorrectly.
Generally if you have an MSDN subscription, you're using it for other products like Visual Studio, and the free copies of Windows are just for helping you get a development environment set up.
Yes, that's what the license says.
In practice, what corporate VM users do is get MSDN licenses, which are assigned to the developer. I have one. It's basically a license to not worry about licensing: I can run as many copies of whatever I like, so long as it's "for testing and development purposes". I think there's a different volume licensing programme available if, god help you, you wanted to run a production datacentre on Windows.
Edit: this is obviously a big reason why Windows is never going anywhere in the cloud space outside of Azure.