I think BizSpark is wonderful but let&#x27;s be honest here there are tons of technological strings attached, just no contractual ones...<p>- Azure credits: Get you tied in&#x2F;used to&#x2F;familiar with the platform and services. Sure, you can use just Linux VMs, but Microsoft pushes their integration services pretty heavily.<p>- Free SQL Server, Windows Server, and Visual Studio. Any of which you use in anger, you&#x27;re now somewhat tied into those respective platforms.<p>- Office 365: Just more generic Office-washing, so the assumption continues to be that Outlook&#x2F;Word&#x2F;Excel are the only offerings in the space.<p>Microsoft are just more subtle about it. That&#x27;s their style. Kind of like giving every school hugely discounted Office products, it might seem altruistic, but really it is to hook them into the Microsoft-way early.