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Comment by fierarul | Hacker News Reader

I'm always a bit irritated when I see that companies provide new customers dreamy offers but the old customers get nothing (and are effectively subsidizing that).

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This is especially fun when renting. After some negative experiences, I actually avoid complexes that offer too good of a sweetheart deal to new tenants because having to move out after a year because rent effectively went up 15-20% is no fun (even if all you have to do is move in the unit down the hall).

It's the same thing as cable and whatever else. I'm feel like I'm constantly canceling services and restarting them to get the better deals (when the threat to do so isn't good enough). If you're willing to go through the hassle of creating new amazon accounts, or whatever it may be, to get the perk, the others are subsidizing you.

If you already qualified for the free tier, you will still be able to have access to it, so it is not only for new customers but also for existing customers that qualified

The free tier is only for new customers. If you've been using AWS for years, you will not get this offer to test a Windows-server in the cloud.

If you already qualified for the free tier, meaning that you are already enjoying it because you signed within the last year, then it still applies to you. So it also applies to existing customers (who qualify for the free tier)

I think what fierarul means is that old customers, who have been using AWS for years, don't qualify for free tier while their money is being used to pay for it.

I am not sure it makes me happy either.

I know what fierarul means, he is the one that did not understand my comment. As an aside, I find it kind of funny that people would feel "irritated" by a move like this. The end goal of this for Amazon is to eventually get more customers in the paying tiers, which in turn will lead to them lowering their costs and passing those savings to all users (like they have been doing consistently). I, for one, think it is a great way of promoting EC2 and an alternative to, say, spending that money on Google ads.

I completely understand why Amazon is doing it and it's certainly their cloud to promote as they see fit. In fact, I am not sure why Microsoft doesn't do that with Azure.

In any case, I am a bit sad I no longer apply to the free tier.

Azure does have a free 3 month trial. http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/

Well, I am just being irritated a bit, it's not like I'm making plans to leave AWS.

It's the same feeling you have when you see your mobile provider has great offers, as long as you are a first time buyer or if you are switching providers. But existing users... not so much.

I know what the end goal is for Amazon, but in the mean time I've just paid last month about $250 to reserve an instance for an year while new users get two micro instances for free.

Last time I was at an AWS event they encouraged existing customers to create a new account to use the free tier.

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