I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

Oh woe, grave tidings in the geek world. TechNet is about to cease subscriptions. From ZDNet:

Microsoft to shut down TechNet subscription service
Good night, TechNet.

The online Technet blogs and customer support forums will live on, but Microsoft announced today in a letter to subscribers that it plans to retire its venerable TechNet subscriptions service. New subscriptions will no longer be available after August 31, 2013, and the subscription service will shut down as current subscribers' contracts end.

Microsoft has offered TechNet subscriptions for most of the modern Windows era, debuting in 1998 as a massive packet of CDs, and evolving into a download option as broadband connections became common.

The services have historically been one of the best deals around for frugal IT professionals and PC enthusiasts. For an annual subscription fee of a few hundred dollars, subscribers get the right to download virtually all of the desktop and server software Microsoft sells, with multiple product keys. The software is licensed for evaluation purposes only, but that restriction is part of the license agreement and not enforced in the software itself.

Yeah, it was wide open and a vehicle for many to commit theft but for the beginning geek, it was the chance to work with and learn advanced technologies. Microsoft's SQL Server retailed for around $3K at its most minimal configuration. Not a problem for an enterprise serving several hundred workstations with this application. Big problem for someone wanting to teach themselves how to manage it. I had a subscription until I moved up here. Still have many of the disks and product codes... Title? Come on -- A New Hope