From: d. collins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > So you're ready to take the risk of not being able to reinstall your > copy of Finale and making changes in any of your files. I'm not. >
Ah, but you have no choice. Even without authentication you are very much subject to that risk. This is the onerous catch-22 we live with in the computer world, and it is one of the reasons I long ago gave up on the fight against authentication as jousting at windmills. The problem is that as computers change, your non-authenticated version of Finale eventually will no longer work. For Mac users this is effectively already the case. For Windows users the day is coming. If it isn't 64-bit Windows, it will be Longhorn. If it isn't Longhorn, it will be some future post-Longhorn version. If it isn't those, it will be some driver change, or some midi or audio interface change. Does the 16-bit WinFin 2.x version still run on Windows XP? Can you even install it on your current computer? (It was distributed on diskettes that must have been sitting on a shelf for at least a decade. Do they still work, even if you have a drive that will read them?) The fact is, the originally planned changes for Longhorn could possibly have caused a substantial percentage of software obsolescence as compared with that MacOS X caused for MacOS Classic users. So which happens first? Does MM vanish or does your next computer no longer run your old version? One or the other (or both) is going to happen. There is no escape, and authentication is merely one additional risk factor. A migration path is essential. And expect not to be able to edit your files after 10-15 years in any case, at least not without signficant rework. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
