On 3/15/2010 4:44 AM, R.S. wrote:
This is good moment to praise one vendor: IBM! IBM does not use any codes.
I have mixed feelings about that. When maintaining software, that's great, but as a stockholder I can't wonder how much money IBM loses due to that policy. I expect that it sends lawyers after bigger violators, and ignores the really tiny fish, but how much misuse is there at smaller companies?
In the nineties I worked as a consultant for a small ISV, to update their key codes, which then were based on the full CPU id, and their policy was simple - if a customer called with a problem, a timed key was issued on the spot - good for any CPU for one month. That was enough time to resolve any other code issues. And they also had "perpetual" licenses tied to the CPU id, that had no date dependencies. Again, sometimes an annoyance, but minor compared to some problems I encountered with other products.
Gerhard Postpischil Bradford, VT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
