The CICS Betas released over the last few releases (I believe betas were/are available for 4.2, 5.1 & 5.2) have built in expiry dates. IBM states that the betas "Contain a disabling device that will prevent it from being used after the test period ends".
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/htp/cics/openbeta/ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2014 10:36 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Ever see "automatic" 30-day trials for mainframe software? It is common in the PC world for software to be offered for a 30-day trial that works "automatically." You download the software, install it, and it somehow "knows" when it was installed and quits 30 days later unless purchased. Typically, it "knows" by hiding some magic file or registry entry somewhere that has the original install date. On the mainframe side, I don't think I've ever seen an "automatic" 30-day trial, largely because "magic hidden files" are of course greatly frowned upon in this space. Mainframe 30-day trials in my experience require vendor administration to generate some sort of "30-day key." Obviously, there would be advantages to a vendor if they could offer a freely-downloadable trial of mainframe software that expired "automatically." No one is going to install mainframe software on a whim, but eliminating the administrative burden of issuing a "30-day key" has a distinct advantage. (Please, let's for the sake of argument not digress into the "are keys good or bad?" debate. For certain mainframe software, keys are here to stay, like it or not, and that's a different topic.) Has anyone ever seen mainframe software that automatically "expired" 30 days after installation? If so, any rough idea how that worked? (Presumably, not a magic hidden file LOL.) Thanks, Charles ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
