Licensing
Nancy Palmquist
Nancy.Palmquist at vss3.com
Mon Jun 23 09:30:41 PDT 2014
I fully agree with Mark and Mike.
The Unix world is comfortable with the window/seat relationship because
it is not the environment where people open piles of windows to jump
from one app to another, it never was. The systems were always one
session and one licenses.
But filePro went from no control or limit at all on Windows systems, to
the same kind of model with window/seat and the market for windows users
is totally different. I have many windows applications and none work on
that model it is always per seat. I can open multiple documents or
spreadsheets to work on at the same time. The Windows server only
tracks the user as using one session and not using different sessions
for each open filepro window. The expectation on Windows is totally
different by the end user.
I have always thought that the license model for Windows was not suited
to the Windows market at all.
The filePro application is a tool for handling data, it does not provide
the data or the development that makes the data work. For example, I
can buy Quickbooks that offers the runtime tool and the fully developed
application already developed and ready to roll for $199 (roughly). To
buy a single user filepro runtime license will will pay $295. That is
without any application development at all.
If I have a business with 50 employees that all need access to filepro,
I am paying $6,250 for each user to get one open window into filepro.
(They do offer those seats at $125 per user.) Now say the customer
gladly paid that thinking they were buying seats and now it is time to
upgrade them to 5.7 and we take a survey and find that on average our 50
employees open 80 windows plus we run automated processes that open 2
more and I have 82 windows at a cost of $10,250 or $4,000 more for using
the system exactly as we did in 5.0 but now the licensing is watching
windows and not seats. How do you explain the additional $4,000 cost to
a customer?
Now I have seen the annual pricing subscription that will give the
customer all future upgrade for at no charge, but did not think the
advancements in filepro are providing value for that additional cost,
all I get is the ability to budget my costs and pay for future upgrades
before any are released.
I also still see the entire license scheme as unworkable for a
distributed piece of software. Requiring a file to be collected and
saved to activate the license, instead of supplying an activation code
that can typed in to a screen is a huge issue for my customers in the
windows world.
Well - I have to stop now. I will rant on this all day. Sorry but this
had been a huge issue for my customers on Windows systems and I can not
see any good solution - except retire and be done with it.
Nancy
On 6/21/2014 4:02 PM, Fairlight wrote:
> That's the way it works. Each window eats a seat.
>
> And you're far from the only person thinking it. I can think of three
> major clients who would upgrade almost immediately if it weren't for the
> license manager bullshit - even figuring in the exhorbitant upgrade costs.
> The main thing keeping people on 5.0.14 is the licence manager, full stop.
>
> mark->
>
> On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 09:54:47AM -0400, Mike Fedkiw thus spoke:
>> So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's pretty much the windows that eat up licenses. If I have three separate Windows of filepro open on my computer I'm pretty much using three licenses running Windows server 03 or 08. If that's the way it works now, at least that would be an easier way for me to determine exactly or approximately how many licenses I'd need to purchase.
>>
>> If I'm wrong in what I'm thinking, I freaking give up, yet again. I wonder who else thinks that filepro could be loosing a hell of a lot more money than they're making by implementing this ridiculous licensing crap. It's kept me from updating for years now and still might. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>> On Jun 21, 2014, Fairlight <fairlite at fairlite.com> wrote:
>>> In the system case, in 5.7, no extra licenses are used. Pre-5.7, each
>>> uses
>>> a license seat.
>>>
>>> If you want to post to the list, you could hit reply and change the
>>> recipient to filepro-list at lists.celestial.com in your mail client.
>>>
>>> mark->
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 11:36:29PM -0400, Mike Fedkiw thus spoke:
>>>> Okay, I'm still confused here, what happens when I'm in dclerk and
>>> do a
>>>> system command to open another dclerk and then another and
>>> another.Â
>>>> I've written some processing where I could possibly be six levels
>>> deep
>>>> into those dclerks, does each of those commands eat up another
>>> license?
>>>> If that's the case, I could possibly need to buy up to or even
>>> more
>>>> than fifty licenses for six computers, that just seems ridiculous.
>>> It
>>>> can't really be like that, can it
>>>> The other thing is that I'm confused as how to reply to this so it
>>>> would get posted to the list. I'm thinking that only you are going
>>> to
>>>> see this reply.
>>>> Mike
>>>>
>>>> On Jun 20, 2014, Fairlight wrote:
>>>>
>>>> You must buy enough seats to cover every active "user". On a SCO
>>> text
>>>> console (but not Linux text consoles), all the main consoles count as
>>> one
>>>> seat. I -believe- FacetWin had some sort of arrangement that made
>>> Facet
>>>> akin to the SCO console that way...but on SCO, not Linux, if memory
>>> serves.
>>>> Other than that, every time you invoke clerk, cabe, report, ddefine,
>>> etc.,
>>>> you're eating a license. I don't think runmenu eats any, but could
>>> be
>>>> wrong.
>>>> About the only upside to 5.7.x is that a SYSTEM to a clerk or report
>>> no
>>>> longer takes another user seat from the license pool. Something
>>> which
>>>> should have been done back in 4.5, IMNSHO. Not for lack of begging,
>>>> bitching, moaning, and general complaining from the community for
>>> years.
>>>> Now they've "fixed" it, and
>>>> "nobody" (few) want to buy the new product with
>>>> its attendant license manager.
>>>> But except in very specific and rare instances, yes, every open
>>> instance is
>>>> a "user".
>>>> mark->
>>>> On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 09:38:05PM -0400, Mike Fedkiw thus spoke:
>>>>
>>>> I know this has probably been gone over multiple times by now, I
>>>> think I've actually seen it being talked about but it just
>>> seemed
>>>> confusing to me.
>>>> I'm still so confused as to what id actually have to buy to be
>>> able
>>>> to use the most current version of filepro.
>>>> I am pretty much the only one that uses the development but I'll
>>> at
>>>> times have 3-4 Windows of it open while working on something. My
>>> emp
>>>> loyees also usually have multiple Windows open on each terminal.
>>> Now
>>>> if I have to buy a license for every open window, even if it's
>>> on
>>>> the same machine, that's just ridiculous.
>>>> Let's see, at any given time there could possibly be 15+
>>> filepro's
>>>> running although I've only got 6 computers not counting the
>>> server
>>>> which is still on server 2003.
>>>> Any help would be greatly appreciated, Mike
>>>> -- Sent with K-@ Mail - the evolution of emailing.
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Nancy Palmquist
Owner
Virtual Software Systems - www.vss3.com
(412) 835-9417
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