Activation--The final frontier

Thanks for the encouraging note, Matt.

Just so long as a viable method exists that doesn't "dump" SolidWorks
when essentially using it in the middle of nowhere, so to speak.

I expect to always run registered legal software, but I have sure had
my headaches with registrations over time. Registered floppy disks
were the worst. I have one niggling piece of software that has decided
I did not do the registration right, and I still have yet to get it to
run.

Bo

 

Chris,

Your right on,, this won't affect pirated copies in Russia and the far east
at all. In fact, they've probably already cracked it.

All it does is make more administrative problems for the legal users. PC
hardware (even the best) is far from perfect, stuff breaks all the time.
This will affect our ability to recover from hardware failures quickly.
Which ultimately means even a higher cost of ownership. I can remember when
SW was very economical to administrate and use. Not true anymore.


Mark

 

Are you kidding? There were cracks for Solidworks 2007 posted on Usenet
before it was officially released. It'd be interesting to find out how the
crackers are getting their hands on the software before the VARs do.

--
Black Dragon

Rush Limbaugh's 35 Undeniable Truths of Life:

(20) There is a God.

-- "The Limbaugh Letter," Copyright 1992, EFM Publishing, Inc.

 

I think everyone should read the FAQ. I don't like it. But it isn't
totally evil either. It just doesn't benefit the customer but rather
puts them in a box. We have been asking for the ability to save in
older versions for years and this is pretty much the answer. Using
technology to defeat a belief system almost never works. That is what
SW is up against. China is communist. What's yours is mine and I'm
going to take it. And so it goes. Oops, am I being politcally incorrect?

 

It won't take long for pirates to crack...if they haven't already. Just
look here.

http://blog.wired.com/music/#1546765

 

Good to know. We'll have to attempt a dry run - equipment always seems
to fail when you most need it and we need to KNOW that we can get back
up to speed as fast as we used to

That was my biggest concern. Stuff fails, and when it fails it always
seems to know to die when it can do the most harm (Murphy's law). I
would hate to have an intermittent loss of internet right when my
license was set to expire, but, if it is as you say (that it won't
matter - I can continue to work) that's great. If I'm swapping out
hardware and have to terminate then reinitiate to the new hardware, I
just better have that procedure documented so no mistakes are made
(talk about a potentially critical 'oops' in the heat of the moment)
Another problem I had with the 28 days thing was we have laptops that
sit inactive for at least that long, and we only boot them up when we
are on our way to a client or other situation for a presentation (often
with files on a thimb-key so there is never an internet hand-shake).
Imagine the embarassment (and cost) of making a trip only to have your
SWx not work. I hope this is correct, that our legitimate licenses
won't always be dying every 28 days, because in the heat of business...

Total agreement. I just hope that they have worked this out so it
won't present difficulties for honest users, because the bad guys
probably WILL find a way to tweak the system.

Thanks for sharing your experiences - I will have to give it a test
drive while 2007 is still irrelevent to out business.
Ed

 

Hang on a sec....if you can activate using a floppy, what stops you from
activating multiple machines with the same floppy?
.......unless it's like the "token" process that Siemens uses for some of its
PLC programming software, that moves a file off the floppy onto the pc, and
only puts it back there when you "release" the token.

John H

 

I'm a personal one seat owner. I don't always keep my subscription up
to date. What happens in say 2009, if I have to reactivate my seat of
2007? Will I be guaranteed the ability to activate? Somehow I doubt
it.

This is just another development of the fact that you "lease" and not
own the software. At any point if Concord decides that they don't
want you to use it anymore, then you are out of luck.

I guess I'm just a conspiracy theorist.
===========================================================================
Chris

 

The sad thing is that, at some point, it becomes easier to find a cracked
version then it is to jump through all the hoops to own legal software. Then
the pirates win and SW (and it's honest users) lose.

Muggs

 

Quite honestly, you guys are making far too much out of this. Activation
right now is only being used with 2 vars customers, one in eastern
Canada, and the other on the US west coast, if I remember right. Also
some non-north america places too.

I used it during beta and was very skeptical at first, but it worked
perfectly for me on both my work box and my home license box. There is a
30 day grace period, and I don't have to remember where I wrote the
registration code.

Transferring licenses was easy and effective.

Working detached from the network didn't cause a problem.

I know that posting here it sounds silly to not have some insane rant,
but that's what's up today. (May change tomorrow).

 

Chris: Nail on head! Forced maintenance = Bad.

It is even worse when the product offered for the maintenance fee is
still in development.

Unfortunately, the likes of UG, ProE, etal are going to "see the light"
(could read conspire) and magically all do the same thing, at...about
the same time.

When ever you enter a contract, and then the terms change from one time
open-ended user license, and you do NOT understand that the terms have
changed and your OS or your MSOffice or your SolidWorks automatically
stop working if you don't/can't keep supplying yearly fees, that will
be a show stopper.

There are a lot of small shops and individual designers and engineers
that get trapped in cash squeezes, not of their own making. Read the
business mags to see all the reasons, including getting scammed or
divorced, just to pick the two most likely.

Something tells me a lot of people have to think about keeping XP Pro &
Swks 2006 ready to run...just in case.

The number of "phone home" applications seems to be growing with MS
WGA, Sony DRM, Amazon's video player, and every danged one of them
seems to be causing a row with users. Why are the companies doing it?
When in doubt look at the $s. They figure they have to do the "Cable
Guy" route to get everyone on a monthly/yearly payment scheme FOREVER.

Am I just a bit paranoid? Does the value of "Open Format" now seem to
be more understandable as to why people are starting to recognize the
need for this?

Bo

 

Sorry Matt, you're (how's that Wayne?) right. But being the paranoid guy
that I am I want the switch in my hand not SW's. As an independant working
out of my basement, I can keep up with my maintenance so far, however at the
cost of MasterCam maintenance. I just can't afford $2600 a year to be able
to keep my software up to date.

Muggs

 

Noticed - thanks!

WT

 

C'mon guys, just read the FAQ:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/productactivation/FAQs-Activation.html

Activation won't stop piracy, nor will it hinder legitimate users - you
have an office and home use activation, providing you are the primary
user at work you can have a second copy at home or on a laptop as long
as they are both not in use at the same time.

Activation is a one-time thing, so no requirement to be connected to
the interweb. Those with dongles need to transfer electronically rather
than physically. Those without used to be able to install as many times
as they liked - so those of you unscrupulous in the US will come off
worse as you'll have to buy more seats - boohoo.

 

I've kind of worked on the fringe installing on two machines so that
while one was regenerating I could work on the other. Getting two
licenses to do this is a bummer. If the software had decent performance
this wouldn't be such an issue.

 

Hmm...that's interesting......is it against the rules for the same user
to run it on two computers at the same time? You can start two sessions
on one computer no problem...although if you are running on a network
license, it uses two licenses. Could always tell by looking at the
license manager and seeing someone's name listed twice. They either
crashed or Solidworks didn't shutdown correctly.

 

There are people who load it on an office computer and a laptop. Only
one instance is running at a time. I think I know one well known poster
who does that. Those with dongles have no problem with this, just
switch the dongle.

Using two network licenses on a single machine seems to also be against
the rules, but not on the user's part.

The EULA kind of flops back and forth between the number of users
versus licenses and loading SW into memory. This I think is the key
statement, "The Software is "in use" on a computer when it is loaded
into the temporary memory (i.e. RAM). The Software is "in use" on a
computer when it is loaded into the temporary memory (i.e. RAM)." This
seems to allow the kind of use mentioned here.

At any rate, activation would seem to preclude this kind of seemingly
legitimate use.

 

My thought is a single user should be able to run as many sessions on
different computers as he/she can. Since I was cad admin as well as
designer, I had two computers both with Solidworks installed. One was a
test machine but on occasion I used the test PC to do work while my
main box was crunching. They were on a network license and we had more
than enough licenses so no problem.

 

And we don't know what happens when a new release comes out. Can both a
new release and an old one be installed on the same machines and run
when activation comes around? As a consultant I would certainly want to
be able to run what my customer is running.

 

Top, this brings up a valid issue which applies just as realistically
for individual end users.

If you contract design work out, you may have a customer still running
SWks 2005, while others are on 2006, and yet 2007 is out and you are
trying it but don't want to start using it regularly until various bugs
are fixed. I also wonder about how far back a new SWks version can go
reading prior
SWks formats, as some CAD programs stop reading earlier versions at
some point.

I would hope as an end user that things stay as they are now, where I
have flexibility to meet the job needs.

I can see the issue of companies continually looking for ways to charge
more and lock in users more, but they have to be careful they don't
alienate their users. Competitors probably help maintain price
competitiveness, but they would all like to see maintenance pricing
rise, and that is what I suspect will happen. I hope it does not,
however.

Bo