🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug5.142818.19281@informix.com>
robertw@informix.com (Robert Weinberg) posted what Gary Greene wrote:

[discussion of scheme of networked applications deleted for brevity. 
lots of other stuff deleted too.]
> 
> My impression is that such network versions of applications are
> not common on the Mac.  It would help, at least in larger environments,
> if more Mac s/w publishers supported such schemes.


Well, the Mac does have the KeyServer, by Sassafrass Software
(keyserver@dartmouth.edu).  The users copy to their local machine a
modified copy of the application, made available on a central file
server.  Each time they try to launch this application, it checks with
the keyserver to check out a key. If a key is available, the
application launches, and the use of the application is logged.  That
key is not available to other users until the first user quits the
application.  If no key is available, the application will not launch. 
The user has the option to ask the keyserver to let them know when a
key becomes available (a notification alert).  The number of keys, of
course, is worked out in agreement between the software vendor and the
operator of the keyserver.  The keyserved applications will not launch
if they cannot communicate with the keyserver, so employees have no
incentive to take copies home.

tim.allen@dartmouth.edu  -- not connected with sassafrass, just a happy
user of keyserved applications.