🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <050820031439310655%ercole@olivario.org>,
 Ercole Olivario <ercole@olivario.org> wrote:

>In article <avi-BC4D7C.13270405082003@news-50.giganews.com>, Avi
>Drissman <avi@drissman.com> wrote:
>
>> > The product will run in evaluation mode until you apply a permanent 
>> > license 
>> > key for the targets you need.
>> 
>> Man. As much as it wouldn't affect me (I've always paid and never 
>> shared), I still don't like activation.
>> 
>> Avi
>
>But without nice, solid license key protection mechanisms in place,
>Metrowerks profits have certainly suffered due to rampant piracy. 

An interesting statement, but one I find hard to believe. What evidence 
is there for this?

Personally, I would have guessed that the biggest hits were:
- Apple including usable free tools with MacOS X
- Metrowerks upgrades being less crucial over time. This is primarily 
because C/C++ has matured, but may also be because of ongoing problems 
(such as the debugger problems mentioned here; not MW's fault, but it 
makes the product harder to use and upgrade less compelling)

Compilers aren't an obvious thing to pirate, at least not compared to 
music, games, etc.. Even compared to word processors, spreadsheets and 
the like. I would guess that the vast majority of developers trying to 
sell software would stay legal. Both because who understand better the 
importance of buying software and because it's easy to tell what 
compiler generated a program.

If so, the main problem would be occasional hobbyists. Some of them may 
be opportunistic, but if you make CW harder to get they'll just use gnu 
C and Apple's tools and what have you gained?

Ease of access (lack of copy protection) works both ways. More folks 
will see the product and some might try it and buy it while others will 
buy only if they must. But there's no "must" here when there's a free 
alternative.

I fear a death spiral if Metrowerks adds any copy protection (beyond the 
usual benign serial # that doesn't try to check for other copies 
running). It will make CodeWarrior even less appealing compared to 
Apple's tools.

I really wish you luck. It's painful to see a good company struggling. 
What could be more important than development tools? Yet trying to make 
money in that business seems quite difficult.

-- Russell

P.S. I upgraded faithfully through CW 6, then stopped. The one C/C++ 
program I maintain uses 3rd party drivers that still only run on MacOS 
9. I mostly program in Python these days and am very relieved not to 
have to do more with C++ -- yecch!