🚀 go-pugleaf

Tom O'Toole, ecf_stbo@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu, writes:

>I'm curious if anyone has explored the license implications of this.
[...]
>Software license costs
>with several vendors operating on this archaic 'tiered' approach are dwarfing
>the actual hardware costs of this tentative upgrade.

Interesting idea.

However, some products aren't just detached processes sitting out there, but
are activated all the time by users or as utilities (compilers, TELNET, etc.)
I suppose you could write a front-end which would bind your process
immediately prior to invoking the image, although that would become a pain
in the ***, assuming your vendor's legal staff would allow such a move.

Basically, the vendors are trying to charge you as if all of the users on
your system were using the application, and base their fees on how many
users could fit on that system.  Personal and per-use licenses are the
solution to this.

We got about $4K short of completely paying for a uVAX 3100 by licensing it
for various DEC products instead of putting them on our 6620.  All of our
programmers now use the 3100 instead of the 6620, which helps offload the
work from the main production system, too.

-Dan Wing, dwing@uh01.colorado.edu or wing_d@ucolmcc.bitnet (DGW11)
 Systems Administrator, University Hospital, Denver