Licence and activation

Andy, Blair,

First I would like to say that I find Dolphin to be a great product, and
thak you for the amount of work and talent you have devoted to it. If you
find my view to open or harsh, please attribute it to my interest in your
product, not bad intentions.

With that beeing said, I must say I am concerned with a new licence, and
restrictions that it brings. As it has been pointed out, the change in the
licence conditions is big one, it has been switched from "per developer" to
"per machine".

When I buy licence for develper product I expect to be able to use it at my
will, and the machines I choose. Even more I do not want to depend on
Softeare producer to bless me while I change my development machine. You can
have a few days internet black-out which can stop me from working. Or you
could even go out of bussines, rendering my licence worthless.

Moreover, I use physical machines for development (basically wherever I put
my hat), and even more virtual machinse inside VMware used for testing under
various OS versions and environments. I do not think this is hurtinhg your
bussiness, it is not like as if I have installed Office that anyone that
sits on that machine will be using. Population of smalltalk programmers is
so small, that chances for another smalltalk programmer working on this
machine and abusing my licence are small. On the other hand if I can not
freely install Dolphin on machines I personally use, it's value for me is
much smaller.

While it is your right to set up conditions for your licence, I do not find
developer products with such licences acceptable, and try to avoid such
products whenever possible. Before today, I was certain that I would
purchase new D5, but I am not completely certain any more.

With all that beeing said, I would like you to think once more about the
licence. I truly believe that current change is Loose-Loose variant, we (the
customers) are going to loose since the licence is too restricting for what
we are doing, and you the provider will loose since you are about to
alienate your customer base. And what is worst I do not see any big pluses
for OA. You could harvest some financial gain in the short term, but in the
longer run, people will turn to the products with more acceptable licence
terms. (and I think that gains if any should be more tributed to the quality
of the D5 than to the improved efficiency of new licence).

You have a great product, loyal customers, and please do not spoil it with
unwise licence change. You should be wiser than using MS tactics of
alienating customers.

Once again, please take my words as well intended.

Davorin Rusevljan

Hi Andy and Blair,

Even though the machine licence isn't really an issue for me (now that I
finally have a reliable laptop - touch wood), I do second most of the
opinions and concerns being raised by my fellow beta-testers.

I can imagine that contractors run out of the 5-machine limit fairly quickly
and the image copy issue raised by Bill could cause significant problems as
well.

I guess you must have a strong suspicion of people breaching the licence to
have put all this effort in changing to a machine licence. If that is the
case I find it sad that people would make serious use of your very
reasonable priced products, especially knowing that they can get a 30-day
trial for free or D4VE for free with my book. I would think that that gives
people enough opportunity to 'give it a serious try' and if they then find
themselves addicted, they should just buy their own licence.

Now about the new activation scheme, which is of course related to the
machine dependency, but to be honest I find it not the slickest. After
downloading and installing the product I want to get on with it. I find it
reasonable that I require an unlock key, but having to rely on your site
being live and me being able to access the web 'does me head-in' as they say
here in Yorkshire.

I hope we've given you enough ammunition to reconsider the licensing scheme.

Ted


"rush" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:[hidden email]... to
> "per machine".
>
> When I buy licence for develper product I expect to be able to use it at
my
> will, and the machines I choose. Even more I do not want to depend on
> Softeare producer to bless me while I change my development machine. You
can
> have a few days internet black-out which can stop me from working. Or you
> could even go out of bussines, rendering my licence worthless.
>
> Moreover, I use physical machines for development (basically wherever I
put
> my hat), and even more virtual machinse inside VMware used for testing
under
> various OS versions and environments. I do not think this is hurtinhg your
> bussiness, it is not like as if I have installed Office that anyone that
> sits on that machine will be using. Population of smalltalk programmers is
> so small, that chances for another smalltalk programmer working on this
> machine and abusing my licence are small. On the other hand if I can not
> freely install Dolphin on machines I personally use, it's value for me is
> much smaller.
>
> While it is your right to set up conditions for your licence, I do not
find
> developer products with such licences acceptable, and try to avoid such
> products whenever possible. Before today, I was certain that I would
> purchase new D5, but I am not completely certain any more.
>
> With all that beeing said, I would like you to think once more about the
> licence. I truly believe that current change is Loose-Loose variant, we
(the
> customers) are going to loose since the licence is too restricting for
what
> we are doing, and you the provider will loose since you are about to
> alienate your customer base. And what is worst I do not see any big pluses
> for OA. You could harvest some financial gain in the short term, but in
the
> longer run, people will turn to the products with more acceptable licence
> terms. (and I think that gains if any should be more tributed to the
quality