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Dual-core Processors Challenge Licensing Models

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the breaking-the-norm dept.

ffub writes "Changes in hardware (such as dual-core processors and virtualisation) are making software licensing increasingly difficult for software firms. Companies still prefer the per-seat one-off license, while subscription models are favoured with software firms. But neither model reflects well the way software is used these days. The Economist looks at the situation and briefly touches on how Open Source could benefit from the muddle."

5 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe by BHearsum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe this will get rid of licensing models that are 'per cpu'. I've never understood the logic in charging per CPU, anyone care to explain? One computer, one license. Or even better, no licenses.

    1. Re:Maybe by inode_buddha · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I would bet that the "per CPU" license model dates back to a time when CPU's were much more expensive; it could reasonably be assumed that there would be many users using one CPU. In other words, the business model is a couple of decades behind the technology.

      --
      C|N>K
  2. Database Licensing and the Web by inmate · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This won't be the first time that licensing has faced such a crises.

    In the early days of the web, I worked on a web-based project which connected to a MS SQL-Server database. The licensing issue was very confusing since the information in the database would be made available to anyone who came to site (and we expected a few hundred regular users), but technically everything would be accessed by through only one account (the webserver!).

    I called the local MS office and they confirmed that we only need one licence for this model.
    Based on this information, we rewrote a major internal application to be entirely browser based - and then dropped all our seat licences bar one.

    Needless to say, MS had a absolute fit!

    About a year later we received an incredibly confusing document outlining license-requirements for internet and intranet applications.

    --
    --- blackironprison, where ignorance is bliss....
  3. Article mentions virtual servers by putko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had not thought about the problem of virtual servers.

    E.g. suppose I have a big-ass mainframe that emulates a few PCs, just to run Excel now and then (for legacy reasons). Once a month, we reconfigure the mainframe just for a batch job, so that some of its resources are used to simulate 10 PCs.

    How do you price that? A mainframe license? 10 separate PC licenses? What about the fact that I'm only doing it now and then, and not using it regularly (8-10 hours a day)?

    I just wish the article had used the term "price discrimination" -- that really explains it all.

    Q: How much does it cost?
    A: "How much ya got?"

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
  4. Robber Barons by forq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The software industry has gotten away with robbery for too long. Year over year they astound us with their skyrocketing costs, and as computing complexity goes up, they find more and more excuses to not deliver the support you're paying for. "We cannot support you because of X." X being any reason they can find. Upgrades, new hardware they don't have in their support matrix, virtualization. Whatever the reason, the very first order of business for those support folks when you call for help is to find a reason to not support you. And now they want more money. To pay the outsourced first level support folks that know all about how to determine if you're unsupportable, and nothing about how to support the products.

    Ridiculous.