Agreed, "licensing schemes that lock software to a particular host are a royal nuisance". Indeed, any mechanisms that are used to enforce licence terms are a pain both for the developer and the user.
But unfortunately software piracy continues to be a significant problem and one has to try to walk the fine line between protecting the fruits of one's labour and making the software too difficult to install/evaluate.
Another approach taken by some packages is to deposit hidden files or data in various places in the file system to be able to detect an attempt to run an eval on a machine that has already had an eval. Some people object more vehemently to such file system "pollution" than to software that is tied to a machine ID (be it IP number or node name).
And in the final analysis, the software is worth something (IMHO) and the eval is being offered free. The quid pro quo is we provide the eval (which is not crippled) at no charge, you identify yourself and your machine.
With that said, your point is a valid one and is something we consider every time we launch a new release of the software.
Thanks for your feedback. It will be circulated amongst those here who make the decisions.
We agree entirely with your comment "the ideal solution is to have no client components on the Windows boxes".
The approach you outline with Samba is one we are considering for a future release of the Faximum Messaging Server. Your proposal of using a web page to provide the fax addressing information is a good one and one we have thought of. The only problem is that it is a two-step process: (1) the user prints to the special Samba fax pseudo-printer and (2) the user hits the appropriate page on the fax server to provide the addressing information. And if the user forgets the second step his fax languishes on the fax server forever.
The approach we take with FMS is, IMHO, easier for the user.
The FMS Print Driver enables users to "print to fax" (in the same manner as your Samba approach) but then a dialog box pops up asking for the addressing information (name, company, fax number). This info is converted into an email address of the form (Person_Name/Company_Name/Phone_Number@fax.your.co m) and then MAPI is used to invoke your email client of choice with the above address already in the To: field and the TIFF produced by the FMS Print Driver already attached.
This requires almost the same amount of software on the client side as your Samba approach (i.e. FMS Print Driver as compared to a PostScript print driver) but has the added benefit of (a) doing the print-to-fax conversion on the client side so it can be previewed, and (b) popping up a dialog box so the user need not remember and manually invoke the second step of running a web browser to specify the addressing information.
The Faximum Messaging Server mentioned earlier in this thread handles DID under Linux. We do it using MultiTech modems and a special black box that converts the DID signals (and line levels) into DTMF and line levels equivalent to a POTS line. Although we support Dialogic/Gammalink fax boards under SCO, neither of the major fax board vendors support Linux yet and so that is not an option (unfortunately).
P.S. - OCR on fax resolution images (not to mention handwritten coversheets) is so hit and miss that it is probably not even worth trying. Manually routing faxes using a browser to view the fax (see our manual routing demo) is very speedy and much much more reliable.
Its architecture is a generation ahead of traditional Client/Server fax products. Rather than requiring its own proprietary client for Windows it utilises your existing email infrastructure. Received faxes are converted by FMS into email messages and delivered to the same inbox as your email messages. Outbound faxes are merely email messages addressed to (for example) Jane_Doe/ACME_Company/1-604-926-8182@fax.your.com
If you want to fax from something like Microsoft Word you can use the FMS Print Driver which allows you to "print to fax" which creates a TIFF file and uses MAPI to invoke your favourite email client with the TIFF file already attached.
Although FMS is commercial software it is free to individuals for personal non-commercial use and for organizational or commercial use it starts as low as $149 for a two-user licence ($1,295 for a 50-user licence). That compares very favourably with the commercial alternatives. And as for the "free" fax software out there, what is your time worth (witness the comments elsewhere about the challenges surrounding some of the "free" packages)?
Thank you for your tolerance of this commercial message and please visit http://www.faximum.com/fms/ for more details.
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But unfortunately software piracy continues to be a significant problem and one has to try to walk the fine line between protecting the fruits of one's labour and making the software too difficult to install/evaluate.
Another approach taken by some packages is to deposit hidden files or data in various places in the file system to be able to detect an attempt to run an eval on a machine that has already had an eval. Some people object more vehemently to such file system "pollution" than to software that is tied to a machine ID (be it IP number or node name).
And in the final analysis, the software is worth something (IMHO) and the eval is being offered free. The quid pro quo is we provide the eval (which is not crippled) at no charge, you identify yourself and your machine.
With that said, your point is a valid one and is something we consider every time we launch a new release of the software.
Thanks for your feedback. It will be circulated amongst those here who make the decisions.
The approach you outline with Samba is one we are considering for a future release of the Faximum Messaging Server. Your proposal of using a web page to provide the fax addressing information is a good one and one we have thought of. The only problem is that it is a two-step process: (1) the user prints to the special Samba fax pseudo-printer and (2) the user hits the appropriate page on the fax server to provide the addressing information. And if the user forgets the second step his fax languishes on the fax server forever.
The approach we take with FMS is, IMHO, easier for the user.
The FMS Print Driver enables users to "print to fax" (in the same manner as your Samba approach) but then a dialog box pops up asking for the addressing information (name, company, fax number). This info is converted into an email address of the form (Person_Name/Company_Name/Phone_Number@fax.your.co m) and then MAPI is used to invoke your email client of choice with the above address already in the To: field and the TIFF produced by the FMS Print Driver already attached.
This requires almost the same amount of software on the client side as your Samba approach (i.e. FMS Print Driver as compared to a PostScript print driver) but has the added benefit of (a) doing the print-to-fax conversion on the client side so it can be previewed, and (b) popping up a dialog box so the user need not remember and manually invoke the second step of running a web browser to specify the addressing information.
P.S. - OCR on fax resolution images (not to mention handwritten coversheets) is so hit and miss that it is probably not even worth trying. Manually routing faxes using a browser to view the fax (see our manual routing demo) is very speedy and much much more reliable.
If I might be so bold as to suggest you try our company's product: the Faximum Messaging Server (FMS).
Consider:
If you want to fax from something like Microsoft Word you can use the FMS Print Driver which allows you to "print to fax" which creates a TIFF file and uses MAPI to invoke your favourite email client with the TIFF file already attached.
Thank you for your tolerance of this commercial message and please visit http://www.faximum.com/fms/ for more details.