jarij@tukki.jyu.fi (Jari Junikka) (04/10/90)
We are considering purchasing DECstation 5000. The sales person completely "forgot" to tell as about LMF. I would appreciete any information concerning how the system (fails) works in practise? How expensive it is to get licenses which in practise do not hinder system/program development? Jari (junikka@math.wisc.edu)
kaiser@cheese.enet.dec.com (04/10/90)
In article <4074@tukki.jyu.fi>, jarij@tukki.jyu.fi (Jari Junikka) writes... >I would appreciete any information concerning how >the system (fails) works in practise? How expensive it is >to get licenses which in practise do not hinder system/program >development? Is everyone clear that license management has no affect whatever on software YOU create? LMF is there for the system management side only of licensed products. This won't be adequately cross-referenced, but yesterday someone posted a note that pointed out, accurately, that LMF enables us (and other parties) to begin distributing Ultrix layered software on CDROM. Here's how it works for VMS, where we've been doing it for a while: there's something called "Consolidated Distribution" (CONDIST) which is a set of CDROMs, now two disks, containing the operating system and all our LMF-compliant layered products for VMS. A subscriber gets the distribution like clockwork (right!?) every two months; whenever a new set is made, everything that's on the shelf ready to go gets put on the CDROM. So subscribers always have this nifty, tiny little package of CDROMs containing (1.3GB?) of software that's guaranteed to be no more than two months old. Suppose you now want to use the software. You make a phone call and use your credit card or some approved method (I'm not a sales type -- ask them) to get a license key, and you can install the SW and license and run it immediately, rather than waiting for it to ship, etc. And of course you have the documentation already, on the Bookreader CDROM. No sweat. This also applies to temporary loans of products, of course, since a license can be set up to cover a limited period. Want to try COBOL (something of infinite interest to everyone in this group)? Great; here's a one-month license free. The crucial enabling technologies are LMF and CDROMs. CDROMs make it possible to ship enormous quantities of stuff cheaply, safely, and securely; and LMF makes it safe for the beancounters and capitalism. Besides my Unix systems I manage a VMS cluster -- perhaps I'm being punished for sins in an earlier life. And since I'm the guy who's always handled LMF on the cluster and the Unix systems, it's never been any problem at all. There was a complaint from someone that it was difficult; I've never found that to be true. (He said that the previous system manager had screwed things up before he had to take over. This seems to me a broader system management/personnel issue not limited to LMF, so why make LMF take the rap? My preceding system manager left things pretty disorganized too!) But to repeat: LMF doesn't apply to anything YOU do. Unless, of course, you want it to. And in that case you're probably talking to us already. ---Pete kaiser@cheese.enet.dec.com +1 508 480 4345 (machine: +1 617 641 3450)
michaud@decvax.dec.com (Jeff Michaud) (04/11/90)
> We are considering purchasing DECstation 5000. > The sales person completely "forgot" to tell > as about LMF. Remember LMF is new for V4.0, and V4.0 has only just been announced, the sales person probably hasn't heard of LMF yet either :-). Also, the only products to initially use LMF are ULTRIX User Upgrades and DECnet-ULTRIX. /--------------------------------------------------------------\ |Jeff Michaud michaud@decwrl.dec.com michaud@decvax.dec.com| |DECnet-ULTRIX #include <standard/disclaimer.h> | \--------------------------------------------------------------/