jim (04/28/83)
To: All Apollo users of 3rd party software
I would like to know if anyone else out there is having trou-
ble finding 3rd party software for Apollo networks, not just for
individual workstations. We thought we would go with Apollo be-
cause they seem to have more 3rd party software support than any-
one else, especially in the interactive graphics area.
The Apollo's like many newer machines, provide the means for
the vendor software to check processor ids. Many software ven-
dors take "full" advantage of this PID check by selling an indi-
vidual copy of their software for each workstation. As long as
the workstation is used as a stand alone computer this marketing
policy works.
But, when one considers a large network of workstations
served by a common file server, the whole picture changes. I
thought the whole purpose of a file server was that various
workstations in the network could share a single software pack-
age. As it is, the file server has N copies of the software for
the N workstations allowed to use it. What a way to eat up disk
space, not to mention the software maintenance mess in all this.
Assuming you have only one or two copies of some vendor's
software to be shared by a number of people, what do you Apollo
users of the software do about this? Do your people time share
the workstations dedicated to various applications? How much can
you do remotely over the network if your workstation doesn't run
the required software? Have you secretly patched out the PID
checks so all can use it? Should I forget Apollo and buy SUNs
instead?
Jim Zaun, (Jim@NOSC)
...ucbvax!sdcsvax!noscvax!jimMishkin@YALE.ARPA (05/06/83)
From: Nathaniel Mishkin <Mishkin@YALE.ARPA>
From: harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!noscvax!jim @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Apollo software blues
Many software vendors take "full" advantage of this PID check by
selling an individual copy of their software for each workstation.
As long as the workstation is used as a stand alone computer this
marketing policy works.
But, when one considers a large network of workstations served
by a common file server, the whole picture changes...
Assuming you have only one or two copies of some vendor's software
to be shared by a number of people, what do you Apollo users of
the software do about this? Should I forget Apollo and buy SUNs
instead?
This sure is a problem. However unless you're assuming that SUN 3rd
party vendors are going to be inherently more generous than Apollo
3rd party vendors, I'm not sure why the problem should be a factor
in a Apollo vs. SUN purchase decision.
The 3rd party world is in a state of flux. Their "per-CPU" pricing
policy is not quite right for the new distributed world. Given that
(for all the reasons you cite) people are not going to be too keen
on being forced to use a particular workstation in order to run some
program, I suspect that if a vendor doesn't come up with a creative
solution to the problem, he may find a dearth of buyers.
I believe Apollo is working on system support for 3rd part vendors
to allow more flexible usage control. I don't know what can be
done to make things absolutely secure (from the vendor's position).
I suppose the point is just to raise the level of difficulty to
subvert "unauthorized" usage high enough to make tampering not
worth the effort.
-- Nat
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