brand@janus.uucp (Graham Brand) (08/11/88)
Dear Net Gurus, Would someone give me the technical reason why some single user software cannot be used as is on a network of 2+ PC's. Put another way, if I have invested many $ in the usual software: 1-2-3, dBase3+, Microsoft Word, Autocad etc, and I have now decided to add a couple of extra machines and connect them on a network, will I have to upgrade to the "network" versions of these programs or can I use them as is? Obviously, I could run them separately on each machine but there would be little reason for having them on a network!! Cheers, -Graham Brand (brand@janus.berkeley.edu, etc...)
simcha@humming.UUCP (Simcha Lerner) (08/12/88)
In article <25577@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> brand@janus.UUCP (Graham Brand) writes: >Dear Net Gurus, > > Would someone give me the technical reason why some single >user software cannot be used as is on a network of 2+ PC's. >Cheers, >-Graham Brand (brand@janus.berkeley.edu, etc...) First, there is a strong LEGAL reason that one can not run a single _copy_ of a program over the net - it is (crudely) referred to as theft. Since you requested a technical reason :-), here's a few to try on: Many programs create temp files in the executable's directory. If multiple users run the program, they will clobber each other. An example of this is word processor overflow files. Additionally, there are some very obvious problems that result if multiple users try to use the same data files at the same time. The results range from one user loosing his modifications (eg: two users use a wp to update the same document) up to the entire data file being totally trashed (eg: two users use the same database file in a single user database). Hope this sheds some light on why one has both legal and technical reasons for purchasing network versions of one's software. Simcha Lerner harvard!humming!simcha ^^^^^^^ not through bbn All opinions are my own - but you're welcome to share them.
leonard@bucket.UUCP (Leonard Erickson) (08/15/88)
In article <25577@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> brand@janus.UUCP (Graham Brand) writes:
< Would someone give me the technical reason why some single
<user software cannot be used as is on a network of 2+ PC's. Put
<another way, if I have invested many $ in the usual software: 1-2-3,
<dBase3+, Microsoft Word, Autocad etc, and I have now decided to add
<a couple of extra machines and connect them on a network, will I have
<to upgrade to the "network" versions of these programs or can I use
<them as is? Obviously, I could run them separately on each machine
<but there would be little reason for having them on a network!!
Well, to start with, programs like Lotus don't *have* a LAN version.
This is a major pain as each user must have his own copy of the program
in a seperate directory. Why? Because the program has configuration files
and drivers. The config files are user specific. The driver files are
machine specific. And the program expects to find both in the directory
that Lotus is run from. And they have to have specific names. So only
one user can use that directory at a time (and we have to copy the appropriate
drivers into it when he logs on the LAN)
dBase does have a (barely adequate) LAN version. Without it, you can't have
more than one user accessing a file at the same time. And even with it, doing
so is a pain. But the standalone version didn't need to worry about file and
record locking. Multi-user programs are not easy to write. I'm doing so at
the moment and the hassles iinvolved in being able to update a record in a file
while keeping that file available for reading by other users are not trivial!
--
Leonard Erickson ...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."