gore@eecs.nwu.edu (Jacob Gore) (10/29/88)
/ comp.sys.next / jdsb@occrsh.ATT.COM (John_Babcock) / Oct 28, 1988 / >[...] could you require >an id code be placed on each optidisk in order for the machine to >accept it? My thought is that you would specify your name when you >buy your disks and your name would be encoded on the disk. [...] >This would solve > >1. All your software that you validate is tied to your name, not > the hardware. > >2. You CAN copy your software between your OWN disks (backups). > >3. You cannot? mass produce the software for others. Hmmm... OK, suppose I want to use a lab of NeXTs to teach a course that uses Ada. I can get this great Ada compiler, that takes advantage of Mach to distribute Ada tasks among CPUs. Nice compiler. Quite worth the $8,000 dollars (educational price :-) it costs. Now, I'd rather find a site-license arrangement, but faced with the choice of having to buy a compiler for each of 10 workstation once and having to buy one for each of 50 students every quarter... Your suggestion is OK for individuals, but not for communities. Jacob Gore Gore@EECS.NWU.Edu Northwestern Univ., EECS Dept. {oddjob,gargoyle,att}!nucsrl!gore