3 ms·

No. It's always interesting to me how music apps were the only ones adopting hardware copy protection wholeheartedly. Multi-thousand dollar scientific apps? nop

No. It's always interesting to me how music apps were the only ones adopting hardware copy protection wholeheartedly. Multi-thousand dollar scientific apps? nope. Music apps.

itsthejb 2y ago
That’s not surprising at all. I don’t about the scientific apps you’re talking about, but I assume that their user base would be accessing them through academic site licenses. Music apps, however, would be predominantly used by hobbyists, a few of which would later make it big. The problem was/is that the price tags assumed studio budgets. But if you wanted those studio sounds at home, well the price is a big challenge until you start making solid money. Which is even fewer
stonethrowaway 2y ago
Didn’t CAD automation software also adopt it? I remember MasterCam, SolidWorks and others needing hardware dongles. The market for that is tiny compared to music but, the money made basically guaranteed given adoption rates. Even today I think there are too few contenders to pose a significant market risk to these companies.
- aetherspawn 2y ago
  I think these have modernised, because SolidWorks now uses floating e-licenses for example. From a consumer perspective hardware dongles are mega-problematic right now because of the USB C vs USB A debacle on new laptops, and also because many AVs now block USB devices by default and require ITS admin to unblock it. From a distributor perspective, they require shipping physical product to customers which reduces margins and can take weeks, especially-so when you talk about shipping from overseas.
- oakmad 2y ago
  They did. I worked in a technical college in the 90s and Autodesk and others were huge fans of the single plugged into the serial port. Was a huge problem not only daisy chaining them all together but also they would get stolen if not secured. We’d ribbon cable them back inside the case where’d there would be a many inches of dongle precariously joined. Fond memories.
- NikkiA 2y ago
  CAD/CAM has mostly been FlexLM protected for as long as I remember. Flex used a hardware dongle for a while, but then moved away from it.

No. It's always interesting to me how music apps were the only ones adopting hardware copy protection wholeheartedly. Multi-thousand dollar scientific apps? nope. Music apps.

itsthejb 2y ago

That’s not surprising at all. I don’t about the scientific apps you’re talking about, but I assume that their user base would be accessing them through academic site licenses. Music apps, however, would be predominantly used by hobbyists, a few of which would later make it big. The problem was/is that the price tags assumed studio budgets. But if you wanted those studio sounds at home, well the price is a big challenge until you start making solid money. Which is even fewer

stonethrowaway 2y ago

Didn’t CAD automation software also adopt it? I remember MasterCam, SolidWorks and others needing hardware dongles. The market for that is tiny compared to music but, the money made basically guaranteed given adoption rates. Even today I think there are too few contenders to pose a significant market risk to these companies.

aetherspawn 2y ago
I think these have modernised, because SolidWorks now uses floating e-licenses for example. From a consumer perspective hardware dongles are mega-problematic right now because of the USB C vs USB A debacle on new laptops, and also because many AVs now block USB devices by default and require ITS admin to unblock it. From a distributor perspective, they require shipping physical product to customers which reduces margins and can take weeks, especially-so when you talk about shipping from overseas.
oakmad 2y ago
They did. I worked in a technical college in the 90s and Autodesk and others were huge fans of the single plugged into the serial port. Was a huge problem not only daisy chaining them all together but also they would get stolen if not secured. We’d ribbon cable them back inside the case where’d there would be a many inches of dongle precariously joined. Fond memories.
NikkiA 2y ago
CAD/CAM has mostly been FlexLM protected for as long as I remember. Flex used a hardware dongle for a while, but then moved away from it.