Comments on: Borderline Scamming being done by software companies

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 31 May 2012 08:18:41 +0000

I installed some software for work a couple of years ago, which was fully paid for and they gave me a license key over the phone to register/activate it. Later, we had a problem with the work PC (hard drive failure) and we tried to re-install this software, but I need the activation code from the company in Detroit again. They are telling me that I need to pay them money or they wont let me install it. Is such a software licensing policy OK or a possible scam now? Thanks.

By: unbound

unbound — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:13:26 +0000

Unfortunately, it’s a double-edged sword. The number of servers in an environment is being cut down by 2/3 or more. The companies need to find a way to recover the lost money…so they are finding themselves charging by cores instead. There are some inequities, but the companies are trying to be fair…on average, companies are being charged about the same in cores that they used to pay in servers.

By: James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil

James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:25:27 +0000

One thing so many companies never seem to learn is, “It’s always cheaper to make a customer happy than it is to make him angry.” They may improve their bottom line in the short term, but it will eventually come back to haunt them. Microsoft is a great example. In the 80′s they were king. Almost everyone loved them and trusted them. But their short-sighted policies of “profit above all” and releasing bloated bug-ridden software has led to more and more people seeking alternatives to MS.

Look at all the Open-Source programs available. Even alternate OS solutions like Linux are gaining ground. The “Hackintosh” movement may be comparatively tiny, but it’s also hard to measure.

Even people that are retaining MS products no longer hold the company in reverence and trust.

That leads us to the other basic of customer satisfaction. “The quality of any product or service is exactly what the customer says it is.” MS doesn’t seem to understand that, either.

By: Jason L Froebe

Jason L Froebe — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:31:55 +0000

I agree Sam. I know of many companies, large & small, that are honestly looking at using open source software.

For example, how many companies really need to run Oracle, Sybase or Microsoft SQL Server? I’m willing to bet that MySQL or PostgreSQL will handle 90% or more of their database needs.. and there is no license fees! For those companies that want enterprise support, it is available for them too.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:30:54 +0000

Enterprise software pricing is disgusting period.

You have more than 5 employees and suddenly they think you are flush with cash.

Budgets are tight. It’s a recession, damnit.

By: Hoq

Hoq — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:32:30 +0000

Tommy,

Your analogy isn’t quite apples-to-apples… imagine if a tow truck driver came through a toll both and was charged for twice as many axles as they had, simply because they “could conceivably” have that many. That’s a better analogy here.

This policy would really suck balls on some of the IBM servers with unlockable hardware; do you have to pay for the maximum spec of the system in license costs, even if you haven’t “unlocked” that many cores?

By: Jason L Froebe

Jason L Froebe — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:10:28 +0000

Whether it is collecting tolls when you drive down the highway or routing a phone call to your phone, we all use ‘servers’ even if we aren’t directly aware of them.

By: hachnslay

hachnslay — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:22:46 +0000

buy a desktop pc and run their software on there. even if your supercomputer crashes you will still be able to use your desktop pc, why do you use serversystems anyway? i never saw the sense in that.

By: .

Tue, 26 May 2009 23:14:57 +0000

And yet another reason to pirate things. It’s already free and without DRM to pirate things, do they really want to keep adding to the list?

By: Jason L Froebe

Jason L Froebe — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:50:49 +0000

Management in big corporations are often all for Linux, *IF* they can run Oracle or some other *enterprise* software on it. Mention PostgreSQL or MySQL, you will likely get laughed at by some PHB.

To be honest I prefer PostgreSQL over any other DBMS. Just a personal preference.

By: W0wie

W0wie — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:37:18 +0000

Just one word. Linux.
If you don’t buy these guys software, they will have to change or die. Open source is gonna kill them if they keep hitting customers like that. Rather surprising that they think short-term profits are more important than corporate survival – IMHO

By: Jason L. Froebe

Jason L. Froebe — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:02:06 +0000

Some vendors don’t have separate pricing for virtual servers, they want to know the specs of the physical hardware. An inadvertent slip of the tongue of a manager or whomever is actually purchasing the software can cost you major $$$.

By: ron

ron — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 09:03:16 +0000

How about just giving them the specs for a virtual server.

By: Spuffler

Spuffler — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:22:22 +0000

Well, there is always the FOSS reply.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:29:15 +0000

“WTF!? That’s like charging you road tax for every wheel on your car!”

“Well toll booths charge more money for 18 wheelers rather than a 4 wheel sadan. Just playing devil’s advocate….”

Well they more charge extra for each additional axle beyond two (4 wheels). Now I’m really playing devil’s advocate.

The extra charge for additional wheels is because of the weight put on the road, that will eventually cause maintenance problems for the highway department. What the software vendors are doing is like charging for the number of cylinders in your engine. Just because I have more power, I’m still using the same road! NOT playing the devils advocate, just being the devil.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:17:53 +0000

“WTF!? That’s like charging you road tax for every wheel on your car!”

“Well toll booths charge more money for 18 wheelers rather than a 4 wheel sadan. Just playing devil’s advocate….”

Well they more charge extra for each additional axle beyond two (4 wheels). Now I’m really playing devil’s advocate.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:03:47 +0000

It looks like there’s a fortune waiting for the first developer to come up with a good set of migration tools that would painlessly and automatically convert those proprietary databases to some FOSS system.

It would be really nice if salesmen for those proprietary systems started hearing “Yes, you system actually works a little better than the FOSS system we’re considering, but that system has one feature that you can’t deliver: it won’t suddenly increase in price after we’ve been on it for a few years.”

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:47:41 +0000

“WTF!? That’s like charging you road tax for every wheel on your car!”

Well toll booths charge more money for 18 wheelers rather than a 4 wheel sadan. Just playing devil’s advocate….

By: Lewis

Lewis — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:18:17 +0000

WTF!? That’s like charging you road tax for every wheel on your car!

By: Jason L Froebe

Jason L Froebe — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:32:14 +0000

There is an email thread discussing this on the sig-ase mailing list: http://my.isug.com/p/fo/st/post=22647#p22647