This is from dictation.Let's go back to the
dongle. Years ago software companies controlled the distribution of their products by the use of dongles. You could not use the software unless there was a dongle plugged into some type of interface port of your computer. Users hated it because it was a nuisance to have to remember to plug the dongle in when you wanted to use a piece of software that had a very strong copyright restrictions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DongleBut I think the time has come to go back to using the dongle.
Here explains why I say this. It is because today both individuals and businesses have more than one computer used for everyday tasks. But the piece of software that is used for a specific task is never used on both computers at the same time. That is because there is only one individual in the home or business that uses that particular software. Here or she would like to really use it on either computer. But if the software is installed on both computers, it becomes a violation of the end user license agreement. That license agreement says that the software must be installed only on one computer unless another licenses is purchased for the second computer.
For many users that is absolute nonsense. Two computers are needed because there are are other people that need to use computers in the same environment. But only one user needs to use the special software that is covered by a very strong copyright restriction. This is one of the reasons people want to go over to using free software or public domain or other software that does not have draconian restrictions on installation on several computers. However, there are some programs that are so good in what they do that you need the commercial version, not the free version that is supported by some group of people that like to create free software. This can happen not just in a business situation, but also even a home user may find there is a specific program her or she needs for some specific purpose and that specific purpose is not satisfied with any the free programs out there.
So, it's time to bring back the dongle. The dongle would look like a small USB thumb drive. What it does is give an encryption code that identifies the license for a specific installation of a copyrighted software product. The dongle cannot be duplicated without violating the law. It not built in such a way that you cannot just simply read it and write an image of it to a similar device. Every time the thing is red there is a new encryption process that is identified by the software program and thus insurers that any counterfeit dongle will not work. Well, if somebody wanted to do a very intensive reverse engineering, they could probably figure out some way to duplicate the dongle. But that require more equipment than what most people would have at hand. And even in that case there could be legal remedies the software company could take if they found out that somebody was mass-producing images of software keys.
The reason I say this is because I find sometimes that I have to use Windows 7 for certain kinds of things I need to do. But the software I like to also use at the same time is currently installed on my XP installation. Now it is possible, with a great amount of work, to uninstall the software from XP and then inform the support department that I have uninstalled the software and then I can reinstall it again on Windows 7
That is a real pain in my lower back. If I had a dongle, I could just unplug it from the Windows XP machine and plug it into the Windows 7 machine. Or better yet, with Windows XP and Windows 7 both installed on the same machine, I would never have to move the dongle and all.
Does anybody understand what my rant is about? I think the software companies would get more happy users if they would allow the users to have a dongle instead of going through this insane un- activation and re-activation process any time you want to move your expensive software to another computer.
Now I would have written this rant and communicated it with the support crew of the company I am thinking about, but it is very hard to communicate with them at all. Insteadm, I would put it here and have other people read it. And besides, more than one company could benefit is they were to go over to this idea of using a dongle instead of having people go through the insane idiotic process of activation of their product and then trying to figure out why didn't activate and calling up the support people and all that kind of stuff.
Just use a dongle. End of rant.
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