Software companies use a variety of differerent methods in their attempts to prevent piracy and restrict use of their software to legitimate paying customers. Yes, these attempts are generally futile. Yes, they can end up inconveniencing legitimate users and providing pirate users with advantages over paying customers. Yes, they add to development costs and detract from the main development aims. Despite all that, I still support the right of software companies to do this. Lots of companies spend money doing futile, counter-productive things; it’s their money, their software, their customer base, their choice.
That doesn’t mean we customers have to like it, and many of us don’t. Some of us happily accept it as part of the price of using our tools, some of us tolerate it with varying degrees of grace, and some of us fume about it but do it anyway because we have no choice. Beyond that point, there are those who won’t put up with it at all, and who find various ways around it.
Where a given user fits within that spectrum of views depends partly on that person’s personality, but also on the amount of inconvenience that the software throws up. I’ve started a new poll because I’m interested to discover what level of inconvenience people are prepared to put up with. What is a reasonable level of tolerance?
The poll question refers to a scenario where you have the need to use a piece of software, and before you can do so, you need to obtain codes. The question is not specific to AutoCAD or Autodesk, it applies to any software that needs magic numbers before it will work. Software often allows grace periods before a code is needed, but there are also circumstances where such grace does not apply, so for the sake of this poll please assume that you need the codes before you can get on with your job. How long would you be content to wait for the codes and still remain a satisfied customer?
I fall in with most, Steve.
My frustration is nowhere near yours, but I have a tablet. I love my tablet, and I love my 16-button puck like Charleton Heston and his guns.
And I’m using Vista. Which means no true tablet function in AutoCAD.
For months “the guy” (those who know, know) has been working on making the driver work in Vista and 64-bit. I put in quite a bit of time helping with beta-testing and problem tracking.
The driver is released now, and I can tell you that it works quite well – as long as you are using 64-bit on 64-bit. C3D on Vista 64? Tough toodles, it’s a mouse.
I use C3D. Poop.
But heck, it’ll all be 64-bit eventually, right? So I did the on-line register thing and coughed up my CC info…
… and I see no response yet, a couple weeks later. On the website is the part the online registration page left out – all requests will be handled FIFO the week of November 10th.
Gosh, I wish my evaluation copy was going to last until then…
Did I mention any frustration of mine here? 😉
When I do go public with what has been happening over the past few months, I’ll make it all abundantly clear. There will be no ambiguity. For now, I’m just interested in what other people think is reasonable.
Speaking of which, I see one person thinks it’s reasonable to wait years. Such extreme patience is singularly admirable.
You have my sympathy with your tablet issue. While I haven’t used one for years (for CAD, anyway), I was a long-time user and am aware of their advantages. It’s a shame that a few years of Windows support incompetence practically killed that market.