Well conscensus from the net is that the Solaris licensing thing is really
just a legal thing.
Apparently the licensing arrangement that applies to Solaris 2.x also applied
to SunOs 4.1.x, so a the moment there are probably people all over the place
in violation of the licensing on their SUN machines.
Do you see the license police anywhere ?
Anyway, there is no "lockout" for more than the licensed number of users, also
the definition of "user" is a hazy to say the least. For example,
if the machine functions as a file server, an NIS+ server and a DNS server,
( this is not an unlikely scenario BTW, I do that here ) you already have
3 "users" before anyone has even logged on. Each of those things is a user.
little screwed up if you ask me.
I have included three of the more interesting replies below.
Thanks to:
mharris@fsg.com (Michael Harris)
"Susan Thielen" <thielen@irus.rri.uwo.ca>
Geert Jan de Groot <geertj@ica.philips.nl>
David Deardoff <drd@access.com>
Steve Hanson <hanson@pogo.fnal.gov>
Mike Raffety <miker@il.us.swissbank.com>
trinkle@cs.purdue.edu (Daniel Trinkle)
THE ANONYMOUS REPLIER - thank you too.
================================================================================
Last month I conducted a survey of the Sun Sales Reps (that I knew of)
in Europe and North America to see what their opinion was of the
Solaris 2.2 licensing scheme. They answered this question in good faith
and under Non-Discloser:
Q: Will the systems run if the correct license is NOT purchased ?
"To be honest this new licensing scheme is still under discussion and new
definitions may come."
"Currently licenses are not "physically checked" e.g. no license server daemon
is running. I don't know if that will be implemented in the future."
"Yes, it will but it is a gentlements agreement."
"There is no definitive answer; but I am told NO,
you must have proper license."
The differences in the upgrade licenses are dramatic to say the least.
I think these are US prices that I was quoted back on Jul 8th:
> - Desktop 250.00
> - Uniprocessor Workgroup Server 350.00
> - Dual-processor Workgroup Server 2000.00
> - Enterprise Server 3000.00
So, I will leave you draw your own conclusions !!
But, there are reasonable arguments on Sun's side to have such
a type of scheme to aid their development of the MP part of the
OS. Its really a marketing thing and not a technical issue as
the OS must be there and it should be paid for. The development
costs could be met by a single charge, eg: 400.
By the way, since I did receive this info under good faith then
perhaps you can make me an ANONYMOUS reply if you make a SUMMARY.
================================================================================
There is no technical lock-out mechanism. You are obligated by a
license agreement which you implicitly accept when you use the system.
However, check the license definition of user very carefully. If your
machine is a file server (NFS) that counts as a user. If it is an
NIS[+] server, that counts as a user. If it is a DNS server, that
counts as a user. Hence you can have 3 "users" on a system before
anyone even logs in. I think acting as a boot server also counts as a
user.
===============================================================================
The definition of user is a very strange one, not seen before
with the earlier versions of SunOs.. COme to think about it,
I was worried about this licensing as well.. Did you realize
that that is the same licensing arrangement that comes with
4.1.3????
I haven't noticed anything different with this license.. but then,
I haven't pushed it either..
===============================================================================
Hope this helps,
================================================================================
Larry Chin {larry@cchtor.cch.com} CCH Canadian Ltd.
System Administrator 6 Garamond Court
Research and Development North York, Ontario.
(416) 441-4001 ext. 349 M3C 1Z5
================================================================================
"Don't tell me I'm burning the candle at both ends -- tell me where to
get more wax!!"
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