Unless I am mistaken, there is a lot of software vendors who license their products for a given number of users.  This is not unique to HP.  They use that "number in memory" to make sure that the license agreement is valid.  You might not agree with it, but that's how it is. 

I believe (and I could be wrong) that an example of this from another company is none other than Microsoft.  Don't they license exchange by seats?  Yes, you can buy more and put more users on it, but you still have to purchase it.

There are also companies that require that you run a licensing server/monitor to be sure that you aren't exceeding your license.  Is this unfair too?  Or should they just take your word that you aren't going to use the product more than you should?

As far as converting HP3000 to HP9000 and also the other way.  Yes it can be done.  HP has as much admitted it when they started selling conversion kits.  There are some minor differences (I seem to recall something from a CE stating that one of the boards has to be in one particular location for one of them).  Besides that, the OS is completely different. 

-------------------------------
Gary L. Paveza, Jr.
Technical Support Specialist
All opinions are mine and not those of my employer

-----Original Message-----
From:   Roy Buzdor [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Tuesday, March 23, 1999 12:22 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: HP crackdown on resellers

Shawn Gordon wrote:
>
> Check out http://www.hp.com/pressrel/mar99/19mar99.htm
> if you haven't already seen.

<rant on>

Well, I just lost a lot more respect for HP.  I
always had thought of them as a company that put
its customers first.  I lost some of that respect
when they came out with multiple versions of the
same hardware to which the only difference was a
number set somewhere in memory, stating how many
users it would support.  I lost some more when
they came out with the same hardware in two
different lines (3000 / 9000) of which the 3000
was a lot more expensive, simply because the 9000
(unix) users were not locked in to HP.  I seemed
to remember that they kept telling us that there
was a lot of difference between the two...it just
looked like they were the same.  Now, it seems
that someone has proven that they are the same,
by (allegedly) tweaking the machines so that the
9000 will run MPE/iX...and by changing that
secret number that limits the number of users
who can run on the 3000.  HP may win the lawsuit,
but they have lost their soul.

I just hope that M$ doesn't come out with versions
of Windows which run slower if you pay less money
for them.  (Oops, I shouldn't have said that and
given anyone any ideas.)

<rant off>

--

Buz          (8

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