Shucks… Maybe if the college didn’t rob the students blind on tuition, and the publishers not rob the students blind on books, maybe they could afford to pay for software licenses. 🤷♂️
Are there any opensource alternatives to these things? Could they save themselves this whole hassle, just get the alternative and cut their budget in half with a yearly donation?
Well, Solidworks is the industry standard, but I think NX wins on capabilities, and Fusion has a much better workflow. Both are still corporate though.
I hope we get a good open source option, because Freecad is so far behind the rest that it’s basically unusable.
Pretty much every software crack says ‘Block this application in your firewall’. I guarantee most people don’t. Following these instructions would have prevented this entirely.
My college used to tie your account to a maximum number of MAC addresses per year and you had to request more over the limit. I think it was like 4 or 5
I’ve been using Jetbrains products for free in college and I can say that it is the best advertisement. I bought it the day after my student license expired.
Ehh even when I was in school I used foss like blender and gimp. I’ve never had an actual copy of 3dsmax, Maya or photosoup. Been plenty productive with that my entire life.
Yeah, that’s really unfortunate. I think the market would be way more dynamic innovative, and secure if such large packages would be foss. Larger companies can have their own full or part time specialists, and smaller ones can put out bounties etc
Some software uses license servers where each client is supposed to request a seat temporarily. If more people use it at once than seats were licenses they detect that with phone home features. We had that with Matlab I believe, if you tried using it in the most popular time you might not be able to.
We also had expensive engineering software at university. Oftentimes it’s a major PITA for everyone. The PhD students have to get their work done and are met by the software refusing to start because all licenses are taken. Sometimes someone forgot to log off or the computer crashed and the software takes most of the day to recover that license. Or some people do like 5 simulations in parallel. Or lock the computer, go home and block a license. The IT department will get lots of calls and have to deal with it. Especially when the pool of licenses is small. And it takes additinal effort to coordinate practical courses and excercises where you teach a group of 24 people which then need half the license pool available at a fixed time each week, despite the daily routine of everyone else.
And I’m not even sure if the people responsible, care too much for pirated software. But they’re liable. Of course they write strongly worded mails when talking to everyone. It’s their IT infrastructure and they can’t have people do illegal things with it. Especially not while having an expensive contract with some supplyer. They can’t have anyone leak a mail where they endorse piracy. Or post screenshots or turn in assignments or papers with screenshots that say “unregistered copy” in the bottom corner. And once students do silly things and the piracy is on display publicly, they’ll have to do something. Usually that’s writing a strongly worded email first. Because that takes next to no effort. I think the usual IT department doesn’t care as long as things go smoothly, people do their various things and no one complains. They usually have other stuff to do. That makes me think in this story something must have happened that warranted some form of public reaction or at least show they addressed it and they have it in writing.
And I think the rest of the mail fits such IT people. They said why they do it and that they can’t have piracy connected to the institutes name. They say they need some incoming complaints to justify buying more licenses. And the punishment fits the crime. They just disconnect the computer from their network and it’s not their problem anymore. I think that’s fair.
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Adobe did the same in my friend’s animation college
Shucks… Maybe if the college didn’t rob the students blind on tuition, and the publishers not rob the students blind on books, maybe they could afford to pay for software licenses. 🤷♂️
Thumb of rule is, If you don’t make enough to comfortably pay for some software; you simply don’t pay for said software.
Yup, this is why I didn’t pay for REAPER until the check for my first audiobook came through!
I’m still waiting for that check from the author, but you best believe $60 of it is going to the software that made that job possible!
Preach
Are there any opensource alternatives to these things? Could they save themselves this whole hassle, just get the alternative and cut their budget in half with a yearly donation?
Anti Commercial-AI license
Can’t speak for all of them, but for solidworks there is, but it is nowhere near the level of solidworks.
SolidWorks is probably the best CAD software in terms of capability and ease of use.
Either way, students learn SolidWorks because companies use solidworks
Well, Solidworks is the industry standard, but I think NX wins on capabilities, and Fusion has a much better workflow. Both are still corporate though.
I hope we get a good open source option, because Freecad is so far behind the rest that it’s basically unusable.
Forgot about NX, but you’re correct NX has more features and is way less buggy
This mail screams “please ignore this BS some lawyer forced me to write, he doesn’t even agree with it either!”
Seems like you have to buy… a VPN so that they won’t see you using pirated software.
Pretty much every software crack says ‘Block this application in your firewall’. I guarantee most people don’t. Following these instructions would have prevented this entirely.
Imagine using pirated software and allowing it to go online. Loco 🤯
Some people never learn. My Academy requires students to log in with their university account, so they know who does what.
I would hope they’re not using static IPs and MAC address spoofing is a thing.
usually college networks have a Mac address whitelist, so you need to turn off Mac spoofing in order to connect
If it’s on a students personal device, they can suck my hullabaloo
Then you will be barred ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Your system, your rules but their network and also their rules.
MAC randomization to the rescue!
My college used to tie your account to a maximum number of MAC addresses per year and you had to request more over the limit. I think it was like 4 or 5
MAC address cloning to the rescue!
It says debarred. So, they will undo the barring?!
You just have to make sure you don’t get caught…
That is some next-level Minecraft you are playing over there
These mods have gotten ridiculous!
If the uni has a license what’s the issue lol
Also kinda shitty of those companies to charge educational instutions
It really is, but what can do? Capitalism exploits everything for profit.
Well obviously, seize the means of production?
On my uni we also had licenses, their ratio per students were somethibg like 1:10.
Not only shitty, it’s dumb. Even Adobe knows to give students hefty discounts. It’s how they get new users on the hook.
I’ve been using Jetbrains products for free in college and I can say that it is the best advertisement. I bought it the day after my student license expired.
Ehh even when I was in school I used foss like blender and gimp. I’ve never had an actual copy of 3dsmax, Maya or photosoup. Been plenty productive with that my entire life.
Sure, but that’s far from a universal experience.
Yeah, that’s really unfortunate. I think the market would be way more dynamic innovative, and secure if such large packages would be foss. Larger companies can have their own full or part time specialists, and smaller ones can put out bounties etc
The uni doesnt care. The software vendor does and is threatening the uni for not being compliant.
Ik
Some software uses license servers where each client is supposed to request a seat temporarily. If more people use it at once than seats were licenses they detect that with phone home features. We had that with Matlab I believe, if you tried using it in the most popular time you might not be able to.
It should be treated with “utmost importance”, not with utmost importance. That ending is quite subversive!
they should have put dorm numbers on there so you could meet some cool people. sharing is caring.
We also had expensive engineering software at university. Oftentimes it’s a major PITA for everyone. The PhD students have to get their work done and are met by the software refusing to start because all licenses are taken. Sometimes someone forgot to log off or the computer crashed and the software takes most of the day to recover that license. Or some people do like 5 simulations in parallel. Or lock the computer, go home and block a license. The IT department will get lots of calls and have to deal with it. Especially when the pool of licenses is small. And it takes additinal effort to coordinate practical courses and excercises where you teach a group of 24 people which then need half the license pool available at a fixed time each week, despite the daily routine of everyone else.
And I’m not even sure if the people responsible, care too much for pirated software. But they’re liable. Of course they write strongly worded mails when talking to everyone. It’s their IT infrastructure and they can’t have people do illegal things with it. Especially not while having an expensive contract with some supplyer. They can’t have anyone leak a mail where they endorse piracy. Or post screenshots or turn in assignments or papers with screenshots that say “unregistered copy” in the bottom corner. And once students do silly things and the piracy is on display publicly, they’ll have to do something. Usually that’s writing a strongly worded email first. Because that takes next to no effort. I think the usual IT department doesn’t care as long as things go smoothly, people do their various things and no one complains. They usually have other stuff to do. That makes me think in this story something must have happened that warranted some form of public reaction or at least show they addressed it and they have it in writing.
And I think the rest of the mail fits such IT people. They said why they do it and that they can’t have piracy connected to the institutes name. They say they need some incoming complaints to justify buying more licenses. And the punishment fits the crime. They just disconnect the computer from their network and it’s not their problem anymore. I think that’s fair.