Frame's FLS

[Mike Takamoto]

Hilarie K. Orman writes:

	As far as I know, the Arbortext people invented the floating license. 
	That's the way we run Publisher here. 

	Hilarie K. Orman (ho at la.tis.com, ...trwrb!aero!trusted!ho)
	Trusted Information Systems, Inc.
	Los Angeles, CA

Arbortext did not invent floating licenses. For that matter, neither did
Frame. The concept has been around for a while. I don't know who came up
with the idea or who implemented it first. However, Frame is the first and
only publishing software company to offer this feature for Sun
workstations.

Instead of floating licences, Arbortext typically offers customers the
equivalent of a site-license. In one sense, it is an admirable licensing
scheme in that it is based on the honor system: the software isn't copy
protected. Anyone with an NFS mount to the machine that Arbortext software
runs on can access the Publisher. 

Frame's Floating License Server (FLS) acts as an electronic librarian that
monitors activity and checks licenses in and out.  At any time, users can
display a license dialog box and see who is using the available Frame
licenses. If all licenses are in use, it notifies the user accordingly.
The FLS also keeps a running log of who uses the licenses so it's easy to
record actual use. 

With Arbotext's "system," you buy what you think you need, and get
unlimited use. If your needs increase, you can buy more licenses if you
choose to. Because there is no way to monitor user activity, however, it's
difficult to know if you are in violation of your licensing agreement. 

With Frame's FLS, you buy what you think you need, and get what you pay
for. If your need for licenses increases, you can add more licenses by
buying more. Frame's FLS lets you know exactly how many licenses are being
used. 

The two schemes are substantially different. Both Frame and Arbortext want
to make it easy for users to access their software. The difference is
Frame has invested time and resources into developing the technology that
monitors, tracks and restricts software use.  Arbortext has not developed
this technology. 

I hope this clears things up.

Mike Takamoto
Frame Technical Support Team
sun!frame!comments