Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!ncar!gatech!bbn!humming!simcha
From: simcha@humming.UUCP (Simcha Lerner)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: LAN's and software
Message-ID: <245@humming.UUCP>
Date: 12 Aug 88 02:20:00 GMT
References: <25577@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: simcha@humming.UUCP (Simcha Lerner)
Organization: Kurzweil A.I. Waltham, Mass.
Lines: 34

In article <25577@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> brand@janus.UUCP (Graham Brand) writes:
>Dear Net Gurus,
>
>	Would someone give me the technical reason why some single
>user software cannot be used as is on a network of 2+ PC's. 
>Cheers,
>-Graham Brand (brand@janus.berkeley.edu, etc...)

First, there is a strong LEGAL reason that one can not run a single _copy_
of a program over the net - it is (crudely) referred to as theft.

Since you requested a technical reason :-), here's a few to try on:

Many programs create temp files in the executable's directory.  If 
multiple users run the program, they will clobber each other.  An example
of this is word processor overflow files.

Additionally, there are some very obvious problems that result if multiple
users try to use the same data files at the same time.  The results range
from one user loosing his modifications (eg: two users use a wp to update
the same document) up to the entire data file being totally trashed (eg:
two users use the same database file in a single user database).

Hope this sheds some light on why one has both legal and technical reasons
for purchasing network versions of one's software.


Simcha Lerner

harvard!humming!simcha
^^^^^^^
not through bbn


All opinions are my own - but you're welcome to share them.