[geeks] lipschitz

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 14 May 2002, Joshua D Boyd wrote:

> I've been considering getting the student version.  It's pretty cheap, and
> I can fairly cheaply upgrade to regular within a year of graduating.

I bought the student edition of Mathematica a few years ago, and can give
tell you the following:
   1) It's identical to the professional version, except that:
   1.a) It doesn't include the hardback copy of _The_Mathematica_Book_,
        although it is included in Mathematica notebook format (and
        integrated into the help system).
   1.b) The student version prints "STUDENT EDITION" in two to four
        corners of every page of generated hardcopy (unless you first
        export to LaTeX or HTML an rip it out, which is a violation of the
        license agreement).
   1.c) "Hardware verification", which is rant-worthy; see below.
   2) The "hardware verification" is an extreme pain in the ass.  Change,
      add, or remove a video card?  Get a new key from Wolfram.  Change
      video cards?  Get a new key.  Hard drive?  New key.  Upgrade OSes?
      Get a new key.  Add memory?  Time for a new key.
   3) While the student version works on multiple platforms (MacOS,
      Windows, and Linux, currently), switching platforms after you've
      obtained a key costs extra.

I think I got ten or so keys from Wolfram before I threw up my hands and
warezed the professional edition of the same version--especially when they
wanted to charge me a "license portability" fee of $75 to move my license
from my desktop to my laptop, even running the same OS.

While I realize that paying $200 (the student version is even cheaper now)
instead of $2000 is a very nice savings, I'm only willing to put up with
so much annoyance, given that I'm trying to use the product in a
legitimate manner.  I -don't- see why I should have to pay nearly half as
much again to install the software on a second computer, provided that I
remove it from the first beforehand.

Part of it wasn't even that--hell is having a project due Monday morning,
and discovering Friday night that some stupid change caused Mathematica to
expire your hardware key.

I'd highly recommend buying the student version, licensing it legitly, and
then warezing the professional edition if it gives you any shit, as
Wolfram will give you a hard time if you ask for a new key.  So long as
you use it within the same constraints that you would be forced to with
the student edition, I can't see how you'd lose any sleep over it.

--Jonathan