[geeks] Very interesting...

[Joshua D Boyd]

SideFX Houdini, like Maya, has a free version of houdini called
apprentice.

I was looking for the system requirements and saw:

> Q: What happens if I install the Houdini Apprentice Edition on a machine
> with commercial Houdini 5 licenses?

> A. The Houdini Apprentice Edition CD contains an actual copy of Houdini
> 5.5 that becomes licensed for the Apprentice program. If your computer
> already has a commercial license of either Houdini 5 or Houdini 5.5, the
> Apprentice Edition software will use your existing liceses and run in
> commercial mode. In effect, you will have installed a copy of Houdini
> 5.5. If you have an older license of Houdini (4.x or below), you can run
> the Apprentice Edition in non-commercial mode until you choose to
> upgrade.

I bet someone has figured out how to change the license.  However, for
most of us it probably doesn't matter since we wouldn't be using it for
commercial production, and other than compatibility problems when trying
to interchange data with the real versions.

Anyway, they other thing that leapt out is that unlike Maya, Houdini is
releasing the Linux, Irix, and Solaris versions in their free program.
Cool.  I have the ram, I have a supported video card.  I can't find the
diskspace requirements though.  I probably don't have that yet due to
having been unable to get a scsi harddrive working in my main machine
(grr). 



-- 
Joshua D. Boyd