From: belkin@teecs.UUCP (Hershel Belkin)
Date: Mon, 6 May 1991 01:07:00 GMT
Subject: Re: HP 700 series multi-user performance?
Message-ID: <29280006@teecs.UUCP>
Organization: Litton Systems, Toronto ONT
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lethe!tvcent!comspec!censor!teecs!belkin
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
References: <29280004@teecs.UUCP>

I too have been informed that some systems (notably the 700 series, but
possibly others) treat all network-origin logins as one user.  While
this is a nice benefit to those planning to connect terminals via
network terminal servers, it seems to bring up another question...

How will this affect license costs of third-party software?  I know
of several large organizations which base their charges on the 
O/S user license level rather than (or as well as) the machine model.
Their reasoning is that someone using their software on an 835 with
a 64-user license should pay more than someone running on the same
machine with a 16-user license.  Makes sense.  But now we come along
with our 2-user 730 (which actually has 100 terminals connected via
a terminal server)!  Do we get away with the cheap third-party license
since we only have a "2-user" system?

Of course, we could just throw this problem back on the third-party
software manufacturer and let them control and license _their_ software
for a certain number of users.  (A number of vendors do it this way, which
to me makes more sense).  

What do others say?  If a vendor simply asks what our HP-UX user-license
is, do we keep quiet about the actual number of users logging in??

+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
| Hershel Belkin               hp9000/825(HP-UX)| UUCP: teecs!belkin      |
| Test Equipment Engineering Computing Services |Phone: 416 249-1231 x2647|
| Litton Systems Canada Limited       (Toronto) |  FAX: 416 246-2016      |
+-----------------------------------------------+-------------------------+