Licensing Jungle

With my laptop dead I was considering the least complicated way to get up and running. The replacement MacChromeBook has been a great tool for email, but I cannot do many things using this machine. For example the Glovius Viewer I use for viewing 3D (STEP) projects is not available for MacOS. Yes, Windows still rulez the desktop application arena.

So the easiest way seemed to be: buy exactly the same make / model and move the hard drive over to the new one, then send the broken one for warranty repair. So I did. The new Yoga somehow is different from the old one, to the extent Windows boots and then crashes with a blue screen. I have not seen a blue screen for many years. Unfortunately I could not get the machine going until in the safe mode I removed drivers for several network (ndis) related devices. Then I let Windows install new drivers and I thought I was back in business.

Far from that. Glovius, when launched, reported the trial had expired. Trial? I have a full paid version! OK, they bind the license to the network MAC, I emailed them the output of my ipconfig/all and within three hours they replied back with new license key I copied to the registration box. This fixed the problem.

Then Microsoft Office told me it was already installed on a different machine. Indeed. On the one that died and I took the hard drive from. Geeezz... Is it illegal to replace a broken motherboard with a new one? Office offered on-line reactivation. I agreed to proceed. Then it told me I was in an inappropriate geographic region to register. Of course. I bought it in the USA and now I am in Poland (I fly back and forth about twice a month - do I need TWO SEPARATE copies of Word, one for each side of the Atlantic?). I dialed my VPN and it stopped complaining about the geography but told me to use my phone to activate it. Of course I have to call the activation service using my US number. Truphone to the rescue. It took me about 15 minutes to dictate about 100 digits to the IVR machine and put down another 100 it dictated back to me. Office is running now. Even with VPN disconnected.

Finally I failed resurrecting the Adobe Acrobat. It keeps asking for a serial number. I don't have it. It must be somewhere on the installation DVD disc. But I cannot find the disc. Go to hell, Adobe.

I feel like being naked, helpless, exhausted, in a jungle full of spiders, snakes and other creatures. With no way out. You better don't break your computer. And never upgrade it. Or buy new software with every new machine. Or don't buy any, just rely on an online account, like Google Apps. You think the standalone apps - you just pay once for them. Nope. You pay but you don't own them anyway. So be prepared to pay again. And again.