Feature request: Better license management for individual users with multiple machines

[pveeckhout]

I bought World Machine Professional recently. No complaints about the software or the price; this is feedback on one part of the experience, license activation management.

The two-machine activation limit caught me out after install. My setup:

• A Windows GPU workstation, where World Machine does the heavy lifting.
• A Linux development laptop, my normal working environment.
• A MacBook for when I’m mobile.

I’m the only person using all three, and I never need World Machine running on two at once. With two activations, the workstation takes one permanently and I choose between the laptop and the MacBook for the other. Now that World Machine ships on Windows, Linux and macOS, a
one-person three-platform setup follows directly from that platform support.

A Professional license should not become a site license, and I’m not asking for one several people can use at the same time. But users and installations are separate counts. Allowing 3 to 5 registered machines per Professional license, with the single-user restriction unchanged,
matches how one person works across platforms. Enforcing one concurrent session would be stricter still, at the cost of more server infrastructure and broken offline use.

The limit matters less than being able to manage it. A license portal listing:

machine	status	action
Windows workstation	Activated	[Deactivate]
Linux laptop	Activated	[Deactivate]

would let me release an activation and move it to another machine without involving anyone.

Another recent post here [Accidentally deleted activated install without moving license - #2 by Stephen] had someone delete a Wine installation before deactivating it. The activation was stranded and support reset it by hand. The same thing happens after an OS reinstall, a dead SSD, a lost or broken laptop, or a motherboard swap. Each one costs the
user a wait for a reply and costs you a manual ticket.

The activation service already tracks activation state server-side, otherwise it could not report both slots as occupied. Showing those slots to the license owner, with a cap of two remote deactivations per 90 days, keeps the current licensing model intact and takes the common
cases off your support queue. The cap is what stops a license being passed around a team.

I write software for a living. If self-service deactivation is something you’d take outside help on, I’ll put development time into it.

Regards

[WFab]

I can’t see any security loophole here, and I’m in favor of more control for the user over his tools. Me likey!!

[Tomatiy]

I’m not an expert on licensing, servers, or UX, so take this as a user’s perspective only

Raising the limit from 2 to 3 worries me. In my 8 years with World Machine I’ve seen where the 2-seat limit is weak, and a third seat would make abuse easier. Even a concurrent-session rule wouldn’t fix that: it’s easy to work around, as people do with Adobe’s single-session limit

Your point about the new Linux and macOS platforms is fair, though. Instead of raising the limit, maybe it could be one activation per platform: one Windows, one Linux, one macOS. That would end the old option of using one license on two Windows machines (say, a PC and a laptop), but it would fit a three-platform product well: one platform, = one activation

Otherwise, I’d rather keep the current 2 activations than risk making things worse

Self-service deactivation is a separate matter, and I think it’s a good idea

[Stephen]

I appreciate your thoughts and feedback here.

Regardless of adjusting the number of machines per license, I agree about adding an ability to user-reset activations from the update center. The helpticket-based resets are an escape value; it’s better for everyone if the primary reset mechanism is automated.

[Stephen]

I wanted to mention that I put some time in the last few days and the Update Center now has an Activations tab, where you can view/remove existing license activations, up to 2 times every 90 days, without contacting support to have it done for you. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time and this request was the nudge I needed, so thank you.

The number of license seats allows per user remains at 2 for now. I could see raising it in the future, but I’m not ready to do that at this moment.

Cheers