Perspectives

To answer the airport security part of your question. I’ve never had a query about the license stick, nor a problem with it. I always take it in hand luggage so I can work in the airport.

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Likewise. I had problems at Edinburgh Airport with an AirTurn bluetooth (page turner) pedal, though - it transpires that a smallish device with two pressure sensors, a couple of LEDs, a power source and an antenna ticks quite a few boxes…

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Good morning all,

Thank you for your constructive feedback!

I am happy to know that it is easy to travel with the e-licenser key since it seems that some users (including me) will depend on it for a long time to come.

I had a lot of hope in the new system : why would it be technically impossible to transfer any license to it, like reactivation in a soft-elicenser?

I fully understand the abandon of old versions of the Dorico side; the updates are fortunately there for that.

However, I find it annoying that it is not possible (like Reaper) for the user to still be able to open previously purchased versions.

Ex. 3.5 works with High Sierra on my old hardware. If I buy a Surface Pro in a few years, will the update allow me to run the Dorico version 6 on my laptop and 3.5 on the other computer with the same license ?
I am unfortunately preparing to buy a full version with the new system …

I keep my fingers crossed to keep everything running as long as possible (ex. e-licenser will not let Dorico to open for any reason!)
I know this is the worst case scenerio, but it could be very annoying for anyone to be obliged to buy a new computer or / and a new license / update… just because of e-licenser.

Dorico has all the features I have dreamed of for years. It’s a fantastic interface and a superb composition environment. Once again, I am grateful for the whole team’s hard work and the spontaneous responses from Daniel Spreadbury and the community.

Thank you for your time, sorry for the inconvenience and for the translation !

Best regards,
Ch. B.

We are certainly mindful of the issue, but of course it is just one of thousands of considerations that we have to take into account when planning how to spend our (and our company’s) time and money. If all goes according to plan, even after the retirement of the current licensing system it will still be possible to reactivate existing licenses through the new system, though it will require you to be able to run a newer version of the eLicenser Control Center that can both talk to the new licensing system and provide the necessary license to your existing software.

What will not be practical is for us to release new builds of old versions of products that either remove licensing altogether or are directly compatible with the new system. In many cases it is not even possible to build that software any longer without very expensive and time-consuming recreation of the original build and test environment.

However, all of this is years into the future. There’s no reason to believe that all of the versions of Dorico we have released thus far will not continue to run, certainly on Windows, for many years to come, and while there are many details still to be worked out concerning how the future new licensing system will work, it is our intention that we will not leave any of our existing customers out in the cold and completely unable to use the products they (many years ago) paid for.

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@dspreadbury , are you sure there is not a word left out of that sentence that reverses what you meant to say?

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Yes, good spot.

Hello and thank you for your messages!

In short, if I decide to update Dorico in a few years in order to use it on a new computer that would eventually no longer be compatible with 3.5, then I will no longer be able to use this version which is one of the last to be supported by my old Mac, right ?

If I want to use Dorico on these two machines, then I will need to purchase a second license.
I understand.

As you say, it’s not for tomorrow!
Anyway, what a pleasure to work with Dorico: elegant and considerable time saver!
What a great job.

I hope not to had bothered you too much throughout this not very fascinating subject of which I am grateful to you for having brought all these clarifications.

Yours truly,
Ch. B.

P.S. One more time, please sorry this translation !

Your license allows you to run the version you’ve paid for and any previous versions of the software. For instance, I’m running Dorico 3.5.10 but I’m also running 2.2.20, 3.5.0 and (on an old computer) 1.2, despite the fact that I no longer own a license for Dorico 1, 2 or 3.

It remains to be seen how the new licensing system will work but I haven’t seen any indication that old versions of the software will be forcibly switched off.

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“Your license allows you to run the version you’ve paid for and any previous versions of the software.”

This is beautiful !!

(I had this doubt because of Cubase.)

However, D. Spreadbury wrote : “when the new licensing system is introduced, it will be introduced alongside a new version of the software, and existing and older versions would remain tied to the eLicenser”.

Then, it seems complicated to me to run Dorico in the future (in 5 - 7 years) : 3.5 on my old Mac and, at the same time, the newest version on a new laptop without purshasing a full license again.

Maybe I am wrong or I have not read properly the previous posts ?

Thank you !

All the Best,
Ch. B.

Right now you can use the reactivate button within MySteinberg to run Dorico on multiple machines. See below.

My supposition is that when you buy a new computer, you will reactivate Dorico 3.5 (or Dorico 4 or whatever it is you’re running at that point) on the new computer. Your old computer will still be able to run Dorico 3.5 or Dorico 4 or whatever, but won’t be able to be upgraded beyond that point without you buying a new license. Continuing to use Dorico on the old machine is technically in breach of the Steinberg EULA as it currently stands, but a) Steinberg staff have publicly suggested how to bypass the single-machine limit and b) one of the stated purposes of the new licensing system will be the ability to run the same license on multiple machines without the need for a hardware dongle.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to respond so fully Daniel, and for the reassurance. I appreciate the myriad of dilemmas you continually face. Incidentally, I’ve just learned that from 2023 Adobe will cease support of Type 1 fonts. Another little potential headache to deal with, and a useful example of nothing lasting forever, at least where computers are concerned.

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That’s been anticipated for a rreeaallyy long time though. Thomas Phinney said they were phasing out Type 1 support back in 2005.
https://blog.typekit.com/2005/10/06/phasing_out_typ/

By then earth will probably have been struck and blown up by an asteroid, which mean we’ll all have to buy new computers anyway. :man_shrugging:

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Hello Pianoleo :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks.

The problem is that my current license is on my hard e-licenser key, not soft e-licenser. Do you think I will be able to keep my 3.5 version on my old Mac when using the latest version in 5 - 7 years at the same time on a new computer by only buy the update ?

In oder words, can we be sure that a reactivation process will be possible in the future, wathever the new licensing system and with an actual hard e-licenser license ? :innocent:

If not, I would not have to pretend having lost my key or wathever in order to have the same rights, the same soft e-licenser reactivation opportunity of other users when I have put money in the Dorico adventure since version 1…

Moreover, the day I inintentionnaly moved my Dorico license on the hard e-licenser key, it was not clear at all that this was an irreversible action. :thinking:

But I’m sure either I’ve not understand that what I need will be possible at the time I will need it or that Steinberg will find a good solution (fingers crossed!).

Thank you very much !

Yours,
Ch. B.

P.S. I really hope not be redundant with my questions nor be inconvenient to the Steinberg forum. :flushed:

It is not my intention : I just need to know if I need to purshase a second full license (in the situation described above) in the future, that’s all. :wink:

The short answer is that I don’t know. I’m not aiming to plant the seeds of doubt in your mind; there are just too many hypotheticals and a potentially long timeframe.

I think that it you were to “lose” your dongle and then go through the reactivation process (make sure all your software’s registered within MySteinberg first) you’d then have the option of putting the replacement Dorico license onto the soft eLicenser. I don’t know how the eLicenser works in conjunction with other Steinberg (or VSL) products - I suspect you’d have to buy a new dongle in order to continue running old (current) versions of Cubase etc.

Hello,

Thank you for your reply !

I’m sure that I will find a solution if I had to ever encounter the situation I described above since the team behind this incredible software seems to be present and ready to find solutions in order to help their program’s users.

Have a good day !

Best,
Ch. B.

That’s already started as of this year.

Apple also refers to Type 1 PostScript fonts as ‘legacy format’ fonts. Fonts are software, and so subject to the same upheaval and lifecycle as applications. If you haven’t already switched to OTF for all new projects, I’d certainly start thinking about it.

Thanks for that. If I may draw further on the collective font wisdom here, does anyone have experience with the various free online font converters out there? Are they reliable? I have three Type 1 fonts which I’d like to convert to OpenType, two of which are ‘expert’ fonts which provide further characters such as old-style numerals, and one bespoke music font which contains some early music symbols. Should I instead cough up and get a program like TransType? But will I then require specialist font knowledge which I entirely lack?

The trouble with online convertors of this sort is not so much the quality of the output, but what else are they doing with the file that you have essentially given them?

Also, I’m not sure how well the internet copes with transmitting the resource fork of Mac Type 1 fonts – you usually end up with a 0 Kb file, unless you zip it first.

I think TransType is fairly straightforward. You can demo it for 7 days.

I would definitely recommend trying to source updated, modern digital cuts of the same font families using OpenType or TrueType rather than Type 1 format rather than trying to convert them yourself.