Is NI going to support LabView 8.0 (to publish its updates with bug fixes for free)?

[Ben]

tst wrote

 "Perhaps the champions can try moving things around inside NI to change the wording?"

We have!

My understanding is consistant with your's tst.

To put your mind at ease, check with your local NI Rep.

Ben

[Marc_A]

Thanks guys, I'll have to look into it. Convincing my boss is another matter due to past software licensing issues within the company making everyone paranoid, but I'll mention it. I'd love to have it at home.

[altenbach]

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@tst wrote:
Attempting to translate this from Legalese to English it does seem to say that the usage has to related to your job.

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So far nobody has received a strongly worded letter from RIAA NI to cease and desist entering LabVIEW coding challenges or making obfuscated code. 🙂 If I reply to a forum question with a small example, that example is probably not directly work related. However, similar to the "fingeruebungen" of a pianist, they will advance my skills and indirecly help my employer and the LabVIEW community at the same time.

The purpose of the restriction in the license is clearly targeted at users that install a copy from work, then use it e.g. for contract work as a second job. That would put them in an unfair advantage compare to all the self-employed programmers that must pay for their software.

I would hope that any non-commercial private use is OK.

[THailey3]

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@TonP wrote:
The story of NI would be valid IF they had a 'known issues' list.
In that case you would know what bugs you bought

Ton

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We understand upgrading versions (of any software) can be a painful process and we're working to try to decrease this pain level.  We recently created KB 44JC8IZH: LabVIEW 8.2 Upgrade Issues, which is a running list of upgrade issues that have been identified as users upgrade from LabVIEW 8.0.x to 8.2.  While this list does not contain every known issue in LabVIEW 8.2, we hope this will help during your upgrade process.  Generally speaking, we consider upgrade issues as high priority, which is why we distinguish these issues from other LabVIEW bugs.  I encourage all users to reference this page during and after upgrading to see if you might run into any of these issues.  If you do run into an 8.2 upgrade issue (defined in the linked document) that has not already been added to the list, I encourage you to report it to NI support by phone, email, or discussion forums and mention that you believe it should be added to this list.

Thanks to all for making the LabVIEW community stronger and more helpful than ever before.  Happy holidays to everyone!

[Enrique]

Oh yeah, allowing you to have a copy at your home computer is a star in LabVIEW license, specially when good ideas hit your head at unusual hours. I remember when I told to one of my bosses. I had to bring him the license, because for some people it is hard to believe.

Not talking about new features, it is important that software had good support for a time after the newer release, specially for things that were not suppose to be broken. Otherwise, there is a danger of damaging the reputation.

I was a big fan of Electronic Workbench until they release one version of MultiSIM that was so buggy I personally decided to forget about it. I wasn't alone: they sent an e-mail to all their customers apologizing and offered upgrading to the newer version free of charge. However, it was obvious the damage was done and it was self-inflicted.

I was very, very happy when I learned that NI acquired Electronic Workbench. When you think of it, what happens is that NI has such a good reputation that immediately affected Electronic Workbench in a good way.

I recommend LabVIEW and NI products for security applications. There, and in a lot of other instances there are things such as testings and validations that are costly. Once a solution is validated it looks like it is written on stone. That's why sometime you see "obsolete" equipment still in use because it is hard to go through the validation path again. You can see how upgrading is more expensive that just the cost of the new software. You want those clients to say "OK, it is time to upgrade this old system. The components we used were so good and the company behind it so helpful we should use their products again."

So, support for an older version, not forever, but for a reasonable time, not for new features, but to keep things running, is important. That's all I want to bring to the table.