MathCAD 15- 'Global Maintenance Support is required'

[GregBohn]

Hi;

I received an e-mail offer for an 'upgrade' to Mathcad 15. In the text it says that this comes with one year of maintenance. It also says:

'PTC Global Maintenance Support is required with the Mathcad 15.0 license.'

So, should I interpret this to mean that after the included one year of maintainance expires, you can no longer use MathCAD 15 unless you pay for further maintenance?

Also, is it still the case that you are no longer entitled to use (Single User) MathCAD 14 if you accept this offer?

Thanks;

-Greg

[MikeArmstrong]

You could contact the Mathcad license and install team.

-.

Might be able to clarify the issue.

Mike

[IRstuff]

An upgrade is NOT a new license, it's a modification of the existing license, so you only have one legal license, not two. If you buy the full M15 license, then you would be legally entitled to have your M14 concurrently running on your machine.

However, my understanding is that M15 uninstalls M14, but I'm not sure if that's under all conditions.

TTFN

[RichardJ]

However, my understanding is that M15 uninstalls M14, but I'm not sure if that's under all conditions

Yes it is. They are not compatible. Up to version 11 we couldn't have two versions installed at once. Then with version 12 Mathsoft fixed that, so it could coexist (with a couple of limitations)\ with version 11. versions 13 and 14 could also coexist, so we could have, licensee issues aside, any combination of 11, 12, 13 and 14. PTC then unfixed it so we are back where we were years ago

To answer the original question though, no. When your maintenance expires that's all that expires. You can still use version 15, just without support or bug fixes.

[PhilipOakley]

My understanding is that you get the normal perpetual licence for the specific product (i.e. V15), and that for a period of one year from the upgrade, you can ask technical support for help on problems, and then after that....

After the the year is up you will be sent reminders to buy another years support, with the ability to get free upgrades (usually),

Or you don't get any support and you have to buy your next amazing upgrade, probably at a price that is slightly higher than the maintenance.

So if you like having the latest version, pay the annual fees, if you skip versions, then could you use the support, if not ....

That's the way I see it.

Philip

PS an upgrade isn't an extra licence, you simply transfer your existing (single) perpetual licence onto the new version, so you can only have one version at a time. (unless you have actually paid for two full versions)

[GregBohn]

> PS an upgrade isn't an extra licence, you simply transfer your existing (single) perpetual licence onto the new

> version, so you can only have one version at a time.

I wasn't really thinking of this giving you an 'extra' license. I was contemplating whether you would still be able to choose to continue to use V14 instead if V15 turned out to have an incompatibility or problem with old .mcd files (or if it just generally stank...).

Looking at the past history of MathCad, new versions have'nt always been greeted as being improvements over the prior versions...

Last I knew they explicitly wanted you to destroy any V14 capability, and thus burn your bridges behind you.

Personally, I think it's kind of silly to prevent a 'single user' from being able to use an older version of the same program. But, I've come to expect no less from PTC.

-Greg

[IRstuff]

Gregory Bohn wrote:

> PS an upgrade isn't an extra licence, you simply transfer your existing (single) perpetual licence onto the new

> version, so you can only have one version at a time.

I wasn't really thinking of this giving you an 'extra' license. I was contemplating whether you would still be able to choose to continue to use V14 instead if V15 turned out to have an incompatibility or problem with old .mcd files (or if it just generally stank...).

Looking at the past history of MathCad, new versions have'nt always been greeted as being improvements over the prior versions...

Last I knew they explicitly wanted you to destroy any V14 capability, and thus burn your bridges behind you.

Personally, I think it's kind of silly to prevent a 'single user' from being able to use an older version of the same program. But, I've come to expect no less from PTC.

-Greg

That's not what you asked in the original question.

> If you save the license file from M14, then you can uninstall M15 and reinstall M14 and replace the license file and you should be able to resume operations in M14

> M15 isn't really a new version. Most users would consider it to be M14 M045 or thereabouts. This is another reason why M15 and M14 can't really coexist on the same machine.

TTFN

[RichardJ]

> M15 isn't really a new version.

How true. A new version in name (and price) only.

[GregBohn]

> That's not what you asked in the original question.

Errr, yes it is. Granted, this may have been ambiguous. But, the question:

"Also, is it still the case that you are no longer entitled to use (Single User) Mathcad 14 if you accept this offer?"

can be be interpreted to include the question you responded to, my subsequent statement about being able to revert to Version 14, as well as both...

But, that's really beside the point.

In my case, I only use Mathcad in my hobbies (since at least version 4. I think I still have the diskettes somewhere). I'm the only one who uses it.

At this point I'd rather forgo upgrading then buy multiple copies just to be able to keep the option open to use an older version (despite what PTCs business model might hope for).

In fact, after looking around a bit more, it doesn't sound like V15 offers me much that I really need at this time anyway.

-Greg

[MikeArmstrong]

In fact, after looking around a bit more, it doesn't sound like V15 offers me much that I really need at this time anyway.

Correct. If you have the latest version of M14, which is M14.0.20 I think there isn't much point upgrading.

The future versions of Mathcad probably won't offer much more than M15 does for a while either - looks like you'll be equated with M14 for a while .

Mike

[dpsycho]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering if its time to upgrade to the next version. I have 3 single user licences of MC14 spread to 3 computers and haven't looked at upgrading till now. I guess I'll hang on for another year or so and check back later. Besides, it 'll be a hasle to change my library to any next version.

[MikeArmstrong]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering if its time to upgrade to the next version. I have 3 single user licences of MC14 spread to 3 computers and haven't looked at upgrading till now.

It all depends on what your after. I have M15 and the compatibility with Excel (Excel 2007) is much better than M14. There are a few more benifit's but I can't think at the moment. You could look at upgrading to Prime 1.0 which comes with a complementary version of M15. That way you will get the latest version of Mathcad and get PTC's new product to try out.

While Prime 1.0 isn't at the level of M15, this is PTC's new product and layout, so it might be worthwhile familirising yourself with it.

Mike