Perpetual License Expiration

[vroberts]

I have been using Mathcad for over 20 years, and currently have a support plan.  It's support renewal time again and I'm being told my perpetual license for Mathcad will expire if I do not renew my support plan. How does a perpetual license expire? 

[Werner_E]

If its really a perpetual license it won't expire in the sense that software will not be working. But Mathcad 15 will not be maintained or supported by PTC anymore and if for some reason MC15 won't work OK anymore in a new OS, you are out of luck (unless you had moved it to a VM in a timely manner.

So the software will still work but you can't expect (and so can't pay for) PTC support anymore.

I'd also suspect that getting a new license file in case you move the software to another machine will be more complicated than it used to be.

Possibly @DJNewman  can provide further details.

[DJNewman]

"I'm being told"

I'm curious who is telling OP that. Is that a member of PTC renewal sales? Is it a PTC partner?

Our third-to-last question in our public FAQ is pretty clear: https://www.mathcad.com/en/-/media/files/pdfs/mathcad/end-of-sale-mathcad-faq-en.pdf

[vroberts]

You are correct, I should have made it clear this was not a rumor I read on social media 😊

The statement was made in the renewal email from the company that sells me my support agreement each year.

[vroberts]

Yes, Maintenance Reseller Corporation (MRC).   

[DJNewman]

Thanks; I sent you a private message about this.

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

One way to check is to look in the license file. a perpetual license will have this in the file:

#MATHCAD 6 Mathcad Professional - Float Prime 6.0 Flt Lic perm

A subscription with an expiration date will have this:

#MathcadPrime 1 Mathcad Home Use License Prime 8.0 Lic 02-mar-2023

Maybe it is just your VAR trying to scare you into updating to a newer version with a subscription.

[vroberts]

Thank you. You are correct.

The license file for my main machine says “expiration date = permanent.”

The license file for my other machine, which I know I will lose if I do not re-up, says “expiration date = 30-apr-2023.”