( ESNUG 319 Item 8 ) --------------------------------------------- [5/26/99]
From: [ I Am Sparticus ]
Subject: The Revolting Way Avant!/InterHDL Now Sells Its Verilint Tool
Hi John,
Years ago I was a beta site customer for InterHDL's Verilint tool. It
wasn't a very good tool in those days but it showed promise and I sent in a
bunch of test cases of things it failed on and things it should have found.
If you called InterHDL in those days, you got Eli Sternheim personally.
Eventually the tool was released and we bought a copy. It didn't use
Flexlm which was a pain, but it wasn't a big deal.
Somewhere in there InterHDL figured out each customer only needed one copy
because the tool is just a syntax checker and ran pretty fast. To help
their sales they put in a 27 minute timer that allowed access to only one
user for that time. This was the first way they screwed their customers.
We only bought one anyway - so there!
Now Avant! has purchased InterHDL & sent a fax to all the Verilint customers
offering to "upgrade" the license to flexlm and remove the 27 minute timer
-- all for only $10K and $7K in annual maintenance. This for a tool that
originaly cost less than $10K. That's screw number 2. If you want to buy
the tool new from Avant! the list is $47K!!! Screw 3. Sheesh, that's more
than a verilog license. Who are they kidding? This thing is a SYNTAX
checker.
By the way: if you decide not to upgrade, they'll give you a permanent key
for the old tool - forever locked to the machine you specify -- they'll
never allow a future rehost! Screw 4.
What a way to run a business.
No name please - I haven't got my final permanent key yet.
- [ I Am Sparticus ]
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