[geeks] generating unique systemids

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:07:36 -0500
Brian Dunbar <brian.dunbar at liftport.com> wrote:

> Doug McLaren wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 27, 2007 at 02:57:00PM -0400, Dave K wrote:
> > 
> > | On 8/27/07, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:
> > | > Does anyone know a decent way to generate a unique system ID
> > | > for a PC server running FreeBSD?
> > | 
> > | First thought that popped into mind:
> > | 
> > | MAC Address of the primary interface?
> > 
> > That is the answer used by most commercial software that creates and
> > uses system IDs for licensing purposes.
> > 
> > Of course, the problems tend to be --
> > 
> >   -- which interface is the primary?  You might think you know, but
> >      often you just don't, or the smallest system change will change
> >      the order of the interfaces.
> > 
> >   -- MAC IDs are easy to change.
> 
> At some point you have to trust your customers.
> 
> Being treated as a thief is a huge turn-off.  One of our vendors insists
> on putting their keys on a USB dongle because with a software key we
> could (potentially) install a new server and not pay for it.

Licenses are not just used to keep a customer from being a thief.

They are also used to make sure that a customer gets the right software when
they do upgrades, etc.

Don't assume that every use of a license is anti-customer.



-- 
shannon / Asus A8N5X - Opteron 170 at 2.5GHz | But you know, a little Sun Ultra 1
-------'  2GB RAM - nVidia 7900GS         | is doing all the hard work...