How many FM users are there?

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

Hi Diane,

Adobe should know how many licenses they have _sold_. How many are
_using_ FM is a different matter. I guess they are somewhat fewer. I
base that assumption on the fact that you can get used FM second hand
(including all paperwork). This leads me to assume that a (small?)
number of licenses are no longer in use.

Also, CDs get lost and Adobe probably do not want to replace a lost CD
even if you have all the information about the CD, the invoice etc. At
least, I don't know anyone who has tried to get a software company of
this size to send a replacement CD.

Example from my experience:
My IT department lost our copy of Adobe CS1 (which is 50-100% more
expensive here than in the US, thanks to the centuries old feudal
system these so-called "International businesses" commonly use -- they
sometimes seem not to have heard of the Internet!), but luckily it
showed up again nearly a year later.
They have lost a lot of other software CDs. Luckily most of those are
outdated anyway.

I guess not many are using illegal copies of FM. FM is simply not a
kind of software that you can use powerfully on your own without a lot
of learning and support. Which makes it awkward, to say the least, to
use an illegal copy.

Start a project to have FM users register as users (anonymous to
Adobe, of course, if there should be any people actually trying to use
an illegal copy!).

However, I guess that this would be a difficult task, and, many, as
with our company, are using it only temporarily, being replaced by
others etc; which would probably mean that we could only expect a
maximum of 1/4-1/2 of the actual users to register. I would guess even
fewer.

<grin>So why not get the guys who write "Numbers" to come up with a
formula to calculate the users. It takes less than an hour on the
show! </grin>

Seats here: 6. Users: 3 (for now).

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
Iceland

On 5/9/07, Diane Gaskill <dgcaller at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I know Adobe keeps all of their numbers a Big Secret, but I am creating a comparison spreadsheet in my research on FM vs AT and I need to have a general idea of how many FM seats have been installed.  FM has been in use since the late 1980s and I would estimate at least 100K seats.  If anyone on the list can provide an more accurate number, I'd really appreciate the information.  Incidentally, PTC says they have 20K installed seats.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Diane
> _______________________________________________
>
>