Thoughts on Ilok?

[wuworld]

I'm starting to not like it. I'm thinking of ditching certain plugins that have it. It can be a pain sometimes.

[vurt]

i keep my thoughts in a notebook, not on an ilok.

[SoftSynthLover99]

iLok is no issue for me. I’ve heard horror stories but for a decade or so all plugins that use iLok have worked great and never had any issues on the many systems I’ve used. I only use MacOS so maybe windows users are different

[Frankie.T]

I had a bad experience in the past with this system, so i decided to avoid any iLok plugins, i don't care if they are good, cause there are always alternatives.

My first options are FabFilter and Melda, cause you can use their product even offline, and this is the most respectful way for users, no need to connect to servers or stuff like that and i'm happy to support companies that work like that.
I had trouble in the past also with other auth system just because my GPU was broken and i had to change it, it was a pain in the ass to enter every damn procedure for every plugins i have remove the old pc even if the pc is the same!!! but the id change because of different hardware.

[plexuss]

I have been using iLok keys for 7 years now with no issues. I prefer iLok to other forms of DRM for its ease of use and having all my license info in one place. I use two keys, one is a backup.

[MJACau]

iLok was born of time of more neurotic copy protections and we all had dialup modems.
I just wish with iLok I could deauthorize on a webpage and not the clunky app. As storage hardware has a finite life span.
(I know if hardware is beyond revival that you can ask for the lost activation from vendors, so if you have a lot of ilok apps that sounds like a funtime )

I'm not looking forward to upgrading, or doing reinstall with iLok apps.
I think Plugin Alliance and MeldaProduction do it right. (As do others)
My 2 cents.

[fese]

Definitely preferable to some home-cooked challenge response auth. No issues in years of using. Only drawback is the slow loading time of some iLok-plugins (but that can be achieved without iLok, too…) and developers who only issue one license.

[foosnark]

I don't avoid plugins with iLok, but I dislike it. It's annoying and messy and adds extra steps when trying to demo, etc.

I just checked and found I have 47 licenses in my account:

- 41 of them are expired demos.
- 1 of them is a soon-to-expire demo license.
- 1 is something I transferred to someone else and I shouldn't still have a valid license.
- 1 is a free plugin but I don't actually have it installed and it has 0 activations.
- 2 are plugins I actually use (*).
- 1 is something I own, but stopped using and isn't installed.

(*) Fundamental and SurferEQ. Both of which I like, but could live without if I ever just completely lost my patience with iLok. Thankfully, once something is installed and registered, you don't really have to mess with it.

Maybe I should just stop demoing things that use iLok, since I end up using so few of them anyway.

[escalona]

You will hear two opinions:
1. Ilok is hell, I'll never touch a company that uses it
2. Ilok is great, never had a problem
I belong to group #2. Now, some companies offering the cloud option... never worked perfectly fine with me. I put everything on the stick.

[rageix]

Personally I hate it. A few months ago I did a BIOS update, and it thought my computer was a different computer. It locked all my licenses, so I had to contact ALL the vendors for the plugins I have and have them reset my licenses. ILok support was useless and says it's up to the vendors to reset all the license even though it is their program that f**ked up.

It does play into my purchase decision but problem is there are still a lot of vendors with fantastic plugins that use it sadly.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

My thoughts on iLok are this:

1. I don't like that it HAS to exist
2. Too many good devs use it for me not to
3. Overall, it seems to work - at least the hardware protection
4. I won't fool around with "machine based" iLok for anything other than demo licenses - never messed around with the Cloud either
5. Spend the money on the dongle - you'll be glad you did in the long run
6. Once you've got a license activated on your hardware iLok dongle - it's completely transparent and kind of nice system
7. If your iLok starts misbehaving, replace it before you have to go begging for licenses

[foosnark]

You will hear two opinions:

Three. "It kind of sucks, but I deal with it."

Like many things in life.

[chk071]

I'm starting to not like it.

Any particular reason for that?

[Teksonik]

1. I haven't purchased a plugin that requires the iLok software manager in a very long time and have no plans to do so in the future. At this point I consider it malware. When and if I build a new system it will not be infected with iLok even though that means I'll lose access to a handful of plugins.

2. I refuse to pay extra money for a Dongle just to protect the intellectual property of someone else especially when the IP that I create using that software can't be similarly protected.

There are too many other options available to have to deal with any developer that uses iLok. I would be happy if iLok would simply cease to exist.

But I know others disagree and that's fine, to each their own.

One thing I can say for sure is that iLok is one of the most contentious subjects you could possibly bring up at KVR so expect things to go south fairly quickly.....

[vurt]

I'm starting to not like it.

Any particular reason for that?

bought a new usb projector and a usb camera, plus a usb coffee warmer
i need my usb ports!!!

(not really, nothing against a dongle, just for some reason nothing i use has one...)