Thoughts on Ilok?

[MJACau]

I could have easily used "and" without any material change to the meaning.

But you didn't. See what did I did there, my humourless contrarian buddy pal friend.

Oh by the way iLok is the best.

[BONES]

What you did there was use a word in a very different context and the alternative in that case would be "except".

[jamcat]

iLok is alright. Better than Waves Central.
PA-InstallationManager and Arturia Software Center are better.

[The Noodlist]

iLok is alright. Better than Waves Central.
PA-InstallationManager and Arturia Software Center are better.

Ilok is copy protection license manager, the others a mainly a mixture of installers with some license management.

I think the PA installer could be improved with the addition of a update checker, uninstaller and the option to choose installation destination.

[MJACau]

I think iLok one step from being really useful, they just need add a authorizing/de-authorizing online not just from the licencing manager.
PA , Arturia and Melba clearly understand their customers needs.

[kidslow]

iLok is alright. Better than Waves Central.
PA-InstallationManager and Arturia Software Center are better.

Arturia leaves a process resident in memory at boot-up too. I would rate them below iLOK, and I am no fan. Waves Central is shit. Melda's updater is shit. IK's is worse. All license managers have their deficits.

HoRNet and vendors who don't play DRM are to be lauded. The true heroes are the ones who open source their code.

[digitalboytn]

Thoughts on iLok ?

Now where will we start ?

[mothra]

Havent had any issues with it in the years I've been using it. All my stuff is machine licensed, except for MIDI Quest and a McDSP bundle I have that are cloud licenses. Never had any downtime or licenses crap out on me. Only sold one plugin so far, and the transfer was about the easiest thing in the world. Had to have Eventide return a license I left on an old Mac Pro, literally only had to wait the weekend for it to come back. Submitted my request on a Friday afternoon, had my license back bright and early monday morning.

Although I am thinking now I should probably buy a dongle and use that. I always end up forgetting something when I do reformats/reinstalls so better safe than sorry next time haha.

[chk071]

iLok is OK, never had an issue with it. I only use dongle activation for my licenses though, as I was told that machine activation could be an issue to restore in case of a hard drive failure.

[Adinoff]

Cannot stand it, if a plugin has ILOK im not buying it

[jamcat]

iLok is alright. Better than Waves Central.
PA-InstallationManager and Arturia Software Center are better.

Ilok is copy protection license manager, the others a mainly a mixture of installers with some license management.

I think the PA installer could be improved with the addition of a update checker, uninstaller and the option to choose installation destination.

iLok and Waves both need the ability to deauthorize a computer remotely through your user account. Both Plugin Alliance and Arturia have that ability, which is what makes them better. Extra points for Arturia for keeping your software current. Same for the IK Product Manager.

Arturia leaves a process resident in memory at boot-up too. I would rate them below iLOK, and I am no fan. Waves Central is shit. Melda's updater is shit. IK's is worse. All license managers have their deficits.

IK's manager is very unintrusive. Its only flaw is that like Waves and iLok, you have to deauthorize from the same computer to reclaim your authorization. But IK is super generous and gives you 10 authorizations, which is the best in the industry by a lot.

And so what if Arturia leaves a process in the memory from boot-up? Windows leaves hundreds. What's one more?

[tactile_coast]

Definitely avoid ILOK if you can.

Its an outdated user hostile protection system that requires genuine users to hold the risk of a very aggressive licensing mechanism whilst providing zero protection to developers (the security mechanisms have long been cracked and regularly exploited by pirates).

Based on personal recent experience there are severe consequences for genuine paying customers when inevitably the licensing software does not work as intended. At the best this for me has included loss of licenses due to trivial changes in hardware/component failure, at the worst it has necessitated purchasing entire replacement system drives to rebuild an ILOK corrupted primary partition.

You forgot to say "IMHO" and "YMMV".

Nope because both IMHO and YMMV are subjective according to your personal experience.

Whereas the risk, though fortunately not always manifest for all, that the ILOK mechanism exposes you to is a certainty for every user. You may not experience it but you are still exposed to the risk.

Though they are comparatively rare events hardware failure WILL cause you to lose a license and an errant ILOK installer can use its capability to BRICK your primary drive.

[jamcat]

Cannot stand it, if a plugin has ILOK im not buying it

I couldn't imagine going without Eventide, East West Opus, or Relab LX480.

[jamcat]

Though they are comparatively rare events hardware failure WILL cause you to lose a license and an errant ILOK installer can use its capability to BRICK your primary drive.

Most iLok licenses no longer require an iLok USB. They exist now primarily for convenience.

You will not lose your license. If your iLok or computer with a license dies, just contact the plugin vendor and they will reset it and you get it back.

I've never heard of an iLok installer bricking your primary drive. Tell me more.

[chk071]

I've never heard of an iLok installer bricking your primary drive. Tell me more.

Are you sure you're ready for even more BS?