MYOB sees the light

I bought MYOB in 2002 (or so) to do my accounting with. I still use it, but I never upgraded from the original version because right after I bought it, MYOB Inc. put in the most draconian copy protection I have yet encountered. Where most big-ticket software requires you to enter an activation code when you install it, MYOB didn’t stop there: periodically, at unannounced intervals, it would “phone home” to the mothership to double-check … uh, something … and if it didn’t get the answer it expected, for whatever reason, it would take some unspecified action to begin to lock down your access to your own data.

Many people seemed to think this was OK.

I didn’t. I boycotted.

I don’t know… quaint old-fashioned notions that once I pay for something, it should actually be mine. That buying software that is engineered to fail is like buying a car with a bomb embedded in the engine, to be detonated if the manufacturer deems it necessary.

Anyway, I was unable to find a replacement for MYOB that would do what I needed, so I manually moved my old version forward from machine to machine and luckily it has kept working. The good news, though, is that MYOB just sold off the software to Acclivity, and one of the first things these people did was yank that crap out and go back to normal, install-time activation, the once-off proof-of-ownership process that it should be, and that most other systems use.

http://acclivity.tumblr.com/post/372523580/stick-with-the-standards

So: a spectactular flying middle finger to the previous MYOB owners, and a (cautious) welcome to the new one. I look forward to upgrading for the first time in 8 years.