iLife and iWord question...

[briansanderson]

I have multiple macs here at home and I was wondering how many machines you can install this software on. I mean do I have to buy a copy of iLife and iWork for each mac or can I just install it on however many macs I want. Thanks for the info.

[bobw]

According to the license, it'll probably say only for use on one machine, but I have Apple programs from the same disk on two machines and haven't had any problem.

Unless Apple puts a network checker in like MS does.

[fryke]

The problem would be it's _illegal_, bobw. License is quite clearly single user. You might argue you only use it on one machine at any given time, though, should Apple's lawyers ever get to you...

[MBHockey]

Why doesn't Apple have serial numbers for their operating systems?

[andychrist]

I doubt Apple seriously expects all of its customers to purchase separate licenses for each Mac they own. The restriction simply offers them legal recourse against wide spread abuse, as well as limiting their support help to one registered user per purchase.

A short time ago I noticed some share-ware vendors starting to grant double-use licenses, on the assumption that many users owned both a desktop and a portable.

[fryke]

MBHockey: Mostly because the OS comes with the computer, so your computer is a license, basically. And because being nice to the user pays off at the end of the day. I pay for my Mac OS X licenses. Gladly so.

[fryke]

And btw. Mac OS X Server uses a serial number.

[MBHockey]

Interesting, thanks.