Donation edition: How best to donate for my use-case?

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Posts: 5
Joined: 2 Dec 2019

stratum

We are an IT company and we use FreeFileSync often for doing server or workstation migrations. I would like to donate and am wondering how best to do so. I read over the multi-user scenario and it doesn’t quite seem to apply to us. Here’s our use case:

- We have 7 technicians
- We do many migrations, usually remotely, and in each case FreeFileSync portable is downloaded to the computer, the migration is performed, and then it is removed.

Because we do most of our work remotely, the portable edition is never “installed” on a USB key, it is downloaded to each computer and run. In my mind the use is very similar, but based on what I’ve read, the suggestion is that we should have an activation for each server we migrate. Is this true? Is there any license we could have that is “per-technician”?

We really like FreeFileSync and I’d like to contribute but it would be infeasible (both technically and practically) for us to do so on a per-computer basis.
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Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Correct, downloading even the portable edition to the local disk will count as activation. You may want to look if there is a way to mount a virtual USB drive or network drive.. There is not any "per-tech" licensing. You could also just download and use a free version instead
Posts: 5
Joined: 2 Dec 2019

stratum

Yes, we have used the free version in the past but we'd really like to support free file sync and use a non-install copy as it's almost always a one-time data migration job.
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Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Donate just for the sake of supporting then, but there is no option for your use case unfortunately. Robocopy may be a better native/portable alternative in your workflow
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Joined: 9 Dec 2007

Zenju

I don't know how to distinguish a "one time use" from a permanent installation (without adding permanent internet requirement for FFS). Maybe we can get around it: I'll be revising the multi-user donation concept (and make it much cheaper). Maybe this decreases the demand for "one time use" and allows to just leave FFS there as a regular installation.
Posts: 5
Joined: 2 Dec 2019

stratum

Would it be possible to allow one or two runs without requiring activation on a given machine, and then only require activation after that?
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Posts: 3551
Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Sorry to wake this old thread up, I was 'indexing' some info.
What's the benefit of using the portable version versus just installing the free version? As a tech, I see the convenience of portable but it takes like 3 clicks to install the free version, and very little to open appwiz.cpl and uninstall it.
Posts: 5
Joined: 2 Dec 2019

stratum

It's been a while so I've forgotten exactly what the reasoning was.

One thing I would guess is that we generally like to leave as minimal an impact on the system and be able to do our job with as minimal credentials required so installing, even if we uninstall afterward runs contrary to that.

It's also another step that a tech might forget, leaving our donation edition installed on a customer system and thereby violating the license agreement.