Licensing: individual “office” use

[astromechanic]

Hi,

we are a SME and in preparation for upcoming business shut downs because of the corona virus in our area, we are evaluating our options.

What we intend to do is to give developers access to their individual workstations in office using some “remote desktop” solution. NoMachine is one of the solutions we’re currently testing.

Unfortunately I’m not 100% sure about the licensing requirements for such a setup. Like I said, it would be 1 person connecting to their physical workstation using NoMachine.

Can someone enlighten me? Thanks in advance!

[Britgirl]

Hi, what are you looking to install on the remote computers you need to provide access to? NoMachine and/or Enterprise Desktop?

On the connecting clients you can install the free NoMachine package or Enterprise Client, it’s up to you. For the remote computers it really depends what the users are doing and in what numbers.

Have you read this article?

Is NoMachine for remote desktop free?
https://www.nomachine.com/AR03P00972

[astromechanic]

Hi,

the setup should look like this:

one developer@home -> VPN -> one individual workstation@office

At home, the developers will install “what’s most reasonable”, so I guess that will be the free NoMachine package.

At the workstations@office, I guess it would be a NoMachine desktop setup. No one else but the developer will ever access or use this workstation@office.

I’ve read the article you mentioned, but unfortunately it’s not 100% clear to me 🙂

It says:

What is considered private or individual use? The list can be endless, but some typical scenarios are:

– Accessing your computer (at home or the office) to work on and view your own personal files.

[…]

– Sporadic remote administration of a computer at work.

So that’s what they will do, they will access their computers at office and work and view their personal files.

On the other hand, it says about commercial use:

A commercial user is defined as “an individual or entity, or an individual acting on behalf of an entity, who uses the Software or causes the Software to be used within or to provide commercial products or services to third parties.”

So yes, our developers would use NoMachine to connect to their workstations and work for our company. They are not providing products or services to third parties, though.

Sorry, if this is obvious and I’m just not getting it – I only want to be sure that I understand the required options 🙂

Thanks.

[Britgirl]

That article is also pretty clear in its commercial activity examples. The list is not exhaustive for obvious reasons.

– Offering access to a hosted desktop as part of your company’s services for employees or customers.

– Accessing multiple computers to carry out regular business-related activity for your organization.

If the developers are doing work for the company, and are accessing computers at your site to carry out regular business-related activity for your organization, that is considered commercial use and you would require Enterprise Desktop to be installed on those machines.

NoMachine software is free for non-commercial use. If you are using the software at work, or in a commercial environment, you are required to acquire a license for Enterprise Desktop or one of our enterprise-oriented products. Unlike some other remote access software, NoMachine doesn’t try to guess or find out whether you are using the software in a commercial-related activity, but, as the license states, if you are using our software to access a desktop for business or in your company, you are required to buy a license.
Please contact sales about volume discounts, I also believe there are some special offers available for those affected by the current crisis.

[astromechanic]

Hi,

thanks for the clearance. I *really* appreciate how you’re handling things given the current corona crisis.

It will be about 10 ppl using the software and after a brief internal discussion, we decided to purchase the 10 license pack for Enterprise Desktop nevertheless, which btw – compared to any other solution – is very affordable.

Best Regards

[Britgirl]

Good choice, it also gives you access via the browser in case the connecting clients can’t install the NoMachine package for whatever reason 🙂

[Author]

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