Web-based Statistics:
Lecture 9
Monday, May 22, 2000
Commercial Software on the Web
Possible Directions for Web-Based Commercial Software
- Scenario (A):
- user sets up an account with the software developer
- monthly charge or per-usage charge
- all computations on server side (huge machine) or
transfer of methods to client and computations on client side
(smaller machine, less usage)
- Scenario (B):
- download of commercial version from the Web with limited
expiration date (perhaps "pushup" of commercial version, i.e.,
whenever new version becomes available, it will be made
available to buyers)
Advantages of Commercial Software on the Web
- no local installation needed
- always the latest version (fastest possible update)
- fast update of Web-based documentation
Disadvantages of Commercial Software on the Web
- dependence on Web (accessibility)
- is the current version still working the same way as
previous versions (access to previous versions needed)?
- liability, e.g., what if the software is inaccessible
on the due date of a major project?
- in case of (B), what if the software is about to expire
soon and the distributor is out of business, the network
connection is down for several days, etc.?