the end of an era

[kareina]

Back in 1994 I moved back north to enrol in a Masters in Geology program at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. They offered a computers in geology course, which I took. One of the programs they introduced us to was CorelDraw, which, being a vector graphics program, was totally saleable. The following summer I did field work in the Brooks Range, which meant I wasn't paying rent anywhere, but was earning a salary. As a result I was able to buy my very first computer (a Pentium 75), and, among other programs I installed CorelDraw (version 6). I used that program to do digital versions of my geologic maps and cross-sections from my field work. I even went to the effort of using the program to trace a scanned version of the topographic map from my field area, so that it would scale properly with the map itself. I continued to use that version of the program until I moved to Italy in 2009 for my first post-doctoral position, and had the money to buy a new computer (which replaced the one I had inherited from my step-dad, which had replaced the Pentium 75). When I bought that computer I opted to buy a newer version of Corel (version X5), which I had been happily using ever since for all of my drawing needs, especially for illustrations for papers or conference posters.

However, one random day a couple of months ago the program suddenly gave me some weird error message claiming that it was an illegal copy and that important features like save would be turned off as a result, and offering me "amnesty" if I just buy a legal copy now. Having paid good money for the program, and still having the CD's and licence key I opened a case with the company expressing my unhappiness at being falsely accused of theft and asking them how to get the computer to understand that there was nothing illegal about this copy. The first person to see the case replied that he would need to refer it to someone else, and they would get back to me "soon".

Some weeks elapsed, during which I learned to avoid opening the program at all, and just do things in Paint if at all possible, as I really didn't like being scolded by my computer for a crime I didn't commit, while it attempts extortion. Eventually a task came up for which I really needed the program, so I tried opening it, was able to accomplish the task, then copy the result into paint via windows snipping tool to save it (since Corel had disabled saving). At that point I tried their web based chat help, but the lady there, when she found out that there was already an open case said she couldn't do anything, promised to poke the people who could, and I got an email saying the new case was closed due to being a duplicate. However, another week or three elapsed without my hearing anything more from them.

So I found the (now months old) email from them and replied asking if they could solve this problem. A new person replied explaining that my licence key had been used for too many computers. I replied asking if it is not permitted to transfer the program to a new computer when the old one dies? He said that one is supposed to uninstall it on one computer before putting it on the next. I pointed out that this hasn't always been possible, as I have needed to replace computers when they died. He said that the licence is only good for two computers, I pointed out that just now it is only present on one working computer. He gave me instructions for how to delete the messages. It worked that day. However, now, a couple of days later, when I opened the program I am once again getting false accusations combined with extortion attempts.

So I asked Google what my options are, and I have downloaded Inkscape, and confirmed that yes, one can, in fact, open the old Corel files with it, and edit them. As a bonus, this seems to be an easier program to use, with fewer of the bells and whistles I never used.

Tomorrow I will probably put it on the other computer too, and then just avoid CorelDraw in the future. I spent many years as a happy, and loyal customer, but right now I will be perfectly happy to never touch their product again. I see that Inkscape, while free, does ask people to donate. I suspect that once I have used it for a real project (like an illustration for a paper), and I confirm that it works, I will probably give them some money in thanks.

Comments

[katerit]

I can certainly see switching.

[etfb]

Unfortunately, my experience with Inkscape has been uniformly awful. Make sure you save often, like every five minutes, because it has a habit under both Windows and Linux of crashing randomly. You get what you pay for.

[kareina]

Corel has always crashed randomly on me too, and that I paid for. Due to the frequent corel crashes I never wait a whole five minutes before saving when working on drawings.