Student version running on different OS and machine at a time

Hi, I have a dual-boot PC with Windows and Linux installed. If I buy a student version, can I install and run Matlab on the same computer but under different OS? Since this is a dual boot machine, it will be one OS at a time.

Also, can I switch between my Mac and the PC running Windows 10 and Linux if I only run one license at a time?

[Rik]

What I have understood from previous questions like this, is that officially you should be able to use Matlab on the same machine in dual-boot with a student licence, but that in practice it can be tricky.

Moving around your licence a lot is made difficult to avoid multiple people sharing the same licence. I would not count on moving your activation from mac to pc and vice versa more than once a month, if even.

I don't work for Mathworks, so this is just my understanding. If you want an official answer you should contact support.

[lovematlab]

Thanks. My Mac laptop is my main machine but it does not have as many RAM and power as my desktop PC. Does Matlab Support has an email address?

[Raymond Norris]

Hi,

You can email Technical Support at [e-mail].

Raymond

[lovematlab]

Thank you

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

can I install and run Matlab on the same computer but under different OS? Since this is a dual boot machine, it will be one OS at a time.

Yes! Your license is good for all operating systems on the same host.

Quite a number of releases ago, MATLAB on Windows running on Bootcamp grabbed my hard disk serial number as the hardware identifier, but for quite a while now, under the same circumstances, it has grabbed my ethernet MAC address to use as the hardware identifier. As that is the same MAC address that is found for running while booted for MacOS, as far as Mathworks is concerned, it is exactly the same "activation" and does not "use up" anything that running a single OS would not use up.

can I switch between my Mac and the PC running Windows 10 and Linux if I only run one license at a time?

Some people have reported success in using a Student license to activate on two different hosts at the same time. However, the license terms do not permit that for Student licenses or Home licenses. I inquired once at Mathworks and was told that the actual limit is activations on two hosts, but when I pointed to the license wording Mathworks got confused and had no answer for me. The majority of students who have made the attempt and posted about it here, have reported failure.

Now, there are licenses made available to students by universities under the university Total Academic Headcount license. Those licenses are considered Academic licenses, and those licenses can be activated on two hosts simultaneously.