Stuart,
I have been a user of ESRI GIS since ArcINFO 7.1. I attended my first preconference seminar regarding the development of an ArcHydro data model back in 1998 and have attended Dr. Maidment's GIS in Water Resoures program. Although I am not a regular to this forum, I am far from 'new'. I have posted to ESRI User forum's in the past, but it is not a common or recent need.
I am a federal employee within the Department of the Interior. DOI's network security is fairly restrictive. I can not simply install Filezilla, open port 22 and other tasks on a whim.
Frankly, my big frustration is understanding why the fuss to limit access to this software to begin with. The market is fairly limited and I do not understand any significant need to have such a restriction to access this software. Additionally, considering versions of this software that will work with ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1 are easily accessible, why is there a hoop to jump through to acquire a version that will run on 10.2? If it is a beta version with possible bugs, ample disclaimers can be given.
So, could someone please answer the basic question, what is the need to have such restrictions to access this software in place to begin with? It makes it considerably more difficult for some of us, who work under restrictive network security configurations, to acquire and use.
Thanks,
Terry!