Meaning – The term seat, refers to a slang term that refers to the number of licensed users of a software product, which is the same as the number of installations of the product. For example, if there were 100 Lotus Notes seats, there would be 100 licensed users of Lotus Notes (or 100 installations of Lotus Notes).
Those with a seat license are identified in the system directory; only they can access the protected software. Thus, each user’s computer is considered a seat.
Microsoft often uses the per-seat type of license. When there are more computer connections than purchased seat licenses, problems arise. Thus, it is better to use only the seat licenses purchased.
Example of usage – “Per seat licensing is administered by providing user-level security to the directory containing the program. One alternative is the concurrent user license, based on the number of simultaneous users—regardless of which individuals they are—accessing the program. It typically deals with software running in the server where users connect via the network.”
