I have looked through the books and have not found a reference to this, but my search-fu may be weak.

I know that Activesofts are limited in number in use/ max rating of each by the skillwire rating or move-by-wire rating. But what about Knowsofts and Linguasofts? Is there a max number you can have "loaded" at one time? I figure you can only have one loaded directly through a datajack, but you can have multiple through a sim-module, and no limit whatsoever on the maximum rating of a knowsoft or linguasoft.

Any thoughts?

No limit.

I have something of a problem with this too. What can you reasonably have knowsofts about? Current events? Corporate politics? It seems this kind of thing would go out of date so quickly there'd be no market.

In my game the limiting factor has been cost more than anything else.

But mechanically? No limit in the amount of downloadable knowledge that I'm aware of.

I think that getting a newsflash downloaded to your brain would basically be a low rating knowsoft, perhaps as a subscription service.

No limit on the number of Knowsofts loaded at one time? Hmm, I didn't realize that. My face-type character is going to have to start investing.

Doesn't running too many programs degrade the Response and in turn limit the ratings of the programs run? Or something like that...

Apply this to your simlink or datajack - whichever you're running the softs through.

I don't think 'knowsofts' apply to that limit either though...

It depends on your definition of the word programs. I can't recall it specifically stating it was limited to only Matrix Software so to speak (Hacking and Common use Programs). I would limit the rating to Response anyways but not have a limit on how many you can have on there, nor have it bogg down response because there's enough that does that already (seriously, run the three programs needed to just keep yourself active in AR safely and you are bogging down the average comm). I just wouldn't let you benefit from multiples at one time because really all a knowsoft is essentially a very big PDF, or at least that's how I always envisioned them.

Does that mean you can pirate skillsofts/knowsofts/linguasofts?

They are a program, right?

This. I'm stealing this.

I don't think a knowsoft is really a big pdf. That would be a datasoft, which are much cheaper. Kinda like the difference between a mapsoft and an Area Knowledge Knowsoft.

In a nutshell I think a knowsoft is actual knowledge in your head, not just a look-up table.

So why do they have people go to college anymore? Just hand out a few knowsofts and BLAM they know it all...NEXT!!

The problem is creativity, see Unwired.

Also 'softs are one of the reasons that wageslaves can be treated so badly, they fully understand just how easy it is to replace them.

Bleh!!! Requiring me to buy another book. It's on the list

Imo datasofts are limited only by storage but knowsofts count as programs b/c they do stuff.