Oftentimes, I will have an awesome tower in my edit suite, a less than awesome tower at my audio workstation, and a relatively functional laptop for on the go.  Unless I want to buy three dongles, I can't upgrade my software unless I want to upgrade all three computers.  If newer dongles could run all versions before it, then I could happily cut with Xpress 3.5 on my laptop, xpress 5.4 at the audio workstation and 5.8 at the editing station.

This would also be a boon to film schools.  If dongles were backward compatible, we could lend out dongles like we lend out our cameras, lights, and sound gear.  The kids would then be able to edit with whatever version of Avid would work on their computers.  With the thousands of dollars the school saves on computers and knowing that they would be infinitely compatibility, we could buy a LOT more licenses and constantly keep them up to date.

If advertised properly, you could sew up the market for film schools pretty quickly - and you'd make my life sooooo much easier.

-Spencer

Spencer, you are asking to make a dongle compatible with two different products. Not only that but two products that are discontinued. 3.5 was an XDV release and the dongle is not compatible with 'Pro.

Avid dongles are 100% backwards compatible within product families. Things are going to be a lot easier now that there is only MC to worry about.