My problem is I only have access to my desktop at weekends, but always have my laptop with me. Neither machine is anything special the iMac is a quad core 2.7 i5, has 12G of RAM and a Radeon HD 6770M 512M graphics card. The MacBook is a dual core 2.5 i5, has 10G or RAM and integrated Intel 4000 graphics.

I am going to have Indie on one, and Apprentice on the other - and due to the different file formats I need to make the right decision as to which way round I do it.

Since I have the laptop with me all week it seems most sensible to install Indie on that - but it is the weaker machine. The significant difference is the graphics card (and perhaps the two less cores). Is the Intel integrated graphics a big problem? I have installed Apprentice on both - without issue.

By the way I have wanted to invest time in learning Houdini for a few years but never got beyond watching a few tutorials, and doing a FXPhd course, since the lack of export options of HD I saw as a show stopper. So for me Indie is a great step forward. I think $200 a year is a great price. I doubt I will ever make money so the non-commercial aspect is less significant to me - but to have the option is fantastic value.

My inclination would be to save the Indie license for the machine most likely to handle heavy-duty rendering. Doesn't look like a floating license with a network server is a viable option in Indie's licensing terms [sidefx.com].

For the integrated graphics, setting the environment variable HOUDINI_OGL_SOFTWARE to 0 may improve performance [sidefx.com].