All Orders 6 client can be open without QB being open on the client...however this implies that a QB file was at least open once to create the All Orders company file. This QB file must have been set to have the Integrated Applications Preference in QB to allow All Orders to open the QB company file without QB being open.
Having said this and assuming that the QB file has the correct preference, All Orders can be open and WHILE QB DOES NOT HAVE TO BE OPEN IT HAS TO BE INSTALLED. This allows the licensing of QB to be satisfied.
This only matters if information needs to be saved to QB. If information does not need to be saved or posted to QB on a particular workstation a user in NC can be setup having "no quickbooks access"...any item, vendors, customers created or any invoicing or receiving done by this user will go into a SyncQ visible from Company -> Synchronization -> SyncQ manager (using the admin account)
To AVOID THE LICENSING requirement, the way to open NC without QB BEING OPEN AND/OR INSTALLED is thru RDS (remote data services)