Software Vendors Beware! You are doing yourselves in.

I remember the days when getting a copy of a basic business spreadsheet (Packed with Bugs, I might add) would throw you back over $800.00 Canadian. I am also aware of clients who for some absurd reasons have continued to purchase the same product over and over just to keep it current... Just imagine how much this "spreadsheet" as actually cost after tallying it all up! for what? for the same fracking features dressed up slightly differently after each iterations? That applications must have cost more than a new car! per clients.

Just imagine the profits... these small gradual aggregations have generated over all. Then multiply this by the number of Nodes on a typical business network, then multiply that by the number of business who are forced to renew and purchase new licenses just to ensure that the licensing is compliant. (there are even businesses entirely devoted to corporate software license compliance)

You can also count Operating Systems as part of this rant....( instead of making XP better they chose to kill it for just another good example) to be replaced with an inferior product to boot... (No Pun Intended) This time they even figured out how to boost sales to Apple doing this dance ... So much for it that Groups are popping up all over the world "Begging to Save XP" ... While it may be true that Vista may prove itself somewhere down the road, it certainly does not justify discontinuing XP as the product is rock solid and it works as intended. It does need some security updates here and there but these by no means can justify killing it or even upgrading and replacing it for that matter. So because a few of the holes that are well known to be in XP are now plugged in Vista they want you to purchase vista? They should have closed the holes in XP instead!!! Besides Vista's "new File System" as it was promised is missing in action so what actually does justify killing a good OS to replace it with Vista?

Consumers and Users have been burned long and hard by the software business. Just think of all these applications that are perfectly functional but are sometimes discontinued to be replaced by inferior versions that need to be debugged for months just to keep the profits up...

Many of the comments stated by some of the Peeps, above displayed a great deal of perception and intelligence. However, I think, in the end that Global software Piracy and the open source and shareware movements are really largely a response to this issue, although in the case of Open Source it is University's computer science departments that often are the base for these projects where many of the more important ones sometimes become commercial successes themselves later. Also I think it is worthy to mention that the majority of "Successful" applications commercially are also really controlled by a handful of monolithic and monopolistic business monsters that dominate by any means necessary...

It seems to me (perhaps I'm wrong) that most of the other small developers, at the very least the more creative ones are really simply basement operations composed of a single worker, usually living on pretzels and mineral water (betweens the necessary gallons of coffee) Which would explain why they are still able to survive... in such a nasty environment.

 

The real problem to me seems to rest on that the really good products and their conscientious talented inventers/developers like those of DefenseWall, SUPERAntiSpyware, SandboxIE and the like really do deserve some reasonable compensation for their efforts in fashioning what i love to
call 21st Century Computer Security Innovations.

I like to see the big dog comglomerates match these gentlemen's enthusiasm and concern along with such generous and forthright honest support in comparison to those monsters who have huge resources to burn for advertisements and such who seem to be toying with their products anyway and not really moving them ahead of the danger curve like Ilya, Nick, Tzuk, Mike of Returnil for example.

Like anyone else i also prefer to enjoy a share of free myself, heck Power Shadow + EQS are my very best freebies i think i ever had the good fortune of falling right into my lap the way they did and proving issue-free plus formidable. But make no mistake, compare their support and updates to the other developers i just mentioned. I think those shareware offers are but a small price to pay and in fact a great deal which still favors the consumer and hopefully helps the developers to grow and realize some reasonable enough profit for them.

 

I agree with Easter fully here,

They certainly need to be applauded for the incredible work they have done. Many have proven without much of a doubt to me that the solution is not to switch operating system as Microsoft would like most to believe but to seek some solutions in products like Sandboxie. Look for the creative ideas that actually do work...

If only they could become profitable doing it...

I personally kept out of development, because of these monopolies... I couldn't see myself fighting Goliath on all fronts... These guys have guts and they deserve the support they get within places like wilders... unfortunately I don't see too many magazines, and technical writers in general making much noise about them... They all seem to be rallying themselves behind the monoliths...

Also notice the trend, most of the best security tools that work well are tiny little files, Microsoft on the other hand is pushing crap the size of a DVD onto your Hard disk, that essentially doesn't work anywhere near as good as these tiny little files... Do they think everyone is brain dead enough to believe that bigger means better?

These corporate types that love to sell you something broken then make you pay to fix it with something else that's broken... that is what we get from them, product after product since the beginning.

This needs to change. Plain and Simple!

 

That may not be true at all. Particularly when I have x no of PCs and the numbers keeps on increasing. I am not a business user, and I like vendors offering family packs. I definitely buy them. And yes, why do I buy even if I get them free?
1. Dedication from developer (dont mean to say that free softs dont have dedicated developers, just that they dont have to think of anything else to keep their fire burning!)
2. Support
3. Ongoing development

I would definitely buy a 4 PC license for $30. But each at $30 does make me look at cheaper/free option!

Avboy

 

Not only rallying- big publishing networks are the monopolists too (PCMag, PCWeek).

 

Hey buddy, I knew we would get around to agreeing on something if we kept at it. I actually underline that about five times! Developers like Ilya and Tzuk that have the know-how and actually listen to what folks report is where it is at for me. The way I see it, nothing else is offered in this life that is free, so I don't insist on it with computerware.

 

This is so nice to see you are attracted to my "Kinder Gentler" side

 

@ HermesComputers

I fully agree with you, those were some nice posts.

I can´t even comprehend the fact that big companies like M$, often manage to come up with such crappy software. And I also think that certain software is overpriced, to name only one example, take KAV/KIS, currently I believe I have about the same strenght of protection (or perhaps even better) with my free security tools, and I´m supposed to pay 35 euro a year? No thanks.

 

Thanks!

Well... this is where capitalist market forces can really show it's "Good" side for the consumer: You have choice, variety, and multiple options price and otherwise.

It's also where big Monopolies show their ugly head that all this variety, choice and options simply vanish...