Who buys it?

Well thank you Empath,

I stand corrected. I guess after all those years past I stand a bit hazy on those now long defunct products... What might have confused me is that the current PC-Tools had a head office in the U.S. but now wholly operate in Australia, I assumed obviously wrongly some merger had them moved continents.

Anyone with a bit more history on PC-Tools (The Company not the product) to enlighten us?

 

Quite amazing that some think freeware should be a right and business should foot the bill.
This is the pathetic welfare syndrome-these people want something for nothing without earning the privilege and think they are entitled to it-as the evil companies have an endless supply of money.Astounding-take it to its logical conclusion and the whole system collapses.

Anyway,this freeloader syndrome results in less development taking place among smaller companies for a start and these seem to be the ones that are innovative.
Freeware is becoming less common-the trend is towards donationware-why should some poor sucker knock themselves out for the privilege of giving an ungrateful user a freebie?

Marketing is about getting your brand well known and freeware is part of that strategy.
Probably some companies are thinking they may have made a mistake.
Dealing with the public is a bottomless pit of self righteous moaning and complaints.
For example -you only have to look at the Firewall threads and see the hammering OA receives from freeloaders who normally you could just ignore- and all that for the privilege of giving them a nice bit of freeware,where the majority will probably never even consider buying
May cost OA a lot of time and effort for nothing.

Who buys it -intelligent private users with scruples and corporate users,otherwise innovative software would disappear.

 

I couldn't agree more!

By the way... What's about that name?

 

when I was in the Scottish Highlands,which was beautiful,saw 'em and want one They arent a yak!

 

http://www.mhhe.com/teched/norton/bio.html

 

Muchos gracias! nice to see he's still going strong!

 

I fixed it for you

 

Rule of thumb. The more you purchase, the larger your avatar library can be.

 

Woaaa Caramba! I stand corrected! Thanks Lucas1985

 

Well, more purchases may lead to wiser/smarter purchases. There's nothing wrong with paying for software if you see value in the featureset, ease of use or support offered.

I know that Spanish isn't as straight forward as English is (disclaimer: Spanish is my mother tongue)

 

What ever happened to that little thing on the C of gracias to give it the Castillian lisp?

 

En francais on appelle cela une cedille!

 

mercy bocups monsewer
Ps una mui grande site a Hermes,Guy!

 

Do you mean this (ç) symbol?

 

Sorry for the OT. I promise to stop.

 

I always look at the features and possibilities of a software first and when I like it, it doesn't matter to me if it is free or not.
I don't work for free either and I consider it as normal to pay for a software.

Unfortunately, even when I paid, some softwares don't stop harrassing me with activation issues, regular checks if I'm still a honest user, etc.
I can't even install WinXPproSP2 anymore without a phone activation and give them a decent explanation why I'm re-installing Windows. That is TOO MUCH and will always be too much.

Of course I prefer to pay for non-security softwares, real applications usefull for work and hobby, rather than paying for an incomplete, intelligent and intuitive security softwares with a vague protection description.

 

My first three kids in exchange for paying your mortgage... wow, what a deal. You're gonna need a bigger house

I think you're partly right there, Hairy Coo. A lot of the dot com days where everything was free and was going to find revenue later really did spoil things from a commercial perspective.

If we didnt do custom development for our clients, OA would not be possible. A friend of mine does write software (wine cellaring software) - a lot of work, for little reward. But, he writes it for himself first as he's a wine lover.

Indeed.

This is partly true in our case. Most people are very, very suprised when they send me an email that says "Hey, your damn software sucks and it needs a licence key and your product isn't free you scamming <expletive deleted>...." and I just politely point 'em to the free version.

It's pretty sad when people automatically assume that they're being scammed, but also pretty frustrating when you get slammed for whatever you do. Release it now! (complain about bugs)... Release it when it's right (complain about time to release)... Still , it might surprise you to know that most of the people we deal with are rational and reasonable if you treat em nice... I've had people viciously complain and slam us, then come back and apologise when I solved their problem. Of course, that doesn't always happen - but our a**hole/normal ratio is pretty good.

Probably the worst part of this all is when you get someone that decides "I hate this piece of software and I am going to slam it no matter what". They don't realise (or care) that they're really playing with people's lives, income and families... and that's tough.

We don't have an enterprise/corporate edition just yet, but in this case I hope Perman is right and it's a huge money mine just waiting to be tapped

Sadly, I'm experienced in dealing with business every day, and I think Blue Zannetti is more on the money on this one

 

Mike,

You obviously depend on private customers for much of your turnover,which implies maintaining goodwill.
However may I respectfully suggest that a lot of your forum time is taken up by replying to frivolous posts,which really shouldnt even be answered,as a lot of them are made by Trolls-just attention seekers.
My business philosophy is "the customer is always right when it suits me" and in dealing with the free OA surely "The customer is sometimes right when he becomes a customer"applies.
When these Trolls are given power it becomes a no win situation for you-for example at the moment you were hounded because of the Beta issue,probably by teen agers with no real interest at all in your product-just tell em it will come out when you have the time and then to nick off-most Forum members I am sure understand and are on your side.
There was a Hamlet bloke who was giving you hell and now this lot-tell em to micturate off in the nicest possible way
Of course Blue Zanetti was right,ignore the idealistic dreamers.

 

Gracias!

 

I presume that your ratio is more towards zero than 1 when you say it is pretty good.

 

Well, I WAS a fool.
I spent thousands of dollars on software over the years, and more times than not I have felt cheated.
Bugs that were never fixed, development that was discontinued without notice; I could go on and on.
Maybe security software vendors are different but now I look at all software vendors as commercial entities whose primary objective is to get as much money out of me as possible.

 

If that is your primary motivation for releasing a free version, IMO you are helping to dig your own grave.

 

Personally I have found many "frivolous posts" made by "Trolls" which, when answered by knowledgeable individuals, have led to some rather thought-provoking and insightful discussions.
IMO, it is extremely rare to find any thread here which doesn't have some redeeming value, even if it did start as a result of a "Troll" post.

 

Even trolls, need to be loved, to.