SSM moves to a 1-year licensing scheme

This is from an e-mail I received yesterday from SSM support. I suppose this applies only to the paid SSM versions.

One more proof that lifetime licenses for security products are not financially feasible for software developers...

Rui

 

SSM's previous license is not lifetime but minor upgrades free, major upgrades $$$.
Anyway, both the current/previous licensing schemes are acceptable.

 

i agree

 

Not so - to quote from their email:

"when the 1-year license expires the program will continue to work as usual but it won't be able to upgrade it [sic] to the versions released after the license expiration date"

Essentially the SSM licence is a lifetime one in that SSM will continue to work indefinitely - the one year period will only apply to free upgrades. Unfortunately, SysSafety don't seem to have caught on to the need to stress this but see their New License Policy thread for more discussion on this.

 

But what hes refering to is a lifetime licence in the form of updates forever eg buy version 1.0 and get 999.3 also

 

Why not 999.9 All the software companies seem to be moving in this direction. I can somewhat understand it for security apps. The threats are ever changing\evolving and so must the program(s) that many depend on to circumvent these threats. This takes lots of R&D, then writing the code and more R&D. Financially speaking I can see where free for life will just no longer support a reputable company that is trying to stay in business for the long haul.

 

I received an official reply from System Safety yesterday and they said that life-time license can be issued on user's demand instead of offering it as a purchase option. The condition to get a life-time license is, in my option, a very attractive offer. You will be surprised!!!

Please note that since the details to get a life-time license will not published officially on their web site for the time being, I am not going to post the details here. Please contact sales@syssafety.com directly for details if you wish to get a life-time license for SSM.

 

IMHO, it is completely fair what SSM is doing. No one should be bickering about paying a nominal annual fee for upgrades to a first-rate security product. Their support is excellent too. Besides, it does not stop functioning if one chooses not to renew their license.