If I lose my license, I need to remember my login credentials on the vendor's website to retrieve them.The license is probably tied to a particular computer, so if I reinstall the OS, or upgrade the hardware, that license might break.I now need to keep track of a license file.After downloading the license file, I use the help menu to install it:Įt Voil! In only sixteen fun and easy steps, I have registered this software and voted with my wallet!īut that registration is only the beginning of my problems: I don't really want another executable of unknown provenance on my system. It looks like there's some kind of key file I'm going to need? I'll try the middle link to download it. None of which make a whole lot of sense on my initial reading. Eventually, I receive this in my email inbox: It's a sort of unavoidable flat tax on effort for any form of online commerce. Note that in this particular game, you can score bonus points for trying to route this form through your complex corporate payment system.Īfter all that, I manage to pay. I suspect it's a sneaky marketing weasel synonym for "cheap bastard".Īs a reward, now I get to play another game called fill out the giant order form. I finally decide I'm a "home" FTP user, whatever the heck that means. And our profits just went up! from $43K to about $48K! NICE!Īny resemblance between this and Windows Vista Kenny Loggins edition is, I'm sure, purely coincidence. Notice the quantities: we're still selling the same 233 copies, but the richest 42 customers, who were all willing to spend $349 or more, are being asked to spend $349. If they say they're poor, we'll charge them $220. If they say they're rich, we'll charge them $349. Instead of charging $220, let's ask each of our customers if they are rich or if they are poor. There's a name for this game, and unfortunately it's not something fun and cool like Grand Theft Auto IV - this particular game is called capturing consumer surplus. This is already starting to be kind of a drag. Now I have to think about what features I want, and how much I'm willing to pay for said features. I click that button and get whisked away to a website where I'm now confronted with a choice: home or professional? It's mildly annoying, but tolerable - and it prominently features a convenient "buy me" button. Until I register, I'm presented with this little nag screen every time I start SmartFTP. That's exactly the kind of useful, living software project I want to support. They've done a great job of regularly improving and enhancing it every time I use it again. Now, I've used SmartFTP quite a bit over the years, but never bothered to pay for it. I've been transferring our podcast files back and forth to via FTP, so I reinstalled SmartFTP. As I see it, if you don't vote, you aren't entitled to have an opinion.īut here's what I find deeply troubling: often, registering software leaves me with a worse experience than not registering. There's nothing more effective than voting with your wallet. Share the love by sending money to the person/shop/organization that created it.Īs I encounter apps that I find helpful and use regularly, I go out of my way to support them by either donating, or registering and buying a license. If it's not commercial software, don't let that stop you. Stop reading this post right now and buy that software. Something that makes using the computer that much more enjoyable. Something you recommend without reservation to friends and peers. That's why every month I try to put into action what I described in Support Your Favorite Small Software Vendor Day:Ĭheck your hard drive, and I'm sure you, too, will find some bit of software written by a small software development shop, maybe even a single developer. They come from customers laying down cold, hard cash for the software we've built. Our programmer salaries don't come from magical money trees. As a person who has spent a significant part of his professional life getting paid to write software, I believe it's important for me to regularly pay for software, too.
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