Hi guys,
I'm pleased to see here a discussion about our software and its license policy :)

First of all let me explain why we changed our license policy. Lifetime license policy is great for a products with rare upgrades or with a short life. However if a product lives 3 years and is going to be under development more the lifetime policy will just ruin a business because support costs grows while the revenue stays the same, especially for our low cost utility product. You can say - that's your business problems and they do not affect me in no way. You'll be absolutely right, but on the other side if we are out of business you will not get neither upgrades nor support for the program. Would you love having a lifetime license for a non-supported product?

Therefore we are trying to break off with lifetime licenses - either we will stop selling them or we will just sell them for a much expensive price. But as I wrote in the blog all those who purchased license with LIFETIME upgrades will get upgrades for a life of the program (of course not yours and not mine life) since we respect our customers and without them we never been where we are now.

And I'll answer the questions you have regarding this.

Well, they're liars. Before purchasing the lifetime license two years ago, I asked them if it truly means "for life" and if I won't have to pay an update price for a major new version or a "pro" version. Of course no. Never. Life means for life.

-wr975 (December 27, 2010, 05:09 AM)

That's everything correct except that we never promised free updates to "PRO" versions of USB Safely Remove (actually two years ago we were not able to know that there will be any pro versions like Zentimo) as well as we never promised that purchasers of a license to USB Safely Remove will get an unlimited access to ALL other software we released in future. In all other aspects your lifetime license will be lifetime - you can get any future versions of USB Safely Remove.

Updates have been very slow with USB Safely Remove.

-wr975 (December 27, 2010, 05:09 AM)

This year we released 2 new versions of USBSafelyRemove, all with bug fixes and with the one major feature - spinning down drives. If you experience any problems with USB Safely Remove or if you wish a new feature contact us and we will try to help you.

And now there's "Zentimo", which is kinda the pro version of "USB Safely Remove". The developer say it like this: USBSR won't be getting new features, it'll be kept simple. For those who want new features, buy Zentimo.

-wr975 (December 27, 2010, 05:09 AM)

That's not exactly what we said in our post about Zentimo (that also excited so much rumor) at USBSR blog. I'll quote exact saying:

It doesn't mean that we will stop working on USB Safely Remove, it will stay an elegant and lightweight tool for safe hardware removal without hassles and we will develop it in this vein. Our goal is to provide the most appropriate tool for your needs: if you need something simple and easy, consider USB Safely Remove, but if you need more features at your fingertips choose Zentimo!

It simply means that you shouldn't expect in USB Safely Remove say a backup feature since it may over complicate the program for those who installs the program for what it does best of all: safe removal and all related things. However you can expect improvements in safe removal tool, interface improvements, portable version and many others things that conforms with the name of the program and its main purpose.

If they can't afford lifetime licenses anymore, then do it like Slysoft, or Admuncher... new licenses are limited, but the existing ones stay the same.

-wr975 (December 27, 2010, 05:09 AM)

Everything I can answer is to agree with rjbull: that's what we are doing. All those people who purchased lifetime licenses for USB Safely Remove will get all future upgrades until we develop and sell this product.

P.S.
rjbull, thanks for starting this topic and for notifying me about it.

P.P.S.
I love donationcoder, this is a great place for getting a feedback!


Igor Tkachenko,
  CEO of Crystal Rich,
  http://safelyremove.com,
  http://zentimo.com

It's probably risky for desktop but mobile version - everyone is doing it.

I'm not a businessman though and I think you are losing a huge chunk for offering a free "uncrippled" desktop syncing app but at the same time - this is the one thing that none of your competitors to my knowledge has done. Even EverNote uses a freemium type for the desktop version.

You are right regarding the risks. However as a mISV (my apps are in the profile) I got tired of dealing with cracks and problems (for users) that causes software protection so I'd probably wish to offer free apps and earn money on something non-crackable :) But at the moment earning the money isn't a priority task for the project. First of all I need to polish an idea and make the app to be really useful for people.

Probably. Actually the term "step" just sounded unknown to me and I never attempted to test out what it really is outside of seeing the screenshot in the manual because I thought it was one of those "advanced" features that I just couldn't get.

Thanks. Will thought on it.

Inbox mostly refers to "urgent" task. It should be the same as to-dos but the way RTM works for example is that if you don't set up a schedule for your task - it will never appear on your "inbox" or "todo".

Thanks for the explanations!

My tool, on the other side, requires you to work (much), but that work may actually improve your productivity habits (like habit to create todo lists and do what you write on them) thus making your more productive. So my service is more like a usual gym. Of course pharmaceutics is more richer industry than sport, but gyms exist and do it well.

It's a good realistic pragmatic goal but from a marketing standpoint - it can be very hard to sell.
People generally flock to these apps with the initial hope that "this is finally it!"

Unfortunately you are absolutely right :)

You seem very passionate about time tracking though so you may be interested in this web service where it reverses the whole thing.

I'm not passionate on the plain time tracking. I just know from my experience that setting an explicit deadline for a thing helps completing this thing. Maybe not in time. But if you haven't set a deadline the thing tends to be not completed at all :)

Instead of creating a time estimate, you basically archive your tasks with an estimated time. The app will then hide the tasks but ask how much free time you currently have using set questions like (I have a day, 4 hours, etc.)
Once you answered that question - only then will the tasks meeting that requirement show up in.

Interesting idea. However I personally dislike that it chooses for you what things you should do the first.

http://lifehacker.com/5423523/teuxdeux-is-an-online-to+do-list-that-works-like-paper

Interesting project. Never heard of it before. I really like its simplicity and wish Focuth would be so minimalistic and bare-bone as it is.

I'm neutral on it. I get mouser's point but as far as a web user I can't help but remembering how an app called Remember the Milk turned me off because of it's name.
Edit: I nearly forgot to mention - I'm not a native speaker either. English is the 2nd language in my country.

Thanks for telling your point.

And once again Paul, many thanks to you and all other guys here for spending your time discussing my app.