I don't want to defend Roboform too much because they did break their lifetime upgrade policy, but I do completely understand and somewhat sympathize. I've said it many times here, I have no idea how developers can sustain themselves by offering freeware OR lifetime upgrades. The lifetime upgrade policy is the same as freeware, just with a one time fee up front. It's impossible to sustain forever. The only way it's possible is if you already have a lot of money or you have a lot of volunteers working for you. But who is in that situation? If you have written good software, the userbase is going to grow. As it grows, your work is going to increase. Not just for developing the program, but supporting it also. And you're going to do that all for free forever? No way, I don't see how. So I understand Roboform changing their license policy. I'm not defending the way they did it, but I understand why they had to do it.
As for Roboform, aside from the licensing issues, I still prefer it over all the other programs. So i don't mind paying the upgrade fee. Sure, I would have preferred a free upgrade, but I'll pay if it means I can keep using Roboform. I really like the program. And I know Lastpass and the others are good also, but it's not worth changing for me. I'd rather pay whatever it costs. For me to change, in my mind, is like a $200 hassle. So anything below that, I'm fine with. I wasn't always like this. But I've been very fortunate the last 5 years, my salary has increased quite a bit, and I'll pay a few extra dollars for comfort.
But I also sympathize with all the users who got screwed by the lifetime thing. Maybe it would have been best to only apply the new licensing to new users, but it's tough. People have to make money. I'd rather they implement a klunky licensing policy change, instead of going out of business.
I really don't get the freeware model. I don't even think I like it, because of what it means to me. I mean, I love getting free software from mouser, skwire, etc. but I almost wish they'd force me to pay them. Why? Because a lot of these freeware developers are really awesome at what they do: they have great attitudes, great skill, great creativity. If someone gave them a lot of cash to comfortably develop some software without worrying about their other lifestyle issues, I feel we'd see some amazing programs. I've secretly wished I could start a company with the people here as programmers, pay them well, and come up with some software and suites that would blow the roof off of all of these "enterprise" companies. Oracle? Oracle makes billions off of their software, and it's not even that good. The design isn't great, not very creative, very bloated. Now, imagine we get the talented programmers from DC here, start a company, and start creating a lot of little programs (coding snacks) but not for free. Charge a little bit for them. Provide good support, really focus on fine tuning the interfaces/speed/code/etc. to get them exceptional...it would be a great thing.
There's enough talent here, in my opinion, to start a company that can create excellent solutions for people. Imagine if you guys were doing it for a living instead of just on the side. I'm 99% sure the quality of the programs would surpass anything out there right now. With a little bit of proper marketing, the tools would really start to catch on. The great thing is that you wouldn't have to hide behind any gimmicks like a lot of big companies whose software quality isn't good, they just have nice interfaces or a big name. The difference is that the software's quality would speak for itself. So if people were initially hesitant to commit to it, the quality would soon make them give in.
