Zentimo upgrade offer $9,- until 2011-05-29

[Ath]

Crystal Rich sent me this offer today:

Dear USB Safely Remove user,

Only until May 29th we are offering you a unique opportunity to purchase Zentimo
for as little as $9 USD (list price is $29.90 USD)!

Haven't heard of Zentimo, yet? Zentimo is an advanced external drive manager
also developed by our company. Comparing to "USB Safely Remove" it offers more
benefits for active USB and SATA devices users: more informative device menu,
portable device settings, portable apps launcher, TrueCrypt integration and many
other features.

More information about Zentimo & this offer is here:
  http://zentimo.com/usbsroffermay11.htm

--
Kind regards,
  USB Safely Remove & Zentimo development team,
  http://crystalrich.com

Looks nice IMHO, and might be of interest to others as well.

[oblivion]

Looks nice IMHO, and might be of interest to others as well.

In case anyone cares, I've today sent CR a "british-english" language file (had I realised just how much work was involved in translating from "English" to English I might've thought before volunteering   ) so, with a bit of luck, some of the linguistic oddities scattered around Zentimo might become a thing of the past for those of us who care. (I can't guarantee I've sorted everything out -- and of course it's not so UK-centric that US users won't be able to use it. I think.  

[superboyac]

I have sympathy for Crystal Rich.  I like their software very much, and they are really marketing Zentimo aggressively because of their previous lifetime licenses they offered for USB Safely Remove.  A lot of the lifetime users like me criticized them for launching Zentimo, which is sort of the same thing with a few more powerful features.  I understand the criticism, and it's valid, but at the same time, what are they supposed to do?  Lifetime licenses make it impossible for a business to run.  And with the proliferation of tablets and smartphones, the market for small shareware applications is being dwindled down.  Shareware companies that were once able to make a living providing really awesome utilities for Windows users can't make it anymore.  Most Windows users demand freeware, and won't consider paying for anything anymore.  Apps have taken the place of these shareware programs.

I'm frustrated because I LOVED shareware, and I'm glad I was able to experience to golden era of it.  unfortunately, our financial system really doesn't encourage these types of small-market businesses.  To be successful now, you have to play the game of mediocrity.  Big bloated software suites, cloud applications, anything that artificially binds you to some kind of money-sucking system for no reason.  Software companies today will kill themselves to get people to pay monthly for anything.  No more buying things when only you need it.  Recurring payments is the name of the game today.  Why is it so hard to buy a tablet without having to get some kind of "plan" with it?  Be wary, this is the way everything is going.  next thing you know, you can't buy a computer without having to purchase a monthly data plan with it.  You can't buy a TV without having to buy a cable subscription.

It reminds me of the whole "extended warranty" scam that used to be (or still is?) the main gimmick of the 80's and 90's.  That's where the real money was made.  Now, it's whatever BS monthly charges everyone wants.

And who suffers?  Consumers.  Small companies like Crystal Rich.  it saddens me because they are the guys that are making the truly useful software.  The stuff that we actually want, that fills a specific need.

[Midnight Rambler]

Like most if not all software, Zentimo is still a work in process.

I had it installed on my Vista ThinkPad and it had problems figuring out an Aluratek AIRJ01F device attached to a USB port.  Kept getting a rotating hourglass on Zentimo's tray icon indicating a component error even though device worked okay.

Emailed Zentimo's author but they never solved the issue.  In fact, almost seems as if they gave up.

Can't complain, though.  Got Zentimo as a giveaway from another site.  Simply uninstalled it and reinstalled a copy of USB Safely Remove won on this site.  Still get error though.

[superboyac]

I've had discussions with some programmers, including ones here.  Sometimes, it's just next to impossible to solve a little problem with Windows.  It's not that the programmers aren't trying hard enough or something.  It's just that it can be too much at times.  I used to be very critical of programmers who wouldn't do this or fix that, but I've seen that a lot of them are really trying hard to do fix things, but sometimes the problem is just larger than the effort that would be considered reasonable or sane.

[Ath]

Hm, 've been thinking a bit about this, and I won't go for the upgrade.

<a bit of a rant>
I just like the way USBSR works, disconnecting my USB drives easily and safely, and I don't need nor want the extra features of Zentimo. It kept nagging me about a speedtest for every USB drive I sticked in my system, but what is it good for? I bought it, so if the speed wasn't good enough (compared to what? my other USB drives?), I'm stuck with it already
And getting at the 'unload drive' option takes clicking on rather a tiny button, and the extra's I never need are hidden behind even more tiny buttons.
</a bit of a rant>

But last years give-away, non-upgradeable, version does work fine over here

[phitsc]

But last years give-away, non-upgradeable, version does work fine over here

It does indeed. When I checked what has changed since then, it didn't seem to offer anything worth spending even the 9$. Although I have to admit, the SW would probably be worth 9$ to me, if I did not have it already (but then it wouldn't be an upgrade). The problem with this kind of SW is that it's not something you usually use very often, but when you need to use it, it is quite handy.

[superboyac]

Yeah, it's pretty hard to justify spending money for Zentimo if you have a lifetime USB SR license already.  I totally understand that.  The only reason I did it is because I like the developers.  That's pretty much it.  And the discount was pretty big.  I've been paying attention to their marketing pushes, and I just had a little bit of sympathy for them.  I don't know if they are struggling financially or anything, but having started a small business recently, i really have a soft spot for small companies who do good things for people.  I'm scared that our current economy and modern mindsets are going to really squash small business opportunities, and I would gladly give a lot of my money to my friends trying to make it on their own before I start spending on medium to large businesses.

I don't know what else to do.  i have to give so much money to the big guys...and I regret it every time I do.  I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could give the same amount of money to individuals that I feel are just trying to use their gifts and talents on a small scale to help people and to just get by.  But I can't.  All I can do is give a few dollars here and there.  but the bulk of it gets sucked up by our stupid ass economy.

[Dormouse]

I have both. In many ways I prefer the USBsafelyremove. I bought Zentimo just to support them really. I suspect the real problem is getting significant numbers of people to pay for a function they think they already have in the OS and that will always limit how much anyone is prepared to pay. Both work and I always have one installed on a machine.

[oblivion]

I suspect the real problem is getting significant numbers of people to pay for a function they think they already have in the OS and that will always limit how much anyone is prepared to pay.

Isn't that the problem with almost everything? You want word processing, why not use Wordpad? Disk management -- Windows already has most of that stuff, built in. And so on.

Thing with USBSR and Zentimo both is that they DO have functionality that's not already there -- it's just you don't really know how much you wanted it until you got it! -- and I prefer Zentimo over USBSR both because I like the extra chrome AND because I use TrueCrypt. (The speed test functionality doesn't do anything for me but hey, you don't have to switch it on. Although I used it to test the speed of a shiny new thumbdrive that's supposed to be superquick and, yes, it is, even though the real world never quite meets the stats, so I suppose it's not completely useless.)

I know the extras really don't amount to an awful lot -- the Truecrypt stuff can be done in USBSR after all -- but, like other commenters here, I like to support decent, functional software. I'd miss it if it went away, anyway!