From: Mark Fowler
Date: 00:00 on 23 Mar 2004
Subject: Software you have to register.
I'm pissed off with software that you have to register or remember a key
for. It's not that you have to pay for the software or it stops working I
mind - I'm quite happy to pay for the small amount of software I use -
it's that I have to enter the code.
Entering the code isn't the problem when I buy the software and first
install it. It's three months on when I install the software on my new
computer and now have No Idea (tm) where the code is.
For example, I like synergy, a little app that monitors iTunes allowing me
to pause it from the menu bar/with a keyboard short cut and will pop up a
little dialog telling me the name of the track when the track changes.
This costs 15usd for five licences. So all my macs are theoretically
licenced, but can I find the code in my email? No. I supose I can email
them, but it's too much hassle.
I have the same problem with UltraEdit. I have a licence for this, but on
the odd occasion I need to use a Windows machine and install it, I don't
have the code to hand. When I come back to use the machine a month later
the trial version will have expired and I'm well and truely stuffed.
Maybe this is why free (as in beer) software does so well. It's not that
people mind paying for the software so much, it's that they mind having to
a) Go though the process of actually paying for it (which takes five
minutes out of their life that could be more productivly spent
sorting the recycling, hovering the front room, or eating pie)
b) Spend four hours finding the code that was sent to them from some
totally bizare email payment system (that bears no resemlemence to
the product bought) every single time they need to reinstall the
software.
Mark.
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