When “free forever” means “free for the next 4 months”

Post by usr1106 » Sat, May 06, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

dijit wrote: post #192

usr1106 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sponsoring their development is a good point. Thanks for the hint. As a German speaking Swedish that could be a great fit. I have coded a component for Lamborghini but not a part of my career I am particularly proud of. There should be smarter things to do than ruining the planet. So don't expect an application despite of zulip ;)

> There should be smarter things to do than ruining the planet. Hopefully my sim racing game that I am building will be good enough that we can stop wasting so much fuel on real cars. :)

Post by berniedurfee » Sat, May 06, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #207

taffronaut wrote: post #188

For 25 years, Image Line have been shipping the FLStudio DAW as a one-off purchase with free lifetime updates, and since I've been receiving those updates for a significant chunk of those 25 years since I bought the Producer Edition, it seems pretty sustainable. In their words "Why? Because we believe you should get the program you paid for, bug-fixed and updated for as long as we develop FL Studio." [1] [1] https://…

One time payment and forever free updates means the product dies when the growth stalls OR they create other services around it and sell those. It can work for some products and often those turn into freeware once they find a subscription or consumables for which the users are eager to pay for.

Post by dontknowmuch » Sat, May 06, 2023, 3:45 PM UTC

berniedurfee wrote: post #232

taffronaut wrote: post #188

For 25 years, Image Line have been shipping the FLStudio DAW as a one-off purchase with free lifetime updates, and since I've been receiving those updates for a significant chunk of those 25 years since I bought the Producer Edition, it seems pretty sustainable. In their words "Why? Because we believe you should get the program you paid for, bug-fixed and updated for as long as we develop FL Studio." [1] [1] https://…

Reaper does the same thing: ridiculously inexpensive and insanely well built, one edition, updates every couple weeks, supports an SDK, I could go on. I think it’s also freemium with a nag screen. How this is sustainable is beyond me, but I’m thankful every day there are still some SW companies who do amazing things without sucking the life out of their customers at every turn. https://www.reaper.fm/

Post by bitL » Sat, May 06, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

berniedurfee wrote: post #233

mrtksn wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One time payment and forever free updates means the product dies when the growth stalls OR they create other services around it and sell those. It can work for some products and often those turn into freeware once they find a subscription or consumables for which the users are eager to pay for.

Therein lies the problem. Growth is always the goal until everything blows up. It’d be great sometimes to switch from grow to sustain. Instead of going after the next 1000000 customers with new features, just stop and focus on making existing features amazing for existing customers. No new markets. No doubling ARR. Just chill, make stability the goal.

Post by duxup » Sat, May 06, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

timeon wrote: post #139

duxup wrote: post #43

Maybe it works to have a free tier and yank the rug out from everyone, and maybe the solution is that we should just pay for what things cost? The whole internet is like this, people often don't want to pay, they want it free, then the advertisers pay, we get pissy about advertising, and we become the product, and we flock to the next free thing after the free thing stops being free ... I wish things weren't all free…

Connection to internet is already not free.