FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users • Hacker News Board

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#131

Post by TiredOfLife » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

Etheryte wrote: post #37

While I understand the author's frustration, I think they should take a moment and look in the mirror. A perpetual license doesn't mean that Filezilla should be a free hosting provider for installation media for eternity. Their reasons really aren't that relevant here. Likewise the rant about Mozilla is completely unfounded. There are many things to be upset at in the modern software world, this is not one of them.

If one bought Total Commander 30 years ago they can still download (from authors site) and use the latest version

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#132

Post by uxp100 » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 5:37 PM UTC

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #70

jeroenhd wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Hosting licensed copies of software is the norm. Steam does it, Google does it, Apple does it, EA and Ubisoft do it, and all of them host much larger software (including free updates) than FileZilla. Maybe hosting 5GiB image downloads on a dedicated web portal the same way Microsoft does is a bit much to ask, but this is nothing. We're talking 50 megabytes of storage here, per version. They can save thems…

> Hosting licensed copies of software is the norm. Steam does it, Google does it, Apple does it, EA and Ubisoft do it Correct me if I'm wrong, but they do not store previous versions for you to choose, only the current version.

This is a little tangent, but up until somewhat recently Apple hosted ftp servers with old versions of Mac OS available. So you could get system 7.6 (released 1997) straight from them for a new install on your old machine. I think that is no longer the case, but within the last decade you still could. (I think, idk, time flies)

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#133

Post by jasomill » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 6:21 PM UTC

uxp100 wrote: post #132

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hosting licensed copies of software is the norm. Steam does it, Google does it, Apple does it, EA and Ubisoft do it Correct me if I'm wrong, but they do not store previous versions for you to choose, only the current version.

This is a little tangent, but up until somewhat recently Apple hosted ftp servers with old versions of Mac OS available. So you could get system 7.6 (released 1997) straight from them for a new install on your old machine. I think that is no longer the case, but within the last decade you still could. (I think, idk, time flies)

Amusingly, download.info.apple.com still appears to serve all the files that used to be on the old FTP site, including a small and somewhat random subset of old system software versions for Mac and Apple II, Newton firmware updates, etc., but directory browsing isn't enabled, so you need direct links, which you can get from the Wayback machine[1].

But once you have the links, you can download the actual files directly from Apple, e.g., if you're ready to upgrade your Mac Plus to the latest and greatest version of System 6, download

https://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Sof...

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20141025043714/http://www.info.a...

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#134

Post by jasomill » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #43

em-bee wrote: post #41

wasn't every traditional license where you bought some software that you could use indefinitely a perpetual license? and how many places allowed you to redownload a paid software product multiple times? is filezilla here really out of place. is it not just following the norm? don't most applications work this way? especially the ones who don't implement some kind of license key check? i mean, without a license key sy…

>and how many places allowed you to redownload a paid software product multiple times? Better question is which places don't allow unlimited downloads. If you buy office 365, you can download it unlimited amount of times from microsoft. Hell, you can download it unlimited times even if you don't own it, because activation happens after it's installed. Same goes for something like Steam. The only exception is somethin…

Office 365 is a subscription, not a perpetual license, but the only time I can recall Microsoft ever deliberately removing access to downloadable software I was entitled to was in the late 90's, when they removed Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 from MSDN as part of a settlement with Sun where they agreed to stop distributing their Java runtime.

Oh, and just for the record, one time in the early 90s, I was getting read errors trying to reinstall Excel from the original floppies, had no backups, and Microsoft support sent a complete replacement disk set, at no charge, no questions asked (seriously; for all they knew, I could have been lying to get a free unlicensed copy of Excel).

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#135

Post by jeroenhd » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #70

jeroenhd wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Hosting licensed copies of software is the norm. Steam does it, Google does it, Apple does it, EA and Ubisoft do it, and all of them host much larger software (including free updates) than FileZilla. Maybe hosting 5GiB image downloads on a dedicated web portal the same way Microsoft does is a bit much to ask, but this is nothing. We're talking 50 megabytes of storage here, per version. They can save thems…

> Hosting licensed copies of software is the norm. Steam does it, Google does it, Apple does it, EA and Ubisoft do it Correct me if I'm wrong, but they do not store previous versions for you to choose, only the current version.

That's because they allow you to download new updates with your existing license.

In this case, the existing license is only valid up to a certain point, after which you need to buy a subscription (because the perpetual license wasn't quite so perpetual).

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#136

Post by lobito25 » Sat, Nov 29, 2025, 4:25 AM UTC

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #115

I don't often try to get previous versions from the developer. While there are strongly ethical and consumer-centric software houses, I have been long conditioned to expect predatory behavior, usually with some degree of incompetence. So my first inclination wouldn't be to try filezilla but archive.org. After that I'd search for other options and see what was most trustworthy. I've done well with oldversions.com in t…

I couldn't find any copy of the pro version for linux.

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#137

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 5:28 PM UTC

lobito25 wrote: post #136

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #115

I don't often try to get previous versions from the developer. While there are strongly ethical and consumer-centric software houses, I have been long conditioned to expect predatory behavior, usually with some degree of incompetence. So my first inclination wouldn't be to try filezilla but archive.org. After that I'd search for other options and see what was most trustworthy. I've done well with oldversions.com in t…

I couldn't find any copy of the pro version for linux.

Yeah. I yield. I looked for a while and I couldn't either.

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#138

Post by throwaway1389z » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 8:43 PM UTC

izacus wrote: post #122

throwaway1389z wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You paid for a copy, you got your copy. The business is not responsible forever furnishing you a new copy.

Why not? They sold you a license, they said so themselves. Why are you defending them here?

I did not sell you the promise of forever hosting a copy for you. The deal is "license and copy". Done.

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#139

Post by xela79 » Wed, Dec 03, 2025, 11:01 AM UTC

Etheryte wrote: post #37

While I understand the author's frustration, I think they should take a moment and look in the mirror. A perpetual license doesn't mean that Filezilla should be a free hosting provider for installation media for eternity. Their reasons really aren't that relevant here. Likewise the rant about Mozilla is completely unfounded. There are many things to be upset at in the modern software world, this is not one of them.

> A perpetual license doesn't mean that Filezilla should be a free hosting provider for installation media for eternity.

exactly. If you buy a music CD and lose that CD, while you have the license of the music on that CD, you should not get a free CD as replacement.

if you buy a software license, at least store the install binary?

Re: FileZilla Pro "Perpetual License" – A Warning to All Users

#140

Post by zdware » Thu, Dec 04, 2025, 12:35 AM UTC

Etheryte wrote: post #37

While I understand the author's frustration, I think they should take a moment and look in the mirror. A perpetual license doesn't mean that Filezilla should be a free hosting provider for installation media for eternity. Their reasons really aren't that relevant here. Likewise the rant about Mozilla is completely unfounded. There are many things to be upset at in the modern software world, this is not one of them.

It's 2025, not 1995 or even 2005. Installers for apps like this are tiny for cloud storage today. Cloudfront's recent flat tier pricing would even probably do the trick. free tier is 100gb data transfer a month, 1m requests. If that doesn't work, Pro is 50 tb, 10m requests, that's 15 bucks a month.