I hate product activation with a passion. I've returned software in the past (tax software) because of it. I won't buy anything that I know requires it. I donated $40 to truecrypt.org so I can encrypt my laptop, so I'm not just a tightwad.

I'm surprised you didn't make fun of Vista's silly versions too.

I also worry about companies going out of business or deciding not to allow activations. For example, let's say you reload your XP machine in a couple of years and Microsoft decides, nope, you can't activate XP anymore, that license has expired. You're totally screwed.

Hey Jeff: I've been a long time FileZilla user, but am now a WinSCP convert. It gives better drag-drop support from explorer, like SmartFTP.

http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

It requires the same registration steps (with the optional 2nd one) that FileZilla provides.

JA

> I'm surprised you didn't make fun of Vista's silly versions too.

I'm not anti-registration, I'm anti-make-my-life-a-living-hell registration. I think there are ways to do it that can be almost seamless.

> Let's say you reload your XP machine in a couple of years and Microsoft decides, nope, you can't activate XP anymore, that license has expired. You're totally screwed.

1) Do you really consider this a realistic scenario?

2) Even in the unbelievably remote chance this did come to pass, wouldn't there be umpteen million cracks and hacks available through a simple web search that would let you get around this?

It took me 8 steps to donate to FileZilla through PayPal. I like the software but I almost didn't donate because of the 'signing up for PayPal' tax. Also, I now have 3 new e-mails from PayPal. I bet they aren't the last, either.. why isn't there a non-profit org that centralizes donating via CC for open source software? We can probably reduce the rates and make donating an easy, open process. I look forward to that day.

I'm a TC (Total Commander) user (fulfills all my FTP needs and the FTP is just a small part of the whole thing). What's nice about it is that there's not "installation". Well, yes, it does have an install.exe (or setup, can't remember), but all that does it copy some files and setup a shortcut. Do you want to use it on a different computer? Just copy the c:\totalcmd folder and you're good to go. You could put it on flash drive and run it like that for example. The license key is a file that stays in that folder, so as long as you backup that folder you're good to go.

I'll put in my vote for WinSCP as well... excellent client, and you can use a more secure transfer protocol as well.

I especially like the Send To menu option that lets you upload a file to a specific directory with just a couple of clicks.

I almost wrote this post 2 years ago. I simply stopped using it and now use FileZilla, which is free, not as pretty, but does the job.

lol karma
I bet it's easier to steal that program than to register it properly. I vote with my wallet by keeping it closed.

apt-get install ftp

$40 for SmartFtp. $40 for Winzip. Multiply by all the small tools you need. I won't even begin to get to get into real development tools like Visual Studio. Windows developers seem to be made of money. One of the reasons I got out of the Windows world a decade ago was the cash I was shelling out just to stay current.

I stopped using Filezilla about a year and a half ago when I discovered it suffered from a rare, but very serious multi-threading problem: sometimes it would swap the contents of files during an upload. That is, if you dumped FileA.txt and FileB.txt in the transfer queue, then at the end of the transfer, the server would have FileA.txt with FileB's contents and FileB.txt with FileA's contents. It really did make me think I was losing my mind. The author of Filezilla seemed to think it wasn't his problem, which I personally find a smidge difficult to believe as I've never encountered it with any other client. (See bugs 911908, 1047055, 1480769, 1509196, and 1741088 on the SourceForge site.)

Absolutely agree. It kills me when companies make it difficult to pay them money. What could be more important to make easy?

It's not out of the question that Microsoft could refuse to activate copies of XP some day. MSN Music has just decided not to allow activation on their DRM protected music anymore. You will have to break the DRM (and the law) if you ever want to buy a new computer or portable device.

> 1) Do you really consider this a realistic scenario?

It is simple: For I have paid for it, I want to use it, legally.

I hate registering for products with a passion too, although I'm sure many developers are excited enough just to see some money go their way!

After searching for a new FTP client I decided to check out the Firefox extension FireFTP, where I came across the donate page. Donations to FireFTP go toward the developer who uses half of the money to help out orphans in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, whilst the other half goes towards his family as he's adopted a child from the orphanage.

Admittedly I'm not usually one to give much money away (being a student and all), but you'd have to be heartless to not feel touched by the generosity of some people.

Maximus, if you purchased WindowsXP as a full or OEM license, you purchased one license to activate Windows XP. Microsoft could no more legally refuse to activate lawful copies than they could use a license agreement to gain ownership of your firstborn child.

>The license is probably tied to a particular computer, so if I reinstall the OS, or upgrade the hardware, that license might break.

I don't believe that's the case with SmartFTP, or at the least, it wasn't the last time I paid the particular piper. Even most fairly high-end software doesn't mess around with keys to that degree -- Intel's IPP series has been smart enough to realize the issue (and pleasantly provide software license *files* for years).

SmartFTP is a particularly good example of software that remains easier to use illegally than legally, though. I've given up on them due to some software issues with them and my setup, but when everyone else can figure out Google Checkout and a reasonable way to get multi-computer licenses running, it's a bit irritating.

> Let's say you reload your XP machine in a couple of years and Microsoft decides, nope, you can't activate XP anymore, that license has expired. You're totally screwed.

>> 1) Do you really consider this a realistic scenario?

Yes, absolutely, especially now that Microsoft has decided they are already shutting down one restrictions management server [1]. If they can't be bothered to keep that running, I definitely can foresee a time when they decide they don't want to activate XP anymore. If you then use a crack to get around it, you're no better off legally than a pirate and could (theoretically) get sued for using software you 'own'.

[1] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2286736,00.asp

Pretty much the standard scheme for Mac developers is like this:

1. Download software (of which there is usually only one version, no "pro" vs. "home" nonsense)
2. Use software, often with a caveat like a nagware screen, trial period, or feature limitations
3. Visit the developer's website (usually through a menu item like "Register...") and give the developer your credit card number
4. Receive a serial code -- usually on the confirmation screen immediately after submitting your credit card number -- that unlocks every copy of the software on any computer, anywhere, forever.

If I reformat my hard drive, I can generally find my SNs by searching my email, or, failing that, emailing the developer. There's no fear that at some point my software will mysteriously stop being "valid."

I think this "trust the customer" ethos derives from the mothership itself: this is the way Apple collects payments and delivers licenses. If Mac developers pulled the kind of crap I've had to endure on my Windows machines, the users would scream bloody murder; they just aren't used to it. Yes, a few developers release "pro" or "enhanced" versions, but generally the transaction is bone simple: "to run our software without limitations you need to buy a magic number."

Panic software has this down cold. I don't even need to keep the emails with the serials ... if I forget my serial number I can just send them my email address and they'll email me back with ALL the serial numbers I've EVER purchased ... even for out of date, expired software (which, who knows, I might still have running on an old machine)

The only software I've ever had to "validate" or "activate" on my Mac is from Adobe.

Unfortunately the pain of registration is a side-effect of getting users to actually pay for software. I had an application that started out as donationware, but after a year I switched it to shareware. What happened? It brought it more revenue in a week as shareware than it did in a year as donationware.

> There is no step three!

Yeah, and in a couple years when Joe Hacker gets tired of working for free and decides he needs a job that actually pays the bills, there is no FileZilla either. Ah, but you gave him $36.95, you say? You think that's going to put your mind at ease? Sucker. You and maybe three other people are the only ones who donated.

PS. There are about a bajillion commercial FTP products that are easier to purchase and install than the contraption mentioned in the article. And most of them do more that FTP, too. Picking the most convoluted example might have made a fun read, but it doesn't represent the most typical experience.

I think the biggest problem is that many of these small utility programs become abandoned by the developers. Raymond points out the problems with the activation being unavailable.

That's in addition to the obvious problem of updates just going away. A few years ago I decided to move to free, open source applications whenever possible. It's not because I'm cheap (I am, but that's not the reason), and it's not for "religious" reasons. It's just that it's great to be able to get the software I want anytime I want it - rebuilding a computer, working on someone's computer, etc.

@ Rhywun: FileZilla's open source and even if it weren't.. how does giving $40 make you a sucker..? And I'll avoid your bloatware FTP clients in favor of the ones that just focus on the FTP itself, thanks. :-)

@ John Galloway: the advantage of using open source small utility programs (like FileZilla) is that even if the developers abandon it, it's open source. Open source = immortality.

Yes the task of registering software is painful...I totally agree with that..
but i don't agree on you weeping over having multiple versions to buy from...
Every feature requires money to be implemented...so instead of having everyone to buy an enormously expensive software with all the features that they're never gonna use...why not make it a lil less expensive by giving only the required ones for us cheap bastards...and let the power users pay for full package..
of course its business...but its good for us...the cheap bastds..
;)

I've found SmartFTP excellent and I had considered purchasing SmartFTP but if this is the difficulty you have to go through I might think twice :)

@ James Galloway: Huh? Just because anyone *can* pick up the development of an abandoned open source program certainly doesn't mean that anyone *will*.

Excuse me, that was @James Devlin.

Donation ware can work well. I started an anti-spam product years ago called MailWasher and released it as free. Of course if you wanted to donate $20 or more then I would give you some extras like support, some guides to avoid spam and notify you of updates. Plus I personalized it so people knew they were dealing with a real person.

Here's the stats. Around 2% conversion for people who wanted to donate something, average dontation $17. Best month $142,000

So, I believe if you give something that makes people feel good about donating - ie. giving something of value back. then it can work well.

The nice thing about calling something free is that people are more likely to try it, and you can ask them for a donation later and offer them some extras if they do.

@steve:apt-get install ftp

$40 for SmartFtp. $40 for Winzip. Multiply by all the small tools you need...
---------------------------------------
Wow Steve, you are kidding, right? There is a ftp client in Windows, just like the ftp client you have mentioned. SmartFTP is much easier to use. I doubt "ftp" itself in any *nix provides drag and drop functionality and etc. If you don't mind wasting your time with a commandline ftp, I don't care but I should say you are simply being a religous fanatic of free ( as in lunch ) software.

>$40 for SmartFtp. $40 for Winzip. Multiply by all the small tools you need.

Winzip you say? Try 7-zip instead. One tool for all compressed or archiving formats you've ever heard of, even tar gz and rpm files. Oh and its FREE. I am always amazed as to why so many people still install winzip or even winrar let alone pay for it.

For every shareware utility people have grown to depend on, there's probably a free one out there just as good. It's worth spending a few minutes trying to locate them.

Another popular utility is imgburn. Why pay for nero to burn a few discs when free alternatives are out there?

@Larry V: If people actually use the product, it usually does.

Part of the reason is that people like to work on popular projects. The feedback that popular projects provide for their makers is addictive.

@everyone: you don't 'own' software. You own a license to use that software, within the terms of the EULA. The software and its IP are still owned by the person/company that created it (or matains the rights to it).

As someone who has never meaningfully contributed any code to an open source project, (perhaps just the odd bug report etc), but who cheerfully ponies-up donations for both open-source and payments for commercial products that he uses, I'm always intrigued by the 'open source means the project will never die' line.

How many people who use open source as part of their 'stack' are actually a) capable and b) prepared to seriously pick up their abandoned pet project, get their head around the codebase, find all the dependencies and libraries required to properly rebuild the software, and make a significant change to the code themselves? If I'm wrong here I'd love to know, but I just really doubt that the world is full of developers who will take someone else's code and make a significant change it - most developers I've met seem to have an aversion to anyone else's code!

I would think that, for many open-source users, if a projects dies (or becomes incompatible with their o/s, or lacks a feature that suddenly becomes essential to them) - they just find another, 'more live' project that suits.

If I'm being unfair I'd love to know - you never see any numbers on this kind of thing, I have no way of quantifying what happens but my own anecdotal evidence of software developers following almost 18 years in the industry is that most developers are very reluctant to take-on a huge chunk of someone else's code - especially if it's just a means to an end (ie a dev tool or utility) and particularly if it was developed by a *group* of people over a long period of time, as any significant o/s project is likely to be.

Anyone know how much of this goes on?

So, let me get this right. FTP client, for which there are free alternatives with nearly equivalent features, charges you nearly $40 as a "home" user, confuses you every step of the way, and the license is only for ONE computer, for ONE year?!?!?

That's insane. That FTP software better code the pages you're uploading too.

Try Transmit on the Mac. $30, period. For every computer you ever own. Forever. Period. Easy registration process. Oh, and it has every feature I've ever heard of in an FTP client.

For that matter, I find since I installed 1Password that I never worry about byzantine payment forms. It figures them out, decrypts my information from the keychain, and plops it all in the right slots on my command. Combined with a simple backed up encrypted folder containing all my registrations, and I have to say tracking registrations hasn't caused me a moment of thought in the past four years.

1+ for WinSCP. Its simply the best and free.

Think thats bad? What about Comodo? They make some great free software, and they refuse to take any money for it because it is part of their corporate strategy. But guess what, you have to request an activation code and activate it just like any paid software! So you go to their website, download and install their firewall, and it asks you for an activation code to keep using it after 30 days. So you have to go to their website, put in your name and email address, and hit the request code button. Within a few minutes, you get an email in your inbox. But of course, there is no activation code, its just a welcome email. You have to wait for a second email, which can take longer than 30 mins in my experience, in order to get your software key to activate your software. WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN THE POINT WHEN THE SOFTWARE IS FREE ANYWAY!?!? Why create this signifcant hassle for the user when money isn't even involved? They are a legit company is is involved in the software security + authentication business, so its not like they need to mine your email address or anything. What the hell is the point?

As I recall, the primary reason I started using Linux back in 1995 was the plethora of free tools it offered. Say you enjoy coding avocationally or you want to learn a new language via self-study. If you're on a Windows platform, you pay. For everything. Circa 1995, that translated to at least $100 per language (Borland C++, Visual Basic, whatever.)

Have fun finding a cheap FORTRAN compiler in a store near you; don't even ask about Ada. (hey, everyone has their perversions...)

Compare that with dropping $30 for a Slackware CD set which provided gcc, p2c, f2c, and a whole host of other stuff. Sure, you had to become your own Linux sysadmin, but at the time that was a small price to pay for a very capable development environment. That path worked well for me but I had very specific goals, one of which was not to steal software.

I've been a professional sysadmin for almost ten years now and while I make it a point to use as much open source software as is practical at home and at work, I have no problem paying for commercial code provided it's substantially better than what I can find for free. Three programs that pop to mind are Servers Alive for small-scale monitoring and alerting in Windows environments, and OmniGraffle and SuperDuper on OS X. I bought SuperDuper shortly after getting my MacBook Pro at work and have been backing up regularly - last Friday the ribbon cable between the keyboard/trackpad and the USB controller flaked out. My ass has been saved by $30 and some foresight (h/t to jwz on that one.)

That said, one of the problems that shows up in a corporate environment is when a vendor keys software to an email address. This is great for individuals, but sucks if someone in the Purchasing Department buys software for an employee. It doubly sucks when the person buying the software leaves the company.

This is not a problem restricted to the Windows world, though their model of pay-for-every-little-last-thing really exacerbates it. Red Hat's entitlement system for their Enterprise Linux products was baffling to the point of being byzantine. Registration was a huge hassle and it took an act of Customer Service to sort out entitlements if for some reason you changed the IP address or name of your server.

In the intervening years the process has improved, but in the meantime I just switched our servers to CentOS and never looked back. I have no problem paying Red Hat for support, etc., but I can't afford to not have patches just because of some stupid, broken licensing setup *that I'm paying for*!

Licensing and registration schemes are a sort of friction so if you want your software to have wide adoption in a sea of equivalent products, you need to reduce that friction to the greatest extent possible.

@Rob Uttley: I think you hit it very close to the mark. OSS project do die, and they die all the time. If you want a good example, take a look at CVS. Most of it's primary developers have shifted over to supporting and developing SVN. The change logs have become very sparse in the last few years. Bugs are still being fixed, but new features and future developments have long since been abandoned.

The thing is however, popular projects don't usually die. CVS hit its stride long ago. It's something like 15 years old and widely regarded to be the result of a very large kludge. Frankly, it's about time it was replaced. There is also a very large mass of innactive projects on Sourceforge. But most of these were never very popular or useful to begin with. The thing is, the very best apps become popular, and popularity attracts hackers. It's an empowering sense to work on something that thousands of people use and depend on every day and many folks are even willing to brave OSS politics (you know, fights about whose design is more asinine...) and (heaven forbid!) work on another hacker's code to get a piece of the action.

So what really happens is more of an economy of effort. Useless crap dies. Useful stuff attracts ever more attention and gains in utility and completeness. It's not a perfect system, new hotness drives out old an busted consistently so you'll have to keep up with trends (though it is free ;)), but it works and if your particular OSS project is even moderately popular, it's not likely that it will completely disappear and leave you stranded anytime soon.

"Try Transmit on the Mac. $30, period. For every computer you ever own. Forever. Period. Easy registration process. Oh, and it has every feature I've ever heard of in an FTP client."

how do they know if you purchase one copy and give away to whoever you know?

registration is painful but it's one way to keep people honest but there should be a easier way to do it.

Really, why would anyone need an ftp client in this day and age? I know that was just chosen for illustration, but after all the discussion I am bewildered that people aren't using scp. Sure, there are those rare occasions when ftp is the only choice, but in those case, just use the command line -- it's free, and it works great!

"multiply all this licensing pain by the number of applications and people in your organization."

Oh yes, as a former it guy who used to automate installs for 2 years in my company this is the number 1 headache, no volume license... or even worse: dongles.

You can imagine the methods we used to get apps like this working on multiple clients

@Woongbin

tried typing ftp://sitename into the K file manager and seems to open up a nice drag and drop folder view with image thumbnails and everything... works just like any local folder.

@Bob: SuperDuper is "the dog's". I endured an inordinate amount of turmoil when I'd stupidly switched to Leopard before realising that my backup tool of choice wasn't going to support it in the short term. That period between October and December was a bit mad - running diskutility to make backups and testing them out each time, instead of the peace of mind I had with SD. Great piece of software.

@Alcauce: Thanks for the comments back, I assumed that the popular projects (or most suitable/useful/well-thought-out) would 'survive' and the unpopular ones wither and die (probably rightfully so).
It would be interesting to examine the more popular oss projects to try to determine if there's any pattern or commonality to them - I'm thinking about project/solution type, features, coding standards, language and libraries used, project documentation, attitude of the key instigators etc - maybe it's possible to spot which projects will do 'better' in the long run by looking at the decisions made in the early days of the project?

Just a thought, no agenda. Perhaps someone has already looked into this kind of thing!

That's an admittedly bad experience. Luckily most small developers have less annoying schemes.

The one I most enjoyed was for Transmit – ironically also an FTP application – who just send you an e-mail with a clickable link with the registration info. You click it and voilà the app is registered. Not even copy and paste required.

Wow, compared to SmartFTP, the Microsoft system of typing in a 25 digit key code printed on a sticker seems trivial. Almost fun, even.

I had another program I wrote while in college, ListXP, that had the "donate!" button in it. In the Settings it had a prominent reminder for this but you could get it to go away by pressing a button labeled "I already donated." But I knew people would lie, so I put in a "Just Kidding" button to bring it back for those people who had a conscious. Or at least I figured I'd put it in there to lighten things up a bit. People always get so serious about money. *shrug* I think I made $200 total ever on that program :)

I actually liked the one from 1Password. You get an email with a licence-image and just drag-and-drop the image from the email to the application.

its a shame that some programs are so convoluted to pay for... you might even begin to think that they don't want your money!

still it seems to be the thing to make things needlessly complicated. there is a nice comment above about total commander: "Just copy the c:\totalcmd folder and you're good to go." which reminds me of the pointless complexity of windows registry and the DLL hell "problem"... it seems the 'correct' way to do things is almost always more complicated than it needs to be. there was a blog post about microwaves a little while ago to the same effect...

i think its all part of the same problem. not enough time/effort is spent on keeping things simple. i myself am guilty of making things pointlessly complicated, and its an easy enough trap to fall into... :)

Ugh, smartftp, where the theme is more important than the program.

Churchill GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based outside Tralee in County Kerry, Ireland.They play in

Division 5 of the county league and in the Novice Championship. The club's most famous player is former Irish

Republican Army member and Kerry U-21 player Martin Ferris...

"Try Transmit on the Mac. $30, period. For every computer you ever own. Forever. Period. Easy registration process. Oh, and it has every feature I've ever heard of in an FTP client."

Except the ability to throttle downloads and uploads :S (which Total comander for Windows has)

Why no FTP client does that on the Mac? There are *no* ftp clients that are able to do what wget does with a single parameter.
I've tried: Transmit, Fetch, Flow, Finder itself, Interarchy, CaptainFTP, Cyberduck... at that point I had to stop but I might be missing someone.

Regarding the topic @ hand, the best registration is no registration at all :) That, or you store all your numbers in apps like Yojimbo, Wallet, etc. On the Mac there are funny methods, I remember once I had to literally drag a license from the browser to the program. :) Can't remember what it was.

"I actually liked the one from 1Password. You get an email with a licence-image and just drag-and-drop the image from the email to the application."

Yeah, that was it :) was funny dragging that stuff.

On the Mac some other programs offer "one click" and the app opens registered.

Jeff,

I'd be interested to hear exactly what it is that's stopping you from continuing to use EditPad Pro. I fully agree with the sentiment in your article. Paying customers should be treated with respect. The payment and registration process should be as painless as possible.

I believe that for our products (which includes EditPad Pro and RegexBuddy which you own), we've done a good job at that. But I'm still interested in hearing any ideas you may have for improvement.

When you purchased EditPad Pro, it was a three-step process:
1. Place the order (either a single page on our site or PayPal's system)
2. Click on the link to download the licensed version that (almost) immediately appears in your browser.
3. Install it.

No need to juggle with any registration keys or whatever. Your details are embedded in the setup.exe You can repeat step 3 at any time, on any computer, as long as you keep the download. You can continue using EditPad Pro (at least the version you downloaded) as long as you have a computer that can run Win32 executables, even if Just Great Software went out of business.

If you don't keep the download, or want to download the latest free update, head over to http://www.editpadpro.com/download.html and enter your email address and (short) user ID. If you don't have your ID, enter your email address only and your ID will be emailed to you instantly. If your email address changed (we seem to have a gmail acount on file for your EditPad Pro license), contact support@editpadpro.com to have it changed.

Getting a new download is the only time you need to identify yourself as a paying customer. The download then again has your license information embedded into it and you can reinstall it any time in the future.

Mike B, that story may have be a lie by the developer. Sounds too generous to me, the untrusting person I am. Also, yes, product registration is way too difficult, I've been paid to help people even just register software in the past, which is insane.

I stopped purchasing software that requires so called "Product Activation" years ago because I was burned twice with that sort of BS. At least two programs stopped working because of "activation" problems (one was because the company had gone bankrupt and their "authentication" servers no longer existed), so I learned my lesson - Never Again! That's why I'm still using Windows 2000 for the things that require Windows, and Ubuntu Linux for everything else.

I would donate to FileZilla. But not through PayPal. Never.
I donated more than $190 to Linux NTFS recently, just because the developer answered my e-mail with his bank account details.

Living in Europe, I don't accept that my personal data be processed in the US. A country that legalized torture. Read PayPal terms of use!

I totally agree about sponsoring your favorite software by donating to the company/developer. But on the other hand I also like the company/developer to "trust the customer", as Paul Souders mentions.

If you trust your own product and services, count on it your revenue will follow. The world isn't that bad a place.

I can't believe SmartFTP even bothers with a license that you have to keep track of. It makes no sense. It's essentially operating on the honor system anyway, why even bother with the license file?

You'd think all these guys would get together and open source a purchase & registration library they could all share.

I'm in the same boat. I jumped through hoops to buy Handy Backup and every time I format or upgrade I have to contact them to reacquire a new key. As I do that sort of thing often it's annoying.

@Rudolf_the_Red : tried typing ftp://sitename into the K file manager and seems to open up a nice drag and drop folder view with image thumbnails and everything... works just like any local folder.

i.e. this functionality is built in to the file manager (as it is at least partially in Windows?) so you don't need an separate FTP client program at all ..? This is done via KIO for HTTP, FTP, SMB, SSH, FISH, SVN, TAR etc ... all though one interface...

Jeff, you should stop blurring out the numbers in your picture; they're easily reconstructible:

http://dheera.net/projects/blur.php

Simple solution: just black them completely.

This is so true. I wish a donate system existed for musicians and artists.

Even better would be one that donates to each aspect of a film, eg if you liked the directing better than the music etc, then a larger cut would go to the director, etc.

I recently saw this pain with my favorite PHP editing software Active State's Komodo. I just paid for it last year, but got a new PC. The license link no longer works because they have a "new" version. That new version no longer provides a commercial vs. home user, so my "upgrade" cost is $250, compared to $45 I paid last year.

So I figure I would try the trial after an email from them told me that there was nothing I could do to use the old version.

Did I notice a big difference? Not really, in fact the extra features make my life worst by trying to guess what text I need, when most of the time it is not right, and I have to delete it. Fun!

I got my revenge though... it is a 21-day trial and every 14-20 days for the last few months they have released a new version. I update my software, and presto, my trial is restarted automatically. No idea why, but I do not feel that sorry for them at this point.

The worst registration I've ever run into is Zbrush. Their software bangs the server every time you start the program. It has a nasty fit if it can't talk to the server or if your key is invalid because you've moved it to another machine. What makes it worse is that once you have an invalid key, it is almost impossible to enter in another one.

The software doesn't even cost that much, and they have a crazy anti-theft scheme.

I didn't find registering SmartFTP that bad, but I guess I just assume that online buying from anywhere other than Amazon is going to take a few minutes. And the time that SmartFTP has saved me over using FileZilla, or WS-FTP, or any of the others I tried was well worth the time and money.

+1 for 7-Zip. IMO, this handy little tool is easier to use than winRAR and light years more flexible than WinZIP. The install is simple, there is no 'Registration' option. For all this, I would gladly donate $40, and perhaps a Labrador puppy.

For all its woes, Microsoft has done a decent job with its activation setup. Vista volume licensing could use better documentation, but once you learn how to line up the hoops just right, it goes pretty painlessly for additional activations.

I keep all my software license keys in a Word document. I should probably convert that to an Access database to make it easier to search.

The only open source software I would consider studying and working to improve are web applications. Customizing ecommerce shopping carts is highly profitable and steady work. Currently I mostly experiment with widgets although I would be interested in contributing to a decent social networking web application.

3. Profit!

Don't you watch South Park? ;)

My $.02...

1) In many cases open source apps are dodgier than their commercial equivalents, but for tools that developers use they're generally at least as good--if not better-- than their commercial counterparts. (It's the "eating your own dog food" effect.) So purchasing development tools or system utilities seems pointless.

2) There is a common argument that if I purchase a CD I should have the right to listen to the songs on that CD whenever I want, where ever I want, and on any device I want. Legally that's not true, but every attempt to lock the tracks down (except iTunes) has been met with stiff resistance. Why should people feel different about the software they purchase? Once I pay for the software I want a single installation file that I can use on any machine at any time. There are legitimate reasons why I might want to use my software on someone else's computer. Registration keys are tolerable, but activation is absolutely unacceptable.

3) Most of this software is cheap. If I need to buy a second copy to reduce my hassle factor, then either I'm going to bail entirely and look for free alternatives, or I'm going to pony up $50-$100 for a second copy. I'm not sure driving customers to look for alternatives is worth the small amount of incremental revenue it might generate. (The music industry is once again a good model for how to do this very badly.)

4) I'm not convinced that basing a business on selling development utilities is a good idea. If your product is useful, you'll be forced to compete against products that are a) just as good, b) completely free, c) and never die or have support end or don't get upgraded to the newest version of the OS, etc. Buying software like this isn't necessarily good for the software industry--it just keeps a bad business model on life support.

The real question is why your operating system doesn't come with decent support for FTP.

@Jan Goyvaerts: Can we have further details about Jeff's past software purchases, and the domains he holds email accounts with, please? ;)

"Yes, a few developers release 'pro' or 'enhanced' versions, but generally the transaction is bone simple: 'to run our software without limitations you need to buy a magic number.'"

OTOH, there are illicit serial keys all over the place. There are even fancy Mac programs designed solely to manage sets of them, so they can be distributed monthly so people have the latest update. If you're a developer, you need to constantly be on the lookout for shared serials, and provide updates that kill them, or check at startup for a kill-list on your webserver.

Mac software dev isn't the utopia you portray.

The thing I find strange about the whole FTP debacle, is why Filezilla misses the mark on so many usability issues. Filezilla must be one of the top 50 most popular open source apps out there at the moment. Why does it have simple, fundamental usability problems that products like SmartFTP and FlashFXP do so much better? All a good FTP program really needs is a file browser on the left, a file browser on the right and a queue down the bottom. Then you just hook the three panels up in the most sensible fashion and your done... Surely someone with the skills could jump into Filezilla's code and make it a little bit more competitive?

> How many people who use open source as part of their 'stack' are
> actually a) capable and b) prepared to seriously pick up their
> abandoned pet projec

Free Software worst case: You have to pay someone else to do it for you.

Proprietary Software worst case: It can't be done at any price.

If my business was on the line, I know which problem I'd rather have.

@Steve and other Linuxy folks snarking about it: There is "decent support" in Windows for FTP. You can either use the command line (which works fine, really) or (at least you used to) Internet Explorer

For a very long time I was able to do whatever I needed to without spending a lot of money on software. The two biggest 'money sinks' were always Photoshop -- which I eventually traded in for a paid license for Paint Shop Pro -- and have since moved to Paint.NET.

The second one was dev tools, mainly Visual Basic and/then Visual Studio. To a certain degree work used to provide me with that software, and hey, there's even Express Versions of the stuff if you really want to stretch it. Including SQL server.

Given all this and that, I believe that whether your OS 'comes with' (i.e. you have to install packages) software or you spend 10 minutes to look for a free/open source alternative: unless you're talking Enterprise level it really shouldn't take much money at all to get "better" utilities for doing whatever you want to do.

The point of Jeff's article was the pain in the ass process *OF* getting those products should you wish to give them money.

@Warren

"Living in Europe, I don't accept that my personal data be processed in the US. A country that legalized torture. Read PayPal terms of use!"

I agree that PayPal sucks. But including your little anti-American jibe in there was VERY classy and was a perfect fit given the context of the statement.

> If you're on a Windows platform, ...
> don't even ask about Ada. (hey, everyone has their perversions...)

http://www.aonix.com/objectada.html
http://www.adacore.com/home/
http://www.mingw.org/ (Roughly same compiler as above, but no paid commerical support)

Windows is actually one of Ada's better supported platforms.

>There's no doubt that SmartFTP is the superior FTP client. I'm more than happy to register and reward them for their years of development work.

hahahahha...it's FTP, it ain't rocket science.

winSCP works for me.

This post is actually a very good example of one of the main reasons why I prefer to use Free Software, even if there's a shareware solution that's otherwise nicer. I *don't* violate licenses, and I don't run software I feel morally obligated to help pay for if I'm not going to pay for it.

Free Software I can run with little hassle and a clear conscience. I can use it anywhere I may find myself needing it in the future without having to worry about keys or activations or even paper issues with the license terms. That's worth a lot to me.

FTP-applications in general are hugely overpriced.

An avarage of $ 40,- for an application who's only
job is to copy files to a server, come on !..

If Jeff.IsAnnoyed Then
BlogPost_Today = RaiseHellAgainst(DifficultRegistrations)
End If

Rage against the machine, dude!!

Win XP WILL have this problem eventually. Remember that they just decided to take down the MSN music servers. That will effectively kill all music downloaded from that site, eventually.

They will eventually take down the Win XP activation servers, and then when you need to re-install, which you eventually will, you will not be able to activate the software again, and it will be dead. You will call MS, and they will inform you that it has reached it support end of life, so even though they will be happy to keep your money you are paing to talk to them, they will not help you.

If you do not have access to full source code, you are just renting.

"you are just renting."

Well duuuuhhhh...

That's how ALL software is paid for nowadays. It's what you agree to when you agree to the EULA.

It's also pretty much the only way developers can get recompensed for something that can be duplicated and distributed by a single customer at effectively no cost.

The "pay for support" argument doesn't work, because it doesn't pay for the original development, and it doesn't reward the developer for making a flawless product in the first place.

> > Let's say you reload your XP machine in a couple of years and
> > Microsoft decides, nope, you can't activate XP anymore
> 1) Do you really consider this a realistic scenario?

I don't know about the "couple of years", but its certain to happen eventually.

> 2) Even in the unbelievably remote chance this did come to pass,
> wouldn't there be umpteen million cracks and hacks available
> through a simple web search that would let you get around this?

That would violate the license. I don't do that. My company definitely doesn't.

Jeesh. Wasn't it just last week that *you* were calling *me* a pirate? ;-)

I know people already commented on Transmit by Panic and the way prevalent for Mac shareware, but I still wanted to weigh in with the Ambrosia way. You can easily buy the code for Ambrosia stuff (utilities and games) on their web store (the good old email, fax, phone, and snail mail are still available as well) and get it instantly sent to you by email, code which you then enter in the product (possibly offline, no activation required), and from now it'll work forever on that computer. If you change computer you'll have to enter the code again, but since it's presumably kept in your email archives it's not usually a problem, and they have an automated system that can send you back your codes to your email adress if you lost the code anyway. One thing they added is the fact that codes expire: you can still use the product forever, but if you need to enter the code again (on a new computer or after a reformat) more than one month later it will have to be renewed, which can be done automatically, instantly, for free over the net from within the app, or you can use the automated system to be sent back a new code. It's explained pretty well in their article: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=26&t=34059 but what's more interesting is the comments from Andrew (el Presidente of Ambrosia) where he says that the number one design goal was that the system had to not inconvenience paying users, not absolute security; there is also another where he says he hates working on anti-piracy schemes, but it's a necessity if they are to stay in business, so that it is more inconvenient to pirate the product rather than to pay for it. I think they did a very good job of it.

I just donated $10 to the dev of AllSnap (http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~iheckman/allsnap/) which I picked out from my notification area as a free app I use and didn't have pay for. Here's to karma!

re: Nicholas Piasecki

> I stopped using Filezilla about a year and a half ago when I
> discovered it suffered from a rare, but very serious multi-threading
> problem: sometimes it would swap the contents of files during an upload.

Yep... that's why I stopped using Filezilla FOREVER. 100% reliability if pretty much the price of entry for such a simple piece of software. I simply can't believe Filezilla made such a bad mistake. I used WS_FTP for years until it's interface got too clunky for me to handle.

Then, finally, I started using FireFTP. Now there's a basic cross-platform FTP client I can use with exactly the same interface on any OS. For the amount that I FTP, I can't imagine ever downloading another FTP client again.

Great article. I always want straight forward and simple procedures that are just for my needs, nothing more nothing less. And if the steps are lightning fast (eg. loading a web page), all the better.

> Windows developers seem to be made of money. One of the reasons I got out of the Windows world a decade ago was the cash I was shelling out just to stay current.

That would be, with all due respect, because Windows developers MAKE money. Yes, I know you can make money using FOSS but you do have to work harder at it. Windows developers have no problem spending money because they use it to make money. It's an ecosystem.

With FOSS I always feel like "well I can find a tool to do this if someone felt like writing one". With Windows there's pretty much ALWAYS someone who's written something to do what you want since they know the ecosystem just accepts paying for it. Money makes things happen, and happen faster.

So on point.

Product activation is probably the last feature where any usability analysis gets done but it's the most important one to the end revenue.

There might be a room for a niche business here, although I'm not sure that micro ISVs have any money to pay you. :)

Jeff: your website is crying out for the ability to let commenters reply to other people's comments. When 40 people per post are using the "@" designation to talk to each other, maybe it's time to turn on per-comment replies...?

@woongbin:

"If you don't mind wasting your time with a commandline ftp"

For what it's worth, I switched to a command line ftp client (ncftp) about a year ago (from FileZilla) and have had no regrets. It *is* free (as in Freedom, not just as in 'lunch'), and it has all of the same functionality that I care about.

Though the command line learning curve may seem off-putting, it is incredibly expressive and time-saving; the drag-n-drop GUI interface is clunky and slow by comparison.

1. $40 for an FTP program? In 2008??? Just write some scripts, man. Do you really need your 1980s GUI fix that badly? ;-P

2. The Omni tools on Mac (e.g., OmniGraffle, my favorite) have a very easy registration process, IMO.

3. Ironically, the more annoying and expensive your license scheme is, the more likely people are to get around it and also to develop viable open-source alternatives. Look at Matlab*P, for example: Matlab front-end with clustered Octave back-end (one instance of Octave running on each node of the cluster). Octave is a fully functional, quite mature, GPL Matlab clone, but isn't 100% compatible with Matlab. The whole reason for using an Octave back-end is to avoid buying one Matlab license (probably $1000 or so) per node of the cluster ;-)

@Paul Souders: "If Mac developers pulled the kind of crap I've had to endure on my Windows machines, the users would scream bloody murder; they just aren't used to it."

Right. Instead, they allow Apple to pull this kind of crap on the entire OS instead and have tolerated it for years.

I'm referring, of course, to the activation code that is Mac hardware, required to run Mac's OS. No Mac computer activation code? No OS for you!

Whining about MS and other Windows software vendors about things that Apple does (even worse) is BS.

I'm not saying that requiring activation is a good thing; my IDE vendor does it, and it ticks me off everytime I buy a new computer. I'm just saying that all of the Mac users who say, "I wouldn't tolerate such nonsense!" are hypocrits.

@Tom Dibble: "Try Transmit on the Mac. $30, period. For every computer you ever own. Forever. Period."

Right. For every overpriced Apple computer that you buy to unlock that copy of OSX/Leopard/Whatever to run on in order to run your $30 FTP client software. Forever. Period.

@KenW: "For every overpriced Apple computer that you buy..."

1999 called, it wants its FUD back.

You would go through all of these steps, and more, to buy a video game on-line, why wouldn't you do it for software you are already running.

Ill bite, which step could you remove?

Jeff,
I agree that this registration process sucks. No doubt. However something you seemed to have overlooked is that a corporate purchase would include contacting the vendor, and setting up a PO and/or SLA and the hardest work would be performed by the vendor. Generating the keys and such, then someone in IT would like build a package to deploy the software and license to each desktop.

Not saying you are wrong, you are not. The registration process you showed sucks, but for the corp environment this isn't likely going to be much of an issue nor increase of workload.

*looks above* Looks like you just got some blog spam ;( (Search for the post by "pregnancy-questions")

(feel free to delete this comment as well)

>> Let's say you reload your XP machine in a couple of years and Microsoft decides, nope, you can't activate XP anymore, that license has expired. You're totally screwed.

> 1) Do you really consider this a realistic scenario?

Yes, I happen to. I don't believe it will happen too soon, however microsoft is already doing this to their office products. Although you can still install Office97, if you try to open a document created with Office97 with Office 2007 or Office 2003 with the 2007 Compatibility pack, you will no longer be permitted to open the document. This is a policy decision, not a technical limitation. In fact the fix for someone who really wants to continue backwards compatibility is a registry key change to allow 2007 products to open Office97 documents.

Yes, Office97 is VERY VERY old, no arguments there, but it is policy driven forced obsolesence.

> 2) Even in the unbelievably remote chance this did come to pass, wouldn't there be umpteen million cracks and hacks available through a simple web search that would let you get around this?

The chance isn't that remote. Regardless...if it does pass...you would be breaking the law/EULA/IP Invasion, whatever...if you persued cracks and hacks to get around it.

Should have bought Transmit on OSX instead. A pleasure to buy and to use.

@Pierre Lebeaupin: And how is this different from installing XP? If you reformat your drive, or replace it, and reinstall XP, you can still use it. It just has to be activated again (same as "it will have to be renewed" in your post), and you have the same problem if MS decommissions the activation server (your software company goes out of business).

@RobW: "1999 called, it wants its FUD back."

Bzzt. Wrong.

I just had this discussion with someone (a Mac developer) in a thread on Joel on Software. I spec'd out a Windows desktop I just bought for $750, and asked him what the comparable Mac would cost. I forgot what model he said it was, but it was more than twice the price for the same memory, CPU speed, and HDD, and had a quarter of the other features (9 slot card reader, 4 front and 6 rear USB 2.0 ports, dual DVI video card, CD/DVD burner, Dolby stereo support in the sound card). So, in order to run the Mac OS, you need to spend way more money than to run the comparable version of Windows.

Slashdot called. They miss you.

@Scott McPherson: "Although you can still install Office97, if you try to open a document created with Office97 with Office 2007 or Office 2003 with the 2007 Compatibility pack, you will no longer be permitted to open the document."

Nonsense. In my office, we have Office 97, 2000, XP, 2003, and 2007 on various machines (dependent on the age of the system and sometimes the computer savvy of the user ). I open Office 97 .DOC and .XLS files all the time, and if I'm careful to save as the right type, others open .DOC and .XLS files I create with my copy of Office 2007 just fine.

Where are you getting your information?

Careful w/ SmartFTP - It has global settings now that "automatically determine" whether to overwrite, skip, or resume a file in either upload or download when it already exists on the other side- It doesn't really tell you what it's doing, either. The only way to bypass this is to add the site to your site manager and edit the rules for that particular site in it's properties. There's NO WAY to edit the global settings - I checked the forums, a dev claimed that wanting to edit the global rules was a fringe case and not necessary to add to the global preferences.

This is a pet peeve of mine, both as a developer and a user- If you don't think it belongs in the direction you want your software to go, that's fine, fair, and totally your right as the creative force behind the product. But "fringe case" is defined by the users, not the developer.

and what is this STARTING at $36.95 for home edition and STARTING..?
This implies there are even more different prices under each one.

For keeping track of passwords, license keys and anything I need to remember, I keep a personal unpublished protected wiki on the web so I can have this vital information anytime anywhere.

I fill out forms on the web just too often. I am thinking of getting something like Roboform oo it fills out the form for me.

Agreed. I'd rather crack the serial algorithm than go through a painful registration process. And sometimes I do just that.

@KenW: "Slashdot called. They miss you."

Ha! :-)

I guess I was protesting the broad-brushed "every overpriced Mac" comment, rather than debating whether or not you could build a PC cheaper than buying a Mac. (Yes, I know you can. I've built many a PC.)

I found the Mac Pro laptops to be reasonably competitive with what I was shopping around for from Dell, Lenovo, etc. - with less aggravation from crapware, occasionally buggy drivers, etc.

I just looked again at Dell (17" Precision/2.5GHz/200GB/2.0GB/etc): $2670 vs MacMall (MBP 17"/2.5/250/2.0/etc): $2608.

Close enough, and the Mac's been a piece of cake to work with - Parallels is a wonderful thing. YMMV.

The worst of activation is in the world of music creation software. Almost everything comes with a dongle or activation. And the worst of the worst are these donkeys: http://www.ikmultimedia.com. They actually limit of license keys you can generate. Each one is bound to hardware, and users are most likely to install the apps on several machines (desktops, laptops, etc - all legal).

Don't people realize that copy protection punishes the people who pay? Pirates just hack around it. Us law-abiding folk are the ones who bump head-on into the hurdles.

For the record, I reached my activation limit on my copy of XP just had to call their support number to get my activation life cycle (or whatever you want to call it) reset, no questions asked. Seems like if you're willing to jump through their hoop they don't really limit your activations.

This of course doesn't mean they can't one day decide to stop supporting it altogether, but I was surprised at how easy it was to get up and running after 'violating' the license agreement more or less.

@RobW

A Dell Precision business workstation vs whatever you had at the Mac store ...

I'm not sure I'd use that as your regular consumer price comparison.

XPS 420:
Intel® Core™2 Q6700 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.66Hz,1066FSB)
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
24 inch E248WFP Entry Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor
ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Dell AS501PA 10W Flat Panel Attached Spkrs for Analog Flat Panels
Hauppauge HVR1250 Hybrid TV Tuner and Remote
Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
Dell Premium Optical USB Mouse
Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth
Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package

-- $1899 --

Get a linux server, then use SCP or SFTP,
as opposed to FTP, which is a horrible and insecure (login + password transferred in plain text) protocol.

@Scott McPherson: "Although you can still install Office97, if you try to open a document created with Office97 with Office 2007 or Office 2003 with the 2007 Compatibility pack, you will no longer be permitted to open the document."

this is off-topic, but this False. It's documents BEFORE Office 97 that have been made obsolete, for security reasons (buffer overwrites, macros, etc). It's Word 2.0 from 1994! http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810/en-us

btw, we're in 2008. If you're still using those important documents from Office 95 or DOS, why don't you just save them the heck back to disk!

lovely idea!
thank you for reminding me. i just donated $25 to Spybot-Search and Destroy. they have kept my computer safe and clean. They deserve it :)

Steve: Shell ftp isn't a nice interface. That's what Jeff's paying for.

(And, um, Visual Studio Express is free, by the way. As is SQL Express. MS wants you to use their tools even if you don't want to pay, because they want developers. Much like Apple gives a copy of their development tools away with every copy of OSX.)

Jeff: To clarify, to me it sure looks like that "one year" thing is not the registration, but the support contract.

Kenw: Try the reverse. Try picking a Mac, and price an identical-spec Dell or close-as-you-can-get (or your preferred manufacturer).

Every time I've done that, I've never been able to beat the Mac by more than about $50, and more often the Mac's same or cheaper - and better designed. The XPS One can't beat the iMac, last I checked. Nor can the workstation models beat the Mac Pro, except at the bare-minimum spec, and then not by much.

(And that also assumes a zero-value proposition to the mouse and keyboard choices [outside of the Mini or laptops]; as someone who uses an Apple Keyboard on Windows at work because it's so much better than a generic PC keyboard, that's not really an acceptable assumption. Add $3-50 worth of keyboard to your PC prices, if you agree.)

Full Disclosure: I build my own PCs, like my home machine running Vista x64. I've used Windows since before 3.0, linux since the 1.2 kernels, and Macs since System 6, and use all three every day. I'm not a platform bigot - in any direction.

I think Microsoft might of solved your registration problem.

Live Mesh
http://blogs.msdn.com/livemesh/archive/2008/04/21/live-mesh-as-a-platform.aspx

Its pretty much the registery in the cloud + data synchronization.

Reading more about this Live Mesh and I think Microsoft just built the OS in the cloud.

Sorry if this is getting off topic. ;-)

the whole windows vs linux argument is moot... most good free and open software is availible to windows developers anyway.

I personally treat windows like an obscure verson of linux with a quirky comamnd line. Most things are installed on it easily enough. I even have a batch file that redirects "ls" in to "dir".

Plus I get my games.

LINUX!

I've found this to be a major problem too. It's actually the hassle of the registration that I find more deterring than the product price itself. Serial numbers that come with boxed software are bad enough - trying to track serial numbers for software purchased online is a nightmare.

This isn't going to change anytime soon, so the best we can do as consumers is have a system for organizing. I've recently adopted KeyPass (a very nice password storage program) for my passwords. Your post has made me realize that this program (or whatever your password program of choice may be) can be used perfectly well for serial numbers too!

@N: "XPS 420"

I was comparing 17" laptops - Macbook Pro vs. Dell Precision M6300.

But to your point (and KenW's), Apple's got a huge gap in the midrange workstation area. I agree wholeheartedly.

My point was that it's not always true that Apple is more expensive, comparing (pardon the phrase) apples to apples.

I'm not sure I understand the animosity - surely some competition is a good thing, no?

And before anyone accuses me of being a platform bigot, I've used PCs since they hit the market, Windows since the 2.1 days, Linux on and off since god-knows-when, and Macs on and off since they hit the market.

We have packaged software that we sell for Windows - why? It's where the sales are. We're doing some investigation into Mac ports, and we're in the iPhone Beta Dev Program - so, now we're using some Mac hardware. (Although I made my laptop switch before doing any Mac development.) We'll continue using the Mac platform - with Windows virtuals - as long as it (a) works, (b) is reasonably cost competitive, and (c) we can earn a living on it.

(@Sigivald: Glad I'm not the only one out there.)

@T.E.D.:
>> How many people who use open source as part of their 'stack' are
>> actually a) capable and b) prepared to seriously pick up their
>> abandoned pet project

>Free Software worst case: You have to pay someone else to do it for you.
>Proprietary Software worst case: It can't be done at any price.
>If my business was on the line, I know which problem I'd rather have.

Well, maybe me too, in that scenario - but my point still stands - how many people using open source are using it because they are genuinely able/likely to pick up and work with the source if the project ever dies? Not just the gifted few developers (of which we will have a disproportionate number posting on here, almost by definition) - but the 'great unwashed' for whom oss is possibly an easy way to get a short-term fix at no cost to themselves?

Yes, I know there are a bunch of killer developers out there just waiting to take 'Project Z' and make it their own, helping to make the world a better place in the process - but if we're not talking ideals here, and we're not talking some speculative idealised fantasy world, I wonder how many 'real world' 9-5 developers would actually take an oss project and make significant changes to it themselves...?

Time and time again I know what the *correct* answer to any given problem is, in terms of using open source software, open standards, redistributable libraries etc - and then I have to balance that with the 'Planet Earth' realities, in which it's often hard to justify a free choice to a for-profit business board, and it's hard to defend a 'free' choice at 3 in the morning when you need some support and there's no-one around, and it's hard to explain why by going free it meant you might wait a week for an answer.... all things that can (and often are) wrong with for-profit software too - but increasingly I hear this whole mantra about how oss gives you the ability to change the program yourself (often from developers who would be incapable of doing just that, or who work for companies who would never dream of paying their staff to do such a thing to then see the results given away for free again, in compliance with the GPL etc) or you get the whole thing about how it gives you community support (which again is no comfort at 3am when you basically decide that you'd much rather have paid someone to make sure they were answering your urgent calls, than to submit posts to a forum and await someone to take pity on you).

I don't doubt for a moment that the oss route is purer, and probably more internally 'rewarding', but I do seriously doubt just how many developers have actually ever picked up an abandoned oss project that their company relied upon, and then moved it forward, and then given it back to the community afterwards.

I'm not saying paid-for software is better (often it isn't) - I'm just saying I don't buy the theory that legions of programmers out there will be hacking away at 'MyAwesomeCVSClone' on Sourceforge when the founding fathers of it finally get bored, in doing so passing-back all the changes that they made to the other users of MyAwesomeCVSClone around the world. I'm sure it /does/ happen - but I think it's often used as a justification much more than it's actually done as practise

Jeff how about a discussion about software updates...
Registration and then .... what about all the updates software distributors want? When I log in, sometimes for just a quick use, almost every time something wants to be updated, often more than one at a time. It's very annoying. Some want to do it while in the middle of using it like MS Media player or adobe. Often it is security SW or OS SW. Then it's a roll of dice as to whether a restart or reboot is required. Sometimes, I wonder who's computer I am using. Their's or mine. It is getting worse everyday with every new or old product. I say enough already. I know I can turn some of the automatic stuff off and I do, but it is often just replaced with a reminder, again and again. Grrrr...

I would like feedback on this: I have a small time shareware site and charge $15 to $25 to register my software. My experience is that if I offer the software for free (nag screen or not) 1 in 1000 people using the software will donate. Therefore I give a 45 day free trial (easily worked around by anyone who is clever and crooked). There is a link to my website from the menu bar in the software. The website shows two PayPal buttons, one a single user license and the other a site license (20 users). Once registered a time sensitive registration key which will work for one month is emailed to the buyer along with a login and password to the website. The login and password allows the buyer to retrieve a new registration keys from the website at any time in the future. Does anyone have a better way to do it? Writing the software is a lot of work and I am not going to it for free.

"how do they know if you purchase one copy and give away to whoever you know?"

For one (and I'm not 100% sure on Transmit, but based on other apps such as Omni's apps), your license key is sent in when you ask for support; I suspect they might ask questions when they start seeing a bunch of folks with the same key asking questions.

For another, trust your users. Those that will buy a copy and ive it to all their friends are not going to buy a whole bunch of copies if you lock it down more. They'll go the next-least-resistance path. There is obviously a happy medium in there somewhere between relying on human kindness and generosity and requiring three forms of ID and a hardware dongle surgically implanted in their forehead.

Finally, I know a large portion of Mac developers with streamlined activation processes do rather well for themselves. So, speculation aside, I think that the easy activation processes out there do in fact work well. Maybe they are just deluding themselves and passing up thousands of registrations per day. Just as likely, though, they know that a more inconvenient process would yield *fewer* registrations (aka, more abandoned registrations) and general public ill-will. In an industry which lives and dies on word-of-mouth, making your biggest supporters (the paying customers) happy is absolutely key!

Rob Uttley: A good example of this is Zinf. It's a nice little open-source MP3 player -- runs well on slow PCs, and doesn't do all the bells and whistles; it just plays MP3s.

And, as best I can tell, the project has been dead for more than four years now. There hasn't been a Windows installer provided for nearly six.

I can still download the software, install it, and run it -- that much is definitely true, in ways that it isn't as true for commercial software (though I still have the install disks for MicroGrafx Picture Publisher, and there even the company is long gone), but I don't think I'll ever get an updated version. Luckily I currently don't need one, but backwards compatibility won't last forever.

Rob Uttley: A good example of this is Zinf. It's a nice little open-source MP3 player -- runs well on slow PCs, and doesn't do all the bells and whistles; it just plays MP3s.

And, as best I can tell, the project has been dead for more than four years now. There hasn't been a Windows installer provided for nearly six.

I can still download the software, install it, and run it -- that much is definitely true, in ways that it isn't as true for commercial software (though I still have the install disks for MicroGrafx Picture Publisher, and there even the company is long gone), but I don't think I'll ever get an updated version. Luckily I currently don't need one, but backwards compatibility won't last forever.

Rob Uttley: A good example of this is Zinf. It's a nice little open-source MP3 player -- runs well on slow PCs, and doesn't do all the bells and whistles; it just plays MP3s.

And, as best I can tell, the project has been dead for more than four years now. There hasn't been a Windows installer provided for nearly six.

I can still download the software, install it, and run it -- that much is definitely true, in ways that it isn't as true for commercial software (though I still have the install disks for MicroGrafx Picture Publisher, and there even the company is long gone), but I don't think I'll ever get an updated version. Luckily I currently don't need one, but backwards compatibility won't last forever.

I dumped SmartFTP for FileZilla for _exactly_ the reasons you outlined. Have never looked back.

@Jeff:
Try my little tool for IE6, that puts tabs on the IE windows. I think that, if I wrote it 4 years ago, I'd be a millionaire from the $10 registrations. :)

It is a single executable with no installer, and runs right away (you can even hit Run). So that's kind of easy. Anyway, the point is... try REGISTERING IT. That's easy too! You create a username and password and can reactivate it on any computer.

Now, it's true that this is a program that I *wanted* to run on every computer, and that's the point of the program... but this can be applied to other programs. What do you guys think?

Oh, the tool is at
http://tabbed.org

Look Jeff, i would really appreciate if you change your comments system, we need something that allow us reply directly to the other person.

You are a programmer, go a make my life easier.

Software is like sex, it is better when is free.

Even once you've licenced Smart FTP, and if your subscription expires, you are presented with a nagging popup every time you start the program.

Jeff--

I know this blog entry has you up to your knees or above in comments. ;-)

I'm hoping though that a link to my recent comment / request for your advice or thoughts, on your now nine day old blog entry re: upgrading your 18 month old main home power PC, will get you to notice it, and hoepfully want to respond!

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001102.html

Your PC building and overclocking posts both on Scott Hanselman's system and your upgrade have I think nudged me over the edge towards rolling my own once again, though I haven't done that for a decade now (and am using a laptop as my main home system at the moment.) Time for a Vista 64 / 8gb ram / foray I think. But I need your mobo and other advice. Hence the link!

Did you bother to think that the attention to detail in making a great piece of software can go off course in other things like figuring out how to register the purchaser. I guess with the good comes a little bad.

If you leave it up to developers to "donate" vs. "purchase" they'll almost never donate because most developers are lazy cheap bastards.

Also, you do need three different ways to activate because different companies have different purchasing and activation policies. I just finished a software project that was basically turning a website into a desktop application because they never allowed internet access on the desktop. We had to add three different activation methods as well; automatic registration, e-mail or a manual phone call, all because of various IT regulations. Pain the arse.

That said I'm waiting for the OpenID version of online purchases. Click Buy Now, get forwarded to a purchasing agent where you sign in with OpenID, which is linked to purchasing information which also stores and manages all your licenses.

Tim Kosse will no doubt wonder where all these $36.95 donations are coming from.

I detest the normal vs pro option:

Seriously, it's not like ordering a larger engine for your car or alloy wheels. It probably cost more developer time and effort to lock functionality down that the features themselves took, It's purely artificial and purely greed motivated. As so many others point out, when you use that kind of software, you're going to get burned eventually.

The exceptions to the rule are large software packages, but Excel is hardly a few features rolled into Word if you get my drift.

PS Apple software isn't immune to this BS either. Long ago I had a license for Quicktime Pro, but then iTunes updates itself and has to update QT as well. Whoops that invalidated the pro key and no more pro. Funnily enough, the free iTunes is worth more that paying for QT.

QT pretty much sucks and always has, and it has all the annoying grayed out buttons teasing me what I can't do, and always nagging me to upgrade. So to all the 'Apple is so much better camp' there's always an exception to the rule.

More and more I'm a big fan of no-install, single directory (or better yet single exe) style programs.

I had a good experience the other day buying a eBook on the Manning (www.manning.com) website. No accounts, no order forms. Just press the pay with PayPal button and a download link is emailed to you. Give it a try, it's the best experience I had buying online.

Has anyone tried bitlocker? It is supposed to manage this whole process - central storage of keys and software in the cloud etc. I'd be interested in hearing people's experiences with it.

I just got a new piece of software for my Mac. You click on the "Purchase" link, go to the Esellerate.net site, and wham!, my software is registered. The key is downloaded and installed automatically. I have no idea how they did that, but it does mean that I don't have to get an email, and manually copy the key between my app and my email.

Still had to fill out the form. No way around that because they need my name, address, and credit card number although Safari could store that for me.

BTW, the difference between the "home" and "professional" is that the "home" only supports plain text FTP while the professional supports SFTP and SCP which are encrypted.

"BTW, the difference between the "home" and "professional" is that the "home" only supports plain text FTP while the professional supports SFTP and SCP which are encrypted."

Because, as we all know, security doesn't matter to home users.

It's a crappy, artificial distinction. It encourages poor security. This makes Smart FTP a bad internet citizen, and would be a major mark against me purchasing their software.

"PS Apple software isn't immune to this BS either. Long ago I had a license for Quicktime Pro, but then iTunes updates itself and has to update QT as well. Whoops that invalidated the pro key and no more pro. Funnily enough, the free iTunes is worth more that paying for QT."

I agree. I've long since lost hope that Apple would pull its head out on this one. They just seemed determined to piss off legions of customers. You wonder why QuickTime hasn't taken hold of more of the marketplace ... the crippled "player" is a major part!

You need order forms. (e.g. to help customers retrieve their license file when they accidently formatted their entire PC and kept no backups)

You can't mind the they have a home/pro edition. Pick "home" and get over it. If someone want Pro features, then let them.

Whatever registration method a developer select... It has disadvantages! There will always be SOMEONE who can't figure it out.

@all ftp users

To double what nik said, using FTP or anything that you supply credentials without encryption is asking for trouble. SFTP is ok, but really just use rsync (uses ssh) and then you only transfer the files you need (but can override everything if you prefer). Plus it is a command that can push or pull files and dirs.

A bakeneko will haunt any household it is kept in, creating ghostly fireballs, menacing sleepers, walking on its hind legs, changing its shape into that of a human, and even devouring its own mistress in order to shapeshift and take her place. When it is finally killed, its body may be as much as five feet in length. It also poses a danger if allowed into a room with a fresh corpse; a cat is believed to be capable of reanimating a body by jumping over it..

I bought a license for SmartFTP about 7 years ago for $25 and it still works with the latest version, and I've changed PC's about 4 times since then. So I don't know what all this "only 1 year on 1 machine" crap is about, other than people talking about something they know nothing about.

I totally agree with supporting software. I'll bear the points in your 'Donations made easy' post in mind. It's easy to see it from a developer's perspective instead of a user's.

I bought Bioshock because I figured "eh, this game actually looks cool and I liked system shock a lot so I'll buy this" ... What a total waste of money! If there was one thing I should have pirated, it was that piece of junk. The damn thing cost me $50 and installed some spyware/malware intended to prevent illegal copying. I eventually uninstalled the game and the spyware/malware that came with it could not be uninstalled. I couldn't even erase the folder because it contained files with gibberish file names that had invalid characters. I had to use a special program to get them out of there. What a total waste of money. For games especially, it is usually better and more reliable to install the scene release than it is to install the official "legal" version you paid for.

I don't learn my lesson, because this was the second time I got scammed. The eirst time, I was playing Doom 3 way before the official release date because it was on the download sites way before release, it was fun, so I said okay, i'll buy it, so I did. Coming home with my shiny new game, I uninstalled the pirated version, installed the legal version, and guess what I discover!? It does NOT work because I have a cd emulator (very handy program) and I refuse to uninstall it. Very annoying, I ended up having to get the pirated version again.

It seems in every case, the pirated version is more reliable than the official "legal" release. The piracy scene has higher standards to answer to.

No doubt next time a game will come and I'll say: "oh this is worth buying" and I'll once again end up punished for actually paying for it. And they wonder why piracy in the pc game sector is so rampant: Not everyone is dumb like me and falls over and over again into their deceptive ruses.

Not just games, same with other warez, especially with windows XP: if you have the official legal version you have to worry about activating it after install and worry about changing your hardware because if you change enough hardware it will complain about license not being valid anymore, but the pirated version will work just fine and does not have to be activated. The pirated version of Microsoft Office doesn't even require serial number entering. Why would anyone bother to pay money in order to be forced into playing a senseless cat and mouse game?

On the good side: I am much happier with small independent games I've bought. Recently I bought Armadillo Run, very cute game. I also bought Bridge Builder, similar to Armadillo Run, but w/ trains+cars and also it is in 3D. I bought a bunch of other small games which were all quite fun and didn't feature any spyware/malware surprises post purchase. I bought Daemon Tools because after 6 years of using the free version I decided these guys did a great job with their cool program. I bought Trillian after using the free version for 4 years. Great purchases, they work really well. I am very pleased that as long as there isn't a major publisher involved, the end result is satisfactory.

Greedy mean people suck, that's my 2 cents.

à KenW:
I don't know the XP activation process, so I don't know how much (or even if) it is any different (not that I made any such claim in the first place); with that said here are the distinctive characteristics of the Ambrosia way...

With Ambrosia stuff you don't need the computer to be connected to the Net (the renew is just a convenience), you can also get an up-to-date code instantly to the email address you originally used to receive them. Also with renew you just send the product name and the name the product was registered to, and get a new code, nothing else happens.

I agree the same concerns about the company keeping the system alive exist, but the same system is used for all their products so they'd need to go out of business for them to stop providing updated codes, and they have stated that would such a thing occur, they would let everyone freely use all their old stuff.

Besides the technicalities, I think the main characteristic of this system is their attitude: it has been designed to (and does) inconvenience customers as little as possible given the constraints, even if it means not totally protecting against piracy (which is impossible anyway), just as long as the system defeats (or at least hampers) casual piracy. These folks do respect their customers, contrary to certain industries or companies, and to me that means even more than simply using a convenient registration system.

P.S.: I think the marketing (must be marketing, right?) folks in charge of the QT/QT pro program, with these obnoxious gayed out "pro" menu items, reminder popups, etc. should be spanked in a public place at the very least.

@Emre: Bioshock is on Steam, that's how I got it. No annoying spyware or copy protection crap.

I recommend people purchase games via Steam if it's on there.

You whine too much.

If you're using SmartFTP for personal use, you can use it freely.