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AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD to CylonRed

Premium Member

to CylonRed

Re: Paid software you cant live without?

the latest version is pretty good
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

1 recommendation

OZO to Sentinel

Premium Member

to Sentinel
said by Sentinel:

Most of the time I use a freeware alternative because it has LESS capabilities and thus is smaller. Why pay for software that is bigger, costs more and has a bunch of features that will never use? Just so that it can take up more room and waste more resources?

I think it's very good and important point.

In order to attract repeated buying from old customers, applications developers produce new versions, where they want to add new features (new customers buy just the basic functionality working well, they don't need new features). During life time of the product the usefulness of those "new features" bring less and less value, while the whole package becomes bigger and bigger, drifting away from what it was initially designed for - its basic functionality... And that actually kills the ability to sell the product. And not only for repeated buyers, but for new prospective customers as well. No one wants to buy CD/DVD burning tool that now takes almost 1GiB in its setup (offering a bunch of unsolicited functions). It's job for one 3MiB program.

It looks like it's unavoidable (with rare exception) life cycle for all paid applications (and perhaps not only paid ones). Those who offer the product must see what is important to user, what users are really looking for and not to try artificially inflate offered functionality. If I need CD/DVD burning program - I usually don't need sound recording studio or a firewall coming with the package. That's absurd. But that what the project managers usually refrain to see and recognize, effectively killing the product... And that's one of the reason why free programs emerge in this environment - to replace old heavy paid monsters (not because they require money to buy, but because they come as a big bundle) with a simple solution, that does what everyone expects from it - the basic function.

It's interesting to observe this tendency. Free successful applications may convert themselves into payed solutions. Then usually they grow enormously and eventually die, under their own weight, being replaced with new free applications. This thread shows exactly what happened in the last decade - we start looking for free solutions, that do the job what we need, generally ditching the big paid packages offering lot of features that no one actually needs. IMHO, it's a failure of software development vision and management...

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

said by OZO:

It looks like it's unavoidable (with rare exception) life cycle for all paid applications (and perhaps not only paid ones).

with the exception of subscription based models and SpinRite6

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

PeteC2 to Mele20

MVM

to Mele20
Mele20, I do get your point, however, I think it is more a matter of what capabilities that you need. For example, when it comes to an Office Suite, I really find that only MS Office meets my needs, as this is what we use throughout my company, so although OpenOffice.org may be a very decent suite, in this case, the paid office suite has the capabilities that I want/need.

On the other hand, I have a very "pedestrian" need for graphics/photo editing, that a program such as PhotoShop (which for a number of years, I did buy) is simply over-kill. In this case, there are freeware programs that meet all of my photo editing desires/needs. Same with CD/DVD burning.

Is PhotoShop "better" than Picassa, or even GIMP? Yes, I would agree with that, but for me as an end user, no.

That is what made this such an interesting thread to me: Gradually over the years, I have cut drastically down on "paid" programs, and use much, much more freeware or "bundled" apps, but for me, although I like saving money, it was not so much a matter of cost, but rather "need". If a free program meets my needs for a given function, then why not?

PhoenixDown
FIOS is Awesome
Premium Member
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY

PhoenixDown to AVD

Premium Member

to AVD
Tried open office and it's not nearly as good as Word and it can't touch excel.

Pentangle
With our thoughts we make the world.
Premium Member
join:2006-06-01
Vancouver BC

1 recommendation

Pentangle to Ryan

Premium Member

to Ryan
Here's my paid list...all essential to me and all worth it.

Acronis True Image 10
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Pro
Online Armor Premium
Quicken 2011
Sandboxie Registered
WinPatrol 2011 Plus

urbanriot
Premium Member
join:2004-10-18
Canada

1 recommendation

urbanriot to PhoenixDown

Premium Member

to PhoenixDown
said by PhoenixDown:

Tried open office and it's not nearly as good as Word and it can't touch excel.

Agreed. I feel that OpenOffice is a great 'product', as Writer and Calc can do basic documents and spreadsheets which is all most people need. But for professional use, it doesn't have the same fluidic interface, robustness and features.

I've evaluated LibreOffice and despite the community support, I feel it's worse than OpenOffice.
Sentinel
Premium Member
join:2001-02-07
Florida

1 recommendation

Sentinel to Mele20

Premium Member

to Mele20
said by Mele20:

I just find it about impossible to believe that freeware is always better than paid software.

As do I. Which is why that is not what I said. What I said is that sometimes it is. I also said that sometimes the paid version might be better but the factors that make it better may not be important to that particular user; or at least not important enough to justify the money required to get that feature.
Emiya
join:2006-03-30
Southington, OH

Emiya to Ryan

Member

to Ryan
AnyDVD HD for the HTPC.

DisplayFusion Pro for my multi-monitor PCs.

urbanriot
Premium Member
join:2004-10-18
Canada

urbanriot

Premium Member

said by Emiya:

DisplayFusion Pro for my multi-monitor PCs.

Do you have any insight into whether or not this would be a better package than UltraMon?
RJ44
join:2001-10-19
Nashville, TN

2 recommendations

RJ44 to Ryan

Member

to Ryan
Let's see...

SuperAntiSpyware Pro
Norton Internet Security (although I always buy from Fry's when they have a deal with MIR that makes it basically free)
Everest Ultimate
Acronis True Image
DVD Fab
Tax Act
MS Office

My philosophy is to try freeware/shareware, and if I find it to be something valuable that I use regularly, I'll support the author by purchasing the paid version.

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

PeteC2

MVM

said by RJ44:

My philosophy is to try freeware/shareware, and if I find it to be something valuable that I use regularly, I'll support the author by purchasing the paid version.

I second that! It is a good philosophy if you want to see quality freeware and shareware to flourish!
praetoralpha
join:2005-08-06
Pittsburgh, PA

praetoralpha to AVD

Member

to AVD
said by AVD:

try openoffice in lieu of MS Office.

OpenOffice is defunct. Try Libreoffice in lieu of Openoffice.

lilhurricane
Crunchin' For Cures
Numquam oblita
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone

lilhurricane

Numquam oblita

said by praetoralpha:


OpenOffice is defunct. Try Libreoffice in lieu of Openoffice.

OpenOffice came in 3rd in our recent Member Choice Poll's - so folks are still finding it a viable option..it's not 'defunct'.

»[POLL] Office Suite Programs - 2011 Member Choice

..nevermind that this thread was about paid software folks cannot do without

nwrickert
Mod
join:2004-09-04
Geneva, IL

nwrickert to praetoralpha

Mod

to praetoralpha
said by praetoralpha:

OpenOffice is defunct. Try Libreoffice in lieu of Openoffice.

Oracle seemed to still be pushing it in the ads accompanying the latest java update. So I don't think it is defunct yet.

urbanriot
Premium Member
join:2004-10-18
Canada

urbanriot to praetoralpha

Premium Member

to praetoralpha
said by praetoralpha:

said by AVD:

try openoffice in lieu of MS Office.

OpenOffice is defunct. Try Libreoffice in lieu of Openoffice.

Defunct or not, LibreOffice has a lot of polishing to do before it can surpass OpenOffice as a product. I like the philosophy behind the LibreOffice fork but the product doesn't match the enthusiasm... at least not yet.
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