I've taken the difficult decision that from the version 2 of gAttach! onwards, the software will no longer be "donationware" for individuals. The simplest reason I can give is that in my particular case, it just isn't working. Instead, it'll be "almost-freeware".
How successful has the donations model been?
I'll lay my cards on the table: with just under half a million downloads, the total amount of donations received is just short of £30 (roughly US$60) thanks to fewer than ten donations.
My personal view on software like gAttach! is that it should be made available to as many people as possible without cost and that people should be able to show their appreciation by donating according to how much they feel the software is worth to them. So given that literally 99.99% of people using my software haven't made donations, the implicit assumption would be that it's of no value to end users.
However, this is clearly not the case: the great reviews and sheer quantity of downloads in such a short period of time are evidence to the contrary, as are the countless hours of answering support emails (typically where it's a dodgy PC setup that's the problem, rather than gAttach!).
Personally, I must confess that I'm disappointed that many of the people I've helped haven't even replied to say thanks, let alone made a gesture by donating 50 cents.
From a lifestyle and financial point of view, I'm sad to say that it's simply not possible for me to continue on the existing basis.
How things will change:
When "Affixa" (the new version) is launched, the following changes will happen to licensing for individuals:
- you will be able to use the software for free on 5 different occasions (e.g. using "Sent To > Mail Recipient" five times);
- to continue using the software, you will need to buy either an annual licence for about US$1, or a lifetime licence for US$5.
I've tried to hold true to my belief that software should be free as much as I can with the new charging structure by making the licence cost incredibly low. It's enough for me to be able to justify my time and efforts both to myself and more importantly to my wife; so I can at least buy her a decent bunch of flowers every now and then for ignoring her whilst working on the software!
For those few people who were kind enough to donate or have volunteered to help translate the software during version 1, you'll automatically get lifetime licences at no cost upon release, regardless of how much you donated. Thanks for showing your appreciation; you certainly have mine!
So what else can I buy for a dollar?
To put the new charging structure into context, here's what else costs $1 in the USA these days:
- One McDonald's Double Cheeseburger;
- Two-thirds of a small coffee at Starbucks;
- Sending a "virtual" Birthday Balloon to a friend on Facebook;
- Two-thirds of a 1.5 litre bottle of Coke;
- One-third of a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes;
- One packet of Lay's potato chips;
- Parking for one hour downtown.
And if you're in the UK like me, you get even less than the above! It's just short of $10 a gallon for gas here at the moment..
Posts
2 comments:
there is a free alternative that i use and i think is superb its called Backup To EMail (http://emailer.zapto.org), I use it on a daily basis when i want to backup files or even folders! to my email account, i found the basic functionality which is free (no limit on number of backups and such as in gattach) pretty satisfying, and there is some advanced functionality like scheduler for backups which costs which is a shame but its not too much so whoever needs this i think will find that its worth it... its backups...
Commite1576 - you're seem to be a bit confused about the purpose of gAttach! versus "Backup To Email".
You use "Backup to Email" to send something to your own email address' inbox via Windows Explorer, whereas gAttach! places something in your drafts folder so you can send it to somebody else from a wide range of applications.
Furthermore, gAttach! is currently completely free with no restrictions. The post above refers to future developments, not the current version.
I disagree that it is a "shame" if the author chooses to charge for other editions of his software. It's not unreasonable that someone's efforts should be rewarded in some fashion, whichever model (i.e. donationware / shareware/ postcardware / etc) the author chooses to adopt.
As above, my personal ideal is the donationware model, which is obviously why I chose this model for gAttach!. Sadly, the reality in my particular case is that it hasn't worked, which means I have to change things.
Post a Comment