Zugg Software :: View topic

Novice Joined: 25 Oct 2010 Posts: 31

Hi all.

I'm thinking of buying Cmud, but one thing's got me a bit wary..

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

It works like so:

Purchase date of a license = z
CMud version y.xx, where y = the major version number and xx is the minor version number

If z < 2 years ago, you don't pay
If z >= 2 years ago BUT y did not change, you don't pay (so far, the only exception to this has been when we first beta-tested the paid-upgrade functionality in version 3.26)
If z >= 2 years ago AND y changed, you pay

If you decide not to upgrade, you don't pay

Novice Joined: 25 Oct 2010 Posts: 31

Is your older version still supported for bug fixes, or are you left sorta twiddling in the wind?

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:48 pm

Based on the history of going from version 2 to version 3, once Zugg moves onto developing the next major version there aren't going to be any more minor bug fixes for the current version.

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

Zuggsoft.com does not work like Microsoft, where you can download service packs and daily patches, so once you can download a version from the Zuggsoft.com site it's forever frozen codewise.

Novice Joined: 25 Oct 2010 Posts: 31

That's.. disappointing.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

What Zugg does is spend the first month or two after a public release doing bugfixes on it. You get all the bug fixes. Once it is stable, that version is frozen and Zugg begins work on the next beta version. Eventually, the beta version become stable enough to be released as a public version. If that new public version comes out within 2 years of your purchase, you get it for free. Otherwise you will have to purchase a new license for the new version. Or you can continue using the old version forever. The old public version will never expire. But there will be no new development on that version.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

As to why Zugg does it this way, consider that Zuggsoft is his only income. He is the only developer at the company. He cannot afford the time to continue pushing out improvements and modifications to old versions forever, and maintaining a development tree with multiple branches, if he doesn't make money on it. He makes money on new stuff. If he is working on old versions, he can't work on new stuff. So at some point he has to freeze the current version and work on new stuff. Much of the new stuff he makes is major new features for Cmud, which he can sell as a new major version of Cmud. To make purchasing a new license worth the price, Zugg has to make give each major version new features that are worthwhile. If you don't think the new features are worth the price of a new license (and it is over two years since you purchased the license), you can stick with the old version.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:47 pm

One thing to remember that no one has mentioned yet. When your original two year license expires, if you decide to get a new license it will only cost half of what the current version is selling for, so it's not like you have to pay full price every two years if you want to stay on the cutting edge.

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 5:02 pm

If you look back at when the first 3.x beta version was being developed, you'll also see that I was still releasing bug fixes for v2.x at the same time. So just because I start working on a new major version doesn't necessarily mean the previous version gets frozen. In the case of 2.x, there were still many months of bug fixes before it was frozen. It really depends upon the severity of the bugs. As Rahab mentioned, I'm just one person and cannot continue to fix bugs in older versions forever. But I do try very hard to ensure that when an old version is frozen that it is very functional and free of major problems.

But the bottom line is that CMUD works like 90%+ of all other software that you buy. Very few companies offer free upgrades forever anymore. As I learned with zMUD, it's hard to stay in business with a policy like that. Almost all software charges some reduced amount for future upgrades. Some companies give you free upgrades for a year, some for two years, some not at all. I choose 2 years as a reasonable number. And I chose 50% for my upgrade discount. That's a lot better than a lot of other companies offer.

So you might think it is "disappointing" but it's how software works. I'm not Microsoft with billions of dollars...I'm just one person with a family and bills to pay.