It was with this feeling and expectation that I came here to see how far the development of the final DT4 version had progressed.
But then I saw the new license model.
And, to mention it again, in case nobody has done so in the last few hours: If you want to have the same status as before: to have paid for a period within which the software is kept up to date bugfixing-wise by the developers - the price has gone up about 5 times overnight. Period.
And I’ve seen the two types of response repeatedly given to users asking about it:
“Oh, I couldn’t be happier with the price rice!”
And:
“Who are you to not want to pay the brave developers for their great work???”
…followed within minutes by little hearts.
I have to admit, these two words were not the very first that came to mind.
The old license model made the user pay for a period of a major version, at the end of which there was a perhaps a little dusty but stable final minor version. Then a new main version was released, which opened up a new period in which the user could follow the developers if he was convinced by the new features or simply wanted to support them.
In the new license model, there is no longer such a thing as an old and a new main version in the traditional understanding, i.e. no stable final sub-version of the old one.
In the classic model, in which you purchase a main version including all updates, the developers convince their customers that a paid upgrade to the next main version is worthwhile.
In the new license model, which is spreading everywhere, it is not in the developers’ interest to have something like a dusty but stable last previous version. Instead, users should be left at the end of “their” period with a version that is just unpolished enough to awaken the desire for further bug fixes and maintenance updates.
DT promises that they will OF COURSE NOT take advantage of THAT. Is this the part about the “fair” promise?
And so if it’s not about pushing existing users into subscription-like regular payments, what’s the point of the change? At least for the coming year, sticking with the old model would probably be even more lucrative than the new one. I would say that after 6 years and the consistently good experience, almost every existing customer would have bought the update to DT4. In addition, the increased media attention during the version upgrade would certainly have attracted many new customers, who would now have to opt for an app for “100 bucks per year” instead of “100 bucks every few years”.
DT is completely at liberty to release paid major versions at a faster pace.
I bought the update to DTP 4 to honor the work of the developers up to this point. And, so soon after the Feast of the Passion of the Christ, to honor the developers as Americans for also bearing our cross and showing that people like Mr. Trump and his honorable family are doing what they said they would do if elected to power: Attacking and seriously damaging the economy, academia and the political system within weeks. Inflation explodes under their lash and is then further and recursively fueled by people multiplying their prices with reference to inflation.
Hopefully a graphic warning to the world not to let such people come to power.
However, I will not be installing DT4. With the migration of data from 3 to 4, I would be stuck in the update hamster wheel; as far as I understand it, there is no way back to v3. And it is not yet clear what the forthcoming DT2go4, certainly also with this new license model, will mean for the continued usability of DT2go3. It will probably lead to another regular “renewal” of a “license extension”.
