Explorer Alternative

[michaelmross]

Try TaskTracker - Keep Your Files at Your Fingertips
http://tasktracker.wordwisesolutions.com/

 

[Dan Goodman]

(e-mail address removed) (michaelmross) wrote in

Try TaskTracker - Keep Your Files at Your Fingertips
http://tasktracker.wordwisesolutions.com/

"Free to use for 90 days...." doesn't sound like freeware to me!

 

[michaelmross]

Quoting from Download page:

"Renewing TaskTracker-

TaskTracker renewal is free. The reason TaskTracker expires is to
ensure that all users have an up-to-date and supportable version.*

From your TaskTracker About box, you can see how many days you've been
using TaskTracker. Click the Update link after Day 75. If you
encounter a problem or have a question, send mail to
(e-mail address removed).

*There have been many point releases of TaskTracker since its initial
release, and this process of refinement and improvement will
continue."

 

[Dan Goodman]

(e-mail address removed) (michaelmross) wrote in

Quoting from Download page:

"Renewing TaskTracker-

TaskTracker renewal is free. The reason TaskTracker expires is to
ensure that all users have an up-to-date and supportable version.*

From your TaskTracker About box, you can see how many days you've been
using TaskTracker. Click the Update link after Day 75. If you
encounter a problem or have a question, send mail to
(e-mail address removed).

*There have been many point releases of TaskTracker since its initial
release, and this process of refinement and improvement will
continue."

Thanks for the clarification.

This is something I've never run across before. I can see the reasoning.
However -- sometimes I don't _want_ the latest version of a program. For
example, like several others here, I've had large enough problems with
Mozilla Firefox 0.9 that I went back to 0.8.

 

[Terry]

(e-mail address removed) (michaelmross) wrote in


This is something I've never run across before. I can see the reasoning.
However -- sometimes I don't _want_ the latest version of a program.

And what happens if the author stops supporting it, and there is no
new release after 90 days. The author will say "that wont' happen",
but I've seen it happen all too many times.

T.

 

[michaelmross]

Free and forever... that's asking a lot.
Don't freeware authors have any rights to control distribution of
their software, so that when they fix bugs they don't have to hear
users complain about them six months or six years from now!?
Disclaimer before I get slammed: I'm the author.

 

[BoB]

And what happens if the author stops supporting it, and there is no
new release after 90 days. The author will say "that wont' happen",
but I've seen it happen all too many times.

T.

It's also a method to ensure that there is no operating freeware
when it converts to shareware. I've seen more than one program
work this way. NOT that this is the intention here.

BoB

 

[Zo]

Free and forever... that's asking a lot.
Don't freeware authors have any rights to control distribution of
their software, so that when they fix bugs they don't have to hear
users complain about them six months or six years from now!?
Disclaimer before I get slammed: I'm the author.

Putting a time expiration is not my idea of freeware. We have seen this
kind of thing way to often. You use us as beta testers to work out all
of the bugs, then BAM it becomes shareware. No thanks. Too many
alternatives to use that are truly "freeware". Just my 2 cents worth.

Zo

 

[Matt]

Free and forever... that's asking a lot.

Free IS forever - or until circumstances render it obsolete, and
there's no update.

Don't freeware authors have any rights to control distribution of
their software, so that when they fix bugs they don't have to hear
users complain about them six months or six years from now!?
Disclaimer before I get slammed: I'm the author.

People using "freeware" that turns out to have a time limit (and ok,
you've at least disclosed it), have been caught out too many times.

If there's time limit, then it may be free for now, but it certainly
isn't freeware - the same misgivings were frequently aired over the
DIALOG.

For every assurance that there will be a final, untimed release, or
that a new version will be available, there are tons of abandoned
sites and projects, whiling away their last months in disrepair until
the websit host cans them.

The "best" freeware is fully open source - so that in future, other
interested parties could run with it if the original author loses
interest.

The second best, is untimed, and with unlimited free distribution,
again, so it lives on if the originator disappears.

The third best, is "free" but makes demands and stipulations.


PS. You won't find anyone here with a good word to say about software
patents either - I'd be surprise if the newsgroup isn't 99% plus
against, since the few which are good and actually justified, are
outweighed by the many which are bad, or just reward the first to
describe something against those who actually went out and did it, and
never knew about the patent.