There's a name for this game, and unfortunately it's not something fun and cool like Grand Theft Auto IV - this particular game is called capturing consumer surplus. This is already starting to be kind of a drag. Now I have to think about what features I want, and how much I'm willing to pay for said features. I click that button and get whisked away to a website where I'm now confronted with a choice: home or professional? It's mildly annoying, but tolerable - and it prominently features a convenient "buy me" button. Until I register, I'm presented with this little nag screen every time I start SmartFTP. That's exactly the kind of useful, living software project I want to support. They've done a great job of regularly improving and enhancing it every time I use it again.
Now, I've used SmartFTP quite a bit over the years, but never bothered to pay for it. I've been transferring our podcast files back and forth to via FTP, so I reinstalled SmartFTP. As I see it, if you don't vote, you aren't entitled to have an opinion.īut here's what I find deeply troubling: often, registering software leaves me with a worse experience than not registering.
There's nothing more effective than voting with your wallet. Share the love by sending money to the person/shop/organization that created it.Īs I encounter apps that I find helpful and use regularly, I go out of my way to support them by either donating, or registering and buying a license. If it's not commercial software, don't let that stop you. Stop reading this post right now and buy that software. Something that makes using the computer that much more enjoyable. Something you recommend without reservation to friends and peers. That's why every month I try to put into action what I described in Support Your Favorite Small Software Vendor Day:Ĭheck your hard drive, and I'm sure you, too, will find some bit of software written by a small software development shop, maybe even a single developer. They come from customers laying down cold, hard cash for the software we've built. Our programmer salaries don't come from magical money trees. As a person who has spent a significant part of his professional life getting paid to write software, I believe it's important for me to regularly pay for software, too.
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