How many times do I have to buy the same software?
I purchased a copy of Intel VTune in its earliest days and found that it was a useful program and a reasonable value at the time (I forget what the original price was). For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s a performance analysis tool which allows you to see where the time is spent in the execution of your software so that you can spend your time optimizing the right parts. A few years later, I had switched operating systems, and computers and wanted to use VTune on the new computer. I had lost the original serial number, but had registered it with Intel. Their policy was that I would have to buy it all over again. At that time, the version I purchased was 7.2 and I did need it for a project, so I spent $600 and got the newest version. Now I find myself wanting to use it again on a new computer with Windows Vista. Version 7.2 doesn’t install/work properly on Vista, so I went back to Intel looking for a patch/upgrade. Again, their policy is that I have to spend $700 to get the newest version so that it works properly on my new equipment. If I had paid $280 per year to “maintain” my support, I could receive the latest version, but because it expired, I would have to spend the big money all over again.
Luckily I don’t really need to use the tool, so I’m not going to spend $700. I’m a small developer and $700 is a lot of money to me. I really don’t appreciate having to pay for the same program again and again. Since I write software for a living, I can set my own policies on upgrades of my software. Normally I sell software with an unlimited free upgrade path, but in the case where I might want to charge for it, I’ll make sure it’s a reasonable amount and not force the user to pay for the same thing all over again.
Looking at it another way, Intel is basically renting me the software for $280 per year and if I decided to skip the “rent” one year and want to use it at a later time, they’re penalizing me $700 for that privilege. No thanks. When I buy something it should be my property and not come with an annual cost. No thanks Intel, I’ll take my business elsewhere.
