Is this a free upgrade?

  1. anonymous

    I have v3.4. Is this Snow Leopard version a free upgrade?

  2. Greg Hurrell

    For many users 4.0 is a free upgrade. To find out whether you qualify see this blog post.

    If you don't qualify you can either purchase a new license, or continue using 3.4, which also works on Snow Leopard.

  3. anonymous

    I purchased Synergy way back in 2003, and this was the terms of the license then:

    "Registered users are entitled to free upgrades for the lifetime of the product, although no warranty of any kind applies."

    So are you saying that you've changed the terms of the license so that we no longer have free upgrades?

  4. Greg Hurrell

    Yes, the terms were changed (the right to change the terms was also part of the original license).

    Stating that upgrades would be free forever was actually a mistake on my part, but it's one I made because at the time I wrote version 0.1 I had no idea that I would continue working on it over 7 years and releasing over 90 updates since then. Lack of foresight.

    Fortunately, although I made that mistake in the original license I didn't make the mistake of forgetting the "I reserve the right to change these license terms at any time without notice" clause.

    The website license was already updated to remove the upgrade clause, and upon releasing 3.4.1 the license that is shown in the installer was also updated.

    The standard practice in the industry is to charge for upgrades periodically, but Synergy was the exception to this rule for so many years. People who purchased back in 2003 have now had 6 years of free upgrades; people who purchased in 2002 have had 7 years. During that time I've released 88 free updates.

    I've tried to make the upgrade terms as liberal as possible (3 year grace period, and well over 1 year of advance notice) in order to make this easier for a userbase which has grown used to free updates over the years. In the end though, the fact that 4.0 is a paid upgrade is a needed change in order to fund further development.

    I've made sure that 3.4 works on Snow Leopard (just released 3.4.1 in fact with a bugfix specifically for Snow Leopard), because I don't want people feeling like they are being forced into a paid upgrade.

    I think most aspects of this topic are explained in the blog post I linked to above.

  5. anonymous

    Wincent, i like Synergy very much, i have the app already for more than 3 years. I was really surprised when version 4.0 came out and i couldn't update for free anymore. The first thing i remembered was the 'free updates for a lifetime!'. I'm sorry, but i think that new terms only apply for new users. I wonder if your reservation would stand in court... :-) I am living in The Netherlands and here is a change of terms not possible during a contract. You are doing a great job by building this app, and ofcourse $5 isn't expensive... but i'm really disappointed!

  6. Greg Hurrell Created , edited

    Yes, I believe it would stand up. The right to modify license terms, as was reserved in the original license, is a pretty common feature across the board in all commercial software licenses. (I don't live in the Netherlands so I can't really comment on the law there, but whatever the rules for "contracts" are doesn't matter anyway as we are talking about a software license, not a contract.)

  7. anonymous

    No Wincent, you are wrong. 'free updates for a lifetime!' are 'free updates for a lifetime!' regardless of changing the terms. I use Synergy since 2003 and brought you many, many new customers!!

    Although $5 is no big deal, I feel very angry about your decision. That's not the way to deal with old customers!

  8. Greg Hurrell

    Thanks for the contribution, anonymous, but I must respectfully disagree with you.

    The right to change the terms was explicitly included from the beginning, so I'm not wrong.

    I was wrong in 2002 when I wrote a license and included a term that was never a good idea. In 2009, rather than being wrong, I'm actually correcting a past mistake.

    I also think I treat my customers very well, regardless of whether they are "old" ones or not. Look at the way this upgrade has been handled:

    • it comes after one hundred free updates to an excellent product, and after 7 years of excellent customer service and support
    • users received over a year and half's advance notice that a paid upgrade was on the way
    • there is an incredibly generous three year grace period in which people qualify for free upgrades; the industry standard is usually only 3 or 6 months
    • for those who don't want to participate in the paid upgrade, users have the previous version which has been updated to work on Snow Leopard, so nobody is being forced to use 4.0

    Overall, it would be impossible to handle this issue any more generously or correctly.

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