Zugg Software :: View topic

Beginner Joined: 11 Oct 2000 Posts: 19 Location: Canada

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to throw in my $0.02, but here goes.

I've been clicking about reading the available information on CMUD and there was one thing that jumped out at me. Does your download system support providing old versions to customers whose licenses have expired? I've been burned by this one in the past - I used a program where I bought my license with version 1.10, my license expired when version 1.20 was current, but when I finally ran in to a bug in 1.10 and went looking for an update I could only find 1.30 online (which of course would no longer accept my license code). As an experiment I clicked through your download site and could find only the latest versions; old versions appeared to be unavailable.

Of course this doesn't have to be addressed now [after all it will be two years before licenses begin to expire - probably longer as your early adopters will be most likely to renew] but you might consider putting it on your to-do list after the release.

-Dhauzimmer

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:10 pm

No, old versions have never been available. We only support newer versions because the new versions fix a lot of bugs in the old versions. With the free upgrades, there is no reason to now download the newest version.

Now, with CMUD things will be a bit different. Because upgrades are not free, I will be more likely to provide stable older versions on the site for download.

But in general, and as with most software from other companies, it's really up to you to save backups of your software. For example, I keep a special directory on my disk just down downloaded software so that I can always easily reinstall it.

I don't know if you are talking about our software or someone elses when you talk about being burned by 1.10, 1.20 vs 1.30. With Zugg Software, new versions have *always* accepted older license keys, and if the key algorithm ever changed, you can always email us to get an updated code. For example, even if you purchased zMUD 2.0 back in 1996 you can still log into our online store and obtain a free license for the latest 7.21 version. We have a long history over 10 years of maintaining this kind of customer support and that's not going to change just because upgrades for CMUD won't be free.

Anyway, the bottom line is that yes, certain stable versions of CMUD will remain on the site for download. So not *every* version will be available, but major versions after beta testing will be.

Beginner Joined: 11 Oct 2000 Posts: 19 Location: Canada

Hi,

The product I had trouble with was not one of yours [and the version numbers are synthetic, just for illustration]. My apologies if the tone of my message was too aggressive - I can never seem to get that right. My experience with your support has always been excellent; heck, you even went so far as to implement one of the features I requested, way back in the day!

Anyhow, I'm glad to hear that you've thought about this. Thank you for considering my input.

-D

Magician Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 459 Location: USA

one business practice that I've liked, but hated dealing with is download protection.. pay $2-3 in order to have access to download whatever version you bought in the future. It has come in very very handy, but I hate paying for things like that (ScanSoft's Paperport does that).

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:45 am

Yeah, I hate that too. It's actually a "service" provided by some ecommerce companies. I know that with the RegNow service that I looked into last summer you must agree to allow them to offer "download protection" (with the default checkbox ON) in your order page to get their low-cost monthly rate. It was one of the reasons I didn't use their service.