I really need to upgrade
- Thread starter Kachupp
- Start date
I'm a long-time, paid user of NDOS, 4DOS, 4NT, and now TCC/LE. I liked some of the extra features of 4NT such as the ability to directly use the HTTP protocol in console commands. 4NT allegedly isn't fully "compatible" with Windows 7, so now I'm forced to use the crippled TCC/LE. I only want the console window and don't need the whole Take Command package, and even the upgrade is still $50. What would be great is for TCC (not LE) to be sold alone like 4NT was before.
Customers want to only pay for the features that they use. But, each customer only uses a small fraction of all the features. So, if individual features were priced proportionately, the company selling the product would make very little money and the product would cease to exist. That's why products are sold in only a few versions.
How much do you want to pay?
As a business software developer I completely understand. It's unlikely I use even 1% of the features in TCC. But the 4DOS and 4NT consoles were previously available as stand-alone products. The console wasn't lumped into the $100 product until relatively recently. According to my ancient email archive, I paid $35 for a 4DOS upgrade in 2001 and another $35 for 4NT in 2007, and I had initially purchased the full version of 4DOS some time in the mid-90s. Each time it was more of a forced upgrade to support newer operation systems rather than for new features. Honestly, even $35 seems like a lot now considering the quality of other software I've gotten for less.
So, you bought the product in the 90s and upgraded twice since then. Sounds like if JP Software drops the upgrade price to encourage customers like you to upgrade more often, the money gained will be much less than the money they lose on people who upgrade often.
Considering the alternatives to TCC and the high quality of TCC (features, lack of bugs, documentation), I think $49.95 is a reasonable upgrade price. If you only upgrade every three years, it is $16.65 a year.
I'm only guessing, but I'll bet there is a lot more code in TCC than in TC. So, I don't think anyone who only uses TCC should feel they are paying for a lot of stuff they don't use by getting TC as part of the deal.