New Licenses and Enhanced Standard License

James Morrison wrote on Wed, 03 February 2010 09:49

So some interesting developments.  The freemium will definitely help

professionals who want to use it as a real tool to evaluate the

capabilities of EAGLE to a great extent.

There are two purposes to providing free versions of software.

One is for cheap people who would never get a real license anyway to use

the software.  The advantage is that they get used to the package, spread

the word, and maybe cause it to be bought for real by others or later when

they are in a different situation.  Students are a good example of this.

Hobbyists a little too.

The other purpose is to allow real professionals to evaluate the software

before deciding to buy it.  They will spend real money on some software

like Eagle, the only question being which one.

It seems to me that the freemium license serves neither of these purposes.

For the first purpose, you provide a limited version for free indefinitely.

It can do enough so that most student and hobby projects are possible, but

not enough so that a professional would be satisfied with it and not buy

the full version.  For professional evaluation, you want the full featured

version, but limited in time.  They are evaluating the features, so

deliberately making your package look less capable by limiting the features

is a bad idea.  You don't want to let them use it for free indefinitely, so

you put a time limit on it.  Having it require a web connection for use is

a little onerous, but not too bad.  The web connection makes it easier to

enforce the time limit, but that can be done by providing a one off license

file with a expiration date too.  Such a license would be automatically

generated and given out only once per CPU ID or MAC address, or something.

Just my two cents.  I don't really care because I have had 3 full

professional licences for a long time (and caused at least 2 customers to

buy full Eagle licenses too) and intend to continue upgrading.  I have

recently been evaluating other software having nothing to do with

electronics, so know what different evaluation licenses feel like.  Let me

really beat on it for 30 or 60 days.  If I like it I have no problem paying

for it, but I'm definitely not going to pay for unseen features.  It's like

saying "buy this box of great stuff, but you can only look at the top layer

before forking over the money".

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Olin wrote on Wed, 03 February 2010 10:31

James Morrison wrote on Wed, 03 February 2010 09:49

So some interesting developments.  The freemium will definitely

help professionals who want to use it as a real tool to evaluate the

capabilities of EAGLE to a great extent.

 

There are two purposes to providing free versions of software.

 

One is for cheap people who would never get a real license anyway to

use the software.  The advantage is that they get used to the package,

spread the word, and maybe cause it to be bought for real by others or

later when they are in a different situation.  Students are a good

example of this.  Hobbyists a little too.

Agreed

Quote:

The other purpose is to allow real professionals to evaluate the

software before deciding to buy it.  They will spend real money on some

software like Eagle, the only question being which one.

Agreed.

Quote:

It seems to me that the freemium license serves neither of these

purposes.  For the first purpose, you provide a limited version for free

indefinitely.  It can do enough so that most student and hobby projects

are possible, but not enough so that a professional would be satisfied

with it and not buy the full version.  For professional evaluation, you

want the full featured version, but limited in time.  They are evaluating

the features, so deliberately making your package look less capable by

limiting the features is a bad idea.  You don't want to let them use it

for free indefinitely, so you put a time limit on it.  Having it require

a web connection for use is a little onerous, but not too bad.  The web

connection makes it easier to enforce the time limit, but that can be

done by providing a one off license file with a expiration date too.

Such a license would be automatically generated and given out only once

per CPU ID or MAC address, or something.

I agree it's not perfect.  But it's better than what was available and

allows more evaluation.  CadSoft used to offer a 30-day money-back

guarantee which I assume was to adress this issue.  You could play with the

freeware license and then buy a commercial license.  If you weren't

satisfied with what you got then you could get your money back.  But I

don't see that on their website now.  so I'm not sure if that is still

available.  I'll check into it....

What I like about the current licenses it that there is no mechanism to

limit it in time.  Other software has been plagued by that where you buy an

expensive license but it requires pinging the corporate server.  If the

corporation goes bust then you're stuck with a dead license.  With EAGLE

(at least currently) that can't happen.  If you have a freemium license

then you already knew it was going to expire so it's not necessarily a huge

shock.

Cheers,

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

email:  james@eaglecentral.ca

web: http://www.eaglecentral.ca

Specialising in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

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I agree with Olin...

I also think you would benefit from considerably lower student licenses.

If you can hook the student doing a complicated senior project, you are

more likely to keep that student, and for them to upgrade in a few years

if they stick with electronics.

It's the same reason HP provides multimeter, oscilloscopes, etc. to

universities dirt cheap. They know students are more likely to purchase

HP equipment in the future.

Travis G wrote on Wed, 03 February 2010 10:45

I agree with Olin...

 

I also think you would benefit from considerably lower student

licenses.

If you can hook the student doing a complicated senior project, you are

 

more likely to keep that student, and for them to upgrade in a few

years

if they stick with electronics.

 

It's the same reason HP provides multimeter, oscilloscopes, etc. to

universities dirt cheap. They know students are more likely to purchase

 

HP equipment in the future.

Hi Travis,

Are you aware that there are lower student prices?  See

http://www.eaglecentral.ca/purchase/

They maybe aren't as low as you'd like but there are significant

discounts.

CadSoft does have a policy (currently) that these sorts of discounts only

apply to licenses that have SchematicLayoutAuto-Router.  Many students

wouldn't need the Auto-Router so they could maybe save a bit more without

being forced to get that module.  However, I can understand CadSoft's

policy too because that adds overhead to a license that already has much

lower margins.  Maybe if things get more automated then they could allow

student discounts without this restriction????

Cheers,

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

email:  james@eaglecentral.ca

web: http://www.eaglecentral.ca

Specialising in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

Browser access to CadSoft Support Forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca

James Morrison wrote on Wed, 03 February 2010 10:40

What I like about the current licenses it that there is no mechanism to

limit it in time.  Other software has been plagued by that where you buy

an expensive license but it requires pinging the corporate server.  If

the corporation goes bust then you're stuck with a dead license.  With

EAGLE (at least currently) that can't happen.

I totally agree and wasn't suggesting that this should change.  Once I pay

the full amount, I should be allowed to use at least that version

indefinitely without requiring that my internet connection, their server,

and their company are all up and running.

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