Honestly, I have my own opinion on the whole WHDLoad, which is not really a good one.
So far, I am all for supporting software: if someone makes a new software, I may buy it if I need it; but things with WHDLoad are different....
And just to give some background: I make quite a lot of money, so 40 dollars are not a big deal in the end (I spend probably half of it every day at lunch...so I just have 2 salads for 2 days and I can pay for it), and I have always purchased original games and Amiga software, when it was sold in stores. I am so adamant on these things (being a developer on Windows OS, sadly, but this is what sell nowadays), that if my original would get damaged, I would buy again the same game.
At first, I thought that WHDLoad was free; like many things nowadays on the Amiga; then I realized that it was a sort of shareware...well, I live with Winrar trial since 2001 probably; it gives you the bothersome message and then it just works; I told myself that I can live with the delay message.
Then I figured out that the software cause errors on the games on purpose, or lock the OS forcing you not only to reboot, but to power cycle to clean the memory. Unless you pay the ....registration.
Again, it is fine to "force" people to buy your product, but I see it as quite aggressive behavior...I would be fine with a finite amount of run, then you need the license, if it is not slapped on my face.
The second issue that I have is legal: the whole WHDLoad depends on games, which are basically still covered by copyright. AFAIKT, nobody gave written authorization to the guys that write WHDLoad, to sell an application that allow people to run their games on the hdd, and make profit out of it.
Altho they are making money on this, and the fact that the application is totally useless, unless you have games to install, reinforce the point that it is a derived app, depending from a copyrighted piece of software. Different from a plugin that you may use in an app like 3dsmax, because it won't add any new feature to the application itself (the ability to run on hd is an os paradigm, once is in memory the OS can't care less if it came from a floppy block or a HD block).
So to me, if it was free, and request donation as many do, I would be all for it, but since it is a product that force you to pay a hefty amount of money, to use games that in most cases are covered by copyright, makes me feel uncomfortable.
Being Amiga stuff, most of the SW houses are either dead, or don't care anymore, this may mitigate the issue, from a legal standpoint, but I feel morally obliged to not buy this piece of software.
I mean, take the work done by classicWB, and they really deserve kudos and money, for giving a great service, for taking the time in packing applications and utilities, in something easy to install and use. Altho they didn't write the applications itself, they supply a service that is quite useful and worthy of appreciation.
This is obviously my idea; I have my beliefs and I follow them, independently if we are talking of a dead platform or not. I prefer to have my 200 floppy, with the games that I like, install the games that has an installer, and continue to use the Amiga without WHDLoad.
Pretty sure that most of you will not grasp my motivations, so feel free to continue to support whatever you consider legit and useful to your purposes...they will not close and stop to make WHDLoad, just because I don't want to buy or use it