@takemehomegrandma
I think the problem people have with your post starting the thread, is this:
Would your reaction have been the same if it had been MorphOS that had suddenly asked for 30 Euros for next update?
- Of course, since suddenly introducing a new license fee on MorphOS 3.8 out of the blue would be the same "breach of contract" with the users as this case is; all +0.1 version bumps within a "big" MorphOS version line is free of charge. I actually expected that v3.0 would mean a new license, since it was a major upgrade, but that din't happen, my 2.0 license was still valid for 3.x upgrades.
- You really don't think (you falsly take for granted for some reason) that I have never publicly critizised the MorphOS price and pricing policy? This is utterly wrong, I have been very vocal online on this subject, especially about the (then) high price (150 Euros), that it was tied to one machine only and couldn't be transfered if I upgrade to another machine, and that there was no discount for purchase of multiple licenses. All is still there (on Morph.Zone if you dig some).
- New users are constantly joining the MorphOS community, and with some frequence and regularity some of them will do just this, publicly raise question and express their views on MorphOS price and its pricing policy and license scheme. The discussions can go on for a couple of posts, but never, *NEVER* are they met with the kind agression and hostility as OS4 supporters (especially those who actually never have had OS4, which is a funny fact) *always* shows as soon as anything/whatever is said about OS4 that isn't pure Gospel! You don't see this in the AROS community either, or in Amiga "Classic", it's something *exclusive* for OS4. And I find it *sick* to be honest. Many are the threads about MorphOS license costs and policies on Morph.Zone, far from everyone express happy thoughts about it, but they are *never* met with this kind of hostility shown here, no abuse, there has never been a need for moderation whatsoever (I'm not even sure there are moderators on that site, that's how little you notice them), and I don't think it even has those "report buttons" that together with frontier moderation style is such an essential, core component in everything OS4 online.
I think many of us suspect that instead of that, you would have posted about how "MorphOS is now the cheapest, as well as the best OS"
This is not even a hypothesis; the cost of compatible HW + MorphOS usually is around 1/10th to 1/30 of of the price for an OS4 system that in best case is only slightly less powerful than the MorphOS one, and in worst case only delivers a fraction of the performance.
and "MorphOS is now allowing people to support their devs again after years of unpaid work!".
Karlos and Itix are discussing the
saturation of the OS4 market above. OS4 has been locked into an impossible HW situation, like... Forever! And even more so the last half decade! The only few people willing to actually pay those insane price tags for those ancient performance machines only to run something like OS4, did so a long time ago already! The OS4 license model depends on a constant stream of new users. But no new users are coming! They are all here already, and if anything, some are actually leaving! So they are breaching their "deal" with the current users that the next paid update would be OS4.2, and decides to charge money once again for OS4.1 through the seventh update.
MorphOS developers on the other hand sell new licenses all the time. Their license model instead depends on a constant stream of new supported machines and HW platforms. The possible HW offerings are today just as versatile as the "super company" Apple's was for PPC, since it's essentially the same! Compact, tiny footprint Mac Mini, several big box G4 towers, many different laptop models, heavy G5, etc. Each new supported platform renders new sales of OS licenses, to existing users, but also to new users from other parts of the community (I wouldn't be surprised if there are more OS4 users that also has one or more MorphOS license, than OS4 users who still doesn't have a single one).
Look at this graph, and draw your own conclusions, since then
KimmoK was very close to get the magic #2500 license, and #2534 from Debaser was reported as the highest number, but that was a while ago now:
(Edit: I shrunk the size of the image a bit, click on it for the original size)
Up to v2.3, MorphOS only supported Pegasos (1&2) and Efika. Had the MorphOS Team not decided to go for Mac PPC HW, then the graph would quickly have levelled out after the 2.3, ending up as an horizontal line very close to only #740 licenses sold, and it would forever have been stuck in a saturated market since then. Just like OS4 finds itself in now.
Luckily, the MorphOS Team went with a different strategy than the OS4 dudes...
So yes, "MorphOS is now allowing people to support their devs", not by asking for charity or by double-charging their already sold licenses, but by introducing a stream of new offerings that people actually finds interesting enough to buy. An owner of a Mac Mini or a big box Power Mac can easily become interested in a laptop offering as well!
