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This is one of those good news / bad news / sorta good news kind of things.
I got an email this morning from gowerpoint.com, the site of the oft-hailed and much-beloved µBook reader software. The note was titled "µBook License”; and there was an attachment.
The good news: A new version of the popular µBook has been released.
The bad news: A perennial favorite is going to shareware with the latest release.
The saving throw / sorta good news: Those who sent off a donation anytime in the past will get a free license to this and future versions.
I guess we all knew it would come to this; if something is good enough and enough people jump on it, web economics being what they are, a freeware developer is going to have to consider moving to shareware at some point. I don't begrudge the author at all over this decision. A lot of people have used µBook for a long time, the software has consistently been a great performer and the author has never promised that it would always be free.
As the developer says:
Quote:
In the last months, the donations have trickled down and it is quite expensive to maintain µBook and this web site. So we have decided to make µBook licensing mandatory. The license price has been set to 12$ usd. People who have contributed in the past will get a license in their e-mail (write to us if you don't get one and feel/know you should have).
Without a license, µBook will nag the user by going to the About page and/or stop Auto-Scrolling every few pages. All other current features are intact. Future features will be disabled.
The author has pulled all the previous versions from his site so if you didn't already have 0.8o downloaded it looks like you're not gonna have a freeware choice. That's sorta cold, I guess, but a man's gotta eat.
µBook reader is a very good way to read e-books on a Pocket PC. It is very versatile and replaces several other software programs that you might otherwise have to buy anyway. So if they charge a measly 12 bucks for it. I'd say it's definitely worth it.
Yep, sorry to see another freeware tool bite the dust, but I hope that the author is successful in his shareware pursuit. It is understandable that he would remove the previous freeware versions. He seems to be trying to do the right thing by providing those who already donated with a license for this current version.
On a somewhat related note, I wonder how all the BetaPlayer fanboys will react when...errr... if THAT goes shareware?
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