Some time back, a user posted something on the site about being angry about how a given freeware program wasn't doing what he wanted. This having been a trend over time, what follows is my response that I elected not to post.
Certainly there's real concerns about a program that doesn't work, doesn't work properly, or is just a demo. That's a topic for another time. Here we're talking about what are to my mind perfectly good programs that mysteriously get crapped on.---
So I'm getting really frustrated with this whole "looking a gift horse in the mouth" attitude.
First, for whatever reasons, there's a long tradition in freeware of people looking at programs and only finding fault. They don't like the free thing (often something that came with the source code) because the developer did or didn't include something that a minority of his or her users care about.
Second, I often see freeware get compared unfavorably to software that has adware or bundleware competitions. Programs that -- by virtue of these additional elements -- have an ongoing revenue flow to help pay for their development, improvement, and support.
Third, very few projects see any donations and many tools highlighted on the site are non-simple to create and maintain. Even those programs with 100,000+ downloads. I've been struggling to find ways to support developers effectively, whether feature bounties, Amazon Wishlists, or other methods.
I would definitely understand this response if 1. you had seen a roadmap for this program 2. based on this roadmap (including a specific change) you decided to fund the project 3. the developer reneged on this agreement and 4. you stopped funding the project. If you paid for something and didn't get what you paid for, that would be a very legit response. Otherwise I really don't understand this response or it's frequency.
Someone once said you get what you pay for and therefore freeware must be junk, but there is such a thing as charity and giving something away because you want to.
I would definitely understand this response if 1. you had seen a roadmap for this program 2. based on this roadmap (including a specific change) you decided to fund the project 3. the developer reneged on this agreement and 4. you stopped funding the project. If you paid for something and didn't get what you paid for, that would be a very legit response. Otherwise I really don't understand this response or it's frequency.
Someone once said you get what you pay for and therefore freeware must be junk, but there is such a thing as charity and giving something away because you want to.
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