Will Sage always be free ?

[Paul McHale]

From the link:

http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=interview3


I found:

SageTV as a service?

Yes, but that's further down the road.


Will I eventually be back in the same boat as with Tivo? Companies that don't have recurring revenue from either upgrades or monthly fees don't do well even when they are only two peeps.

How much will Sage be when it becomes subscription based? Will it offer more than it already does ?

[JasonJoel]

I'll let Dan answer, but I am about 99% sure he was talking about the ability to run the software as a Windows service (thus not requiring a user to be logged on to use the product). Not referring to a pay-per-something service.

BUT, still, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that unless Frey signs some pretty good OEM deals that EVENTUALLY they will HAVE to charge for software upgrades.. Maybe at v3.0 (speculation)?

There simply CAN'T be free upgrades forever.

Jason

[Paul McHale]

Charging for software upgrades is fine with me. I just don't want to get into a monthly fee situation.

[dkardatzke]

The quote was meant to be addressing running SageTV as a Windows service not charging for the SageTV Guide Service.

[ErsatzTom]

I agree about paying for upgrades. For all the moaning some people do about paying for software upgrades, you'd think they weren't getting anything for their money. From my point of view, paid upgrade==more incentive to innovate and update regularly. Plus more resources to put towards developing the next release. Just my $0.02.

t

[Crazedz]

I think we should wait to debate the fee's vs upgrade pricing till it is an issue.
In other words *quiet and enjoy the ride while it lasts*.

Besides Jeff and Dan have done very well inovating as it is. If you try to inovate to much you end up with a product like windows almost as full of bugs as features and open to every virus and exploit that hackers come out with.

So better to inovate less and bug fix more than the other way around like MS and some other software companies have done for their products. Not that i would want to pay service fees of course.

Just my $0.02.

[JasonJoel]

If they can think of some good things to add for v3.0, I would be HAPPY to pay for it.

BUT, for me it will probably require some things like:
-> Media MVP client
-> WMV & WMA support

And many more of the items in the Feature Wish list thread...

But we'll cross that bridge when we get there, let's just hope v2.0 comes off well!

Jason

Originally posted by Crazedz
I think we should wait to debate the fee's vs upgrade pricing till it is an issue.
In other words *quiet and enjoy the ride while it lasts*.

Besides Jeff and Dan have done very well inovating as it is. If you try to inovate to much you end up with a product like windows almost as full of bugs as features and open to every virus and exploit that hackers come out with.

So better to inovate less and bug fix more than the other way around like MS and some other software companies have done for their products. Not that i would want to pay service fees of course.

Just my $0.02.