Well, I downloaded the trial of e, a poorly named but apparently quite capable text editor for Windows. It was a 1.0 release and not very stable, so I uninstalled it on the first day I had it and waited for an update. I downloaded the update yesterday to discover…
The trial has 2 days remaining.
That’s really all I needed to see. I immediately uninstalled it. e might very well be great software, but since I never really got to try it the developer is not going to get a purchase from me.
Anyone doing a time limited trial needs to seriously consider how it expires. This kind of 30 day trial doesn’t give me a chance to evaluate the software, and it doesn’t give the developer any chance to make a sale. The developer would be much better off using 30 days of use (like Omni Group products), or reseting the trial when the software is reinstalled, or even just resetting the trial for new releases. How many months in a row do you think someone’s going to do an unnecessary uninstall/reinstall just to avoid paying a reasonable $34.95?
Anyway, that’s all the feedback I have from a 30 day trial. Sad, isn’t it?
September 9th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Textmate (that which e is based on) resets the trial to have 15 days left every version. If they hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t have bought it (it took a second try for me to fall in love.)