It's interesting that this has come up. We have had heated... let me make that more dramatic...
HEATED
If I could make this flash... I would.
discussions about our model for distributing CrossOver. I'm not sure how much history you're interested in but because you've brought the issue up, I'll assume you won't mind if I bend your ear a bit.
CrossOver has changed many times over the years. When I started out, it was:
CrossOver Mac Standard
CrossOver Mac Pro
CrossOver Linux Standard
CrossOver Linux Pro
That will date me a little...
Some time passed and we split the product, we added CrossOver Games, so we added two more products:
CrossOver Mac Games
CrossOver Linux Games
With the idea that we would update the games product regularly, like every six months. We thought this would bring more interest to CrossOver and more joy.
We were wrong.
So wrong.
It brought heartache and pain. We found that the split only complicated our product. People were confused why CrossOver Games ran the part of Office 2007 they needed better than CrossOver Standard or Pro. They wanted to know why CrossOver Standard and Pro were suddenly ahead in Wine versions while CrossOver Games was stale. All throughout this time, CrossOver was sold on a subscription based model, six months or twelve months... and we released often enough (though sometimes in poor condition) that there was no room for complaint about the subscription model.
Fast forward.
A time came around where we breathed simple. Suddenly, we realized that most of the "Pro" features were not in use and that having six products to chase around was insane. We were going through a user interface re-write. We wanted to make the CrossOver experience better.
As my co-worker very fondly describes it (because I think he hated it so much at that point), "we took CrossOver Games out behind the shed and shot it".
Yes, that's what we did. We tore it out. We ripped it apart and we forced everyone to migrate to CrossOver. Not CrossOver Pro, not CrossOver Standard. CrossOver. Still offered in six and twelve month increments. And, kind of a nightmare to migrate because we removed the Pro and Standard differentiation. We kept the most popular features and made them "advanced" settings in CrossOver.
More recently (still a couple of years ago), we decided that CrossOver's price point could use some work. We began experimenting... pre A/B tests on our site.
We added a price point, a one month period that was basically CrossOver with thirty days to change your mind. This is a standard enough practice, there are plenty of people who want CrossOver and honestly don't care if they get support with it. Not one day of support, let along six months or a year. We provided for that need... and you purchased it.
In our current model, we offer three levels:
CrossOver for 1 month
CrossOver for 6 months
CrossOver for 12 months
Our subscription model clearly states that you get CrossOver as an entitlement. The most recent version. And, that we will not do anything to keep that version from working, forever. So your copy of, say, CrossOver 10.2 would last forever (if that's what you bought).
If three months go by and you purchased a six month subscription, you get CrossOver 10.2.1 on it's release.
However, if seven months pass and we release CrossOver 10.2.1 and your subscription is no longer current, you get no joy.
That's not really dishonest. It only means that you didn't read the fine print...
In truth, every single model we have studied (and we spend significant time on this) has pitfalls like this. If we sell entitlements for CrossOver 14 and all the updates to it, the person that buys CrossOver 14 and 34 days pass and CrossOver 15 is released... they would be giving us a similar complaint.
Our Marketing Mistress, Jana, has long requested that we switch to a CrossOver version with all updates included model. When we tested it and weighed out the pros and cons, we found it was no better than a subscription packet. Much to her dismay.
Now that I've talked your ear off, let me say my parting thought.
We are a small company of about 30 people. We are mostly crunchy granola liberalish techies who enjoy bringing joy to others. We get behind the concept of Open Source and we are very proud to say that we are THE corporate sponsor of The Wine Project. We are also humbled when something like this comes across our forums, tickets, IRC, or any social media outlet. If we released CrossOver 14.2 tomorrow and you wrote in to us to say:
Hey, I purchased CrossOver 14 in December. I only bought the one month subscription but I think it's a little shady that I don't get CrossOver 14.2 with that subscription.
We would make you whole. We would extend the expiration of CrossOver or make you an offer that was minimal in monetary extra to get that update. We are that kind of company. We're really not here to take away your hard earned money or make you feel like we are trying to pull one over on you. We're here to ensure that The Wine Project continues to be funded so people like you and me can keep running our Windows software where we want it; on Linux, on Mac.
Cheers!