> But that's exactly what you described yourself as doing. You downloaded the software, used it, found that it satisfied your needs, and were familiar enough with the software to recognize that you needed it again three months later.
That's not what happens. I download it, use some tiny part of it once (like the noise reduction filter of a full audio editing suite), forgot about it, googled noise reduction 3 months later, discovered I'd already installed it 3 months ago, and now can't try it with a different file because the trial expired.
> The real bizarre thing is that someone can blame the software provider for giving away free use of their software, or for "only" allowing them to use it for 30 days for free.
But they deserve the blame, because now I'm going to go download a different audio editing suite to try their noise reduction instead. And if now I keep having to do noise reduction because it's no longer a one-off thing, I'll purchase that competitor. Because the first piece of software stopped letting me try it out so I can't even compare anymore. Even though I'd only used it for 5 minutes.
My whole point is that "30 days for free" is meaningless if I only use it for 5 minutes. It makes much more sense for trials to be usage-metered rather than contiguous calendar days.
If you used the program once during the trial period then came back to it again for some reason or another after the trial expired, the trial worked exactly as intended: You want to use the program again, so it's asking you to pay up.
I don't see the problem here other than "I don't want to pay for software." which isn't the programmer's concern. If you don't want to pay, the programmer likewise couldn't give a damn if you can't use his program.
That's not what happens. I download it, use some tiny part of it once (like the noise reduction filter of a full audio editing suite), forgot about it, googled noise reduction 3 months later, discovered I'd already installed it 3 months ago, and now can't try it with a different file because the trial expired.
> The real bizarre thing is that someone can blame the software provider for giving away free use of their software, or for "only" allowing them to use it for 30 days for free.
But they deserve the blame, because now I'm going to go download a different audio editing suite to try their noise reduction instead. And if now I keep having to do noise reduction because it's no longer a one-off thing, I'll purchase that competitor. Because the first piece of software stopped letting me try it out so I can't even compare anymore. Even though I'd only used it for 5 minutes.
My whole point is that "30 days for free" is meaningless if I only use it for 5 minutes. It makes much more sense for trials to be usage-metered rather than contiguous calendar days.