Re: Autom8it nolonger free?

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Doogie,

I downloaded the previous version last night!!!

In fairness to Jim, when he embarked on the Autom8it project, I believe he
stated the intention that it would be a commercial endeavour (that's my
recollection...) it has been free only throughout the beta period... and I
believe that was always the stated situation... (I'm sure someone will tell
me if I've got that wrong...)

Also, don't forget that Homeseer has been on a steady upward price spiral
for a while now, (as a long-standing Homeseer user myself, I keep myself
quite abreast of its developments...), the latest increase was just last
month, and has put it now at a hefty $150USD. Another trend I have noticed
is the increasing tendency for plugins to be seperately chargeable as well,
- just take a look at the list in the Homeseer updater....

So, I don't really think the cost of Autom8it is too unreasonable in that
context, - £20 won't buy you a single X10 module, or a decent night out
with
beer & curry...

Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer it to remain free as well, - in fact I'd
prefer all software to be free, (and music, and movies...) but that's
really
the crux of a much larger problem that affects a much larger part of
society, and is definately a discussion for another day! (preferably over
beer & curry...)


Autom8it is much younger product than Homeseer, so it's bound to be
considerably less developed and mature, but that difference is reflected in
the price... Also, I know from speaking with Jim, that he *needs* funds to
continue development.. - I'd asked about a plugin for the ADI Ocelot (which
I currently use with Homeseer), - Jim doesn't have one, & I dont want
to
lend him mine to develop with, so what's he to do? - an Ocelot currently
costs about £200 notes...

Also, it's not like you're being asked to retrospectively pay for the
components that you've already downloaded, - you can still encourage people
to "dip their toes" with the pre-release 0.0.4 version, which I
believe is
still available? and newbies can still use the 30 day trial period with the
full release version (which is no worse than Homeseer offers...)

I appreciate that everyone is of course a bit disappointed when they think
they have got a "bargain" which then turns out to be not as good
as they
hoped/expected (ie free), but I really think there's an degree of
"Nose,
Face, Cutting, and Spite" in the attitude of suggesting
"withdrawing
support" for Autom8it in favour of Homeseer, when you consider that
Homeseer
is already considerably more expensive, and the LAST thing we want in the
HA
world is LESS choice, - I'm sure you'd agree that we should encourage and
support the promotion of greater choice in HA software which will only
serve
us all better in the long run...

And I'm not even an Autom8it user!! - I've been a longstanding Homeseer
user
for many years now, but I'm always open to alternatives, and whilst I
suspect that Autom8it still might not quite be ready for prime-time in *my*
setup yet either, - primarily because of the Ocelot integration, I still
think it's very worthy of investigation, and definately worthy of support
and encouragement, - I would welcome having a greater choice of software
products that suit my needs...

Anyway, I think I've rambled on for long enough now, - I guess the crux of
it all was just to say "chill dude!, the guys only trying to make a
crust to
reinvest in the development of the product..."

that's all...

G'night

Paul G.











>From: Calum Morrell <calum@xxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Autom8it nolonger free?
>Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 20:40:04 +0100
>
>UKHA wrote:
> > Do my eyes deceive me? Does autom8it now cost beer tokens? I've
been
>recommending it to people who want to dip their toes in the waters of
HA,
>and as it was free it meant no investment...
> >
> > disappointed of Holland,
>
>No longer free? FFS, I only downloaded some components last week and
>there was certainly no mention that it was going to be charged for!!
>
>Looks like Homeseer will be getting my business after all. I was
willing
>to support Autom8it and offer help in the near future, but it's nowhere
>near ready as a production system for even my moderatley basic needs.
>
>Off to uninstall a certain package from my system.
>
>--
>Calum Morrell
>www.drochaid.org
>

_________________________________________________________________
Surf together with new Shared Browsing
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/browse&pgmarket=en-gb&XAPID=74&DI=1059