Is accustomed in the software world to offer free versions of a product, often with limited functionality and/or derived from the full version (so with less or none additional resources involved). For some it’s working for others not so much, either way it’s probably just a matter of how good (or bad) their marketing (or application for that matter) is. But this business model is not unusual.
English may not be this guy’s main language, but since apparently you can’t apreciate his efforts you can at least be constructive in your critique (just saying).
Well i percept that Plex, Mezzmo, Emby just to name a few in the same area (media server) all of them have a free tier…
Most of the photo sharing application they have a free version.
Lot of antivirus programs they have a free version.
Lot of back-up programs they have free versions.
Lot of password managers they have free versions.
And so on…
And lots of specialist software that relies on a raft of expensive third party software with a support team, hardware testing and authentication etc, don’t.
Roon is aimed at people who are in to audio, probably can afford a dedicated server or NAS and going by the hundreds of people who have posted in the System and DAC threads some tasty audio gear.
You get 14 days to see if it is for you FREE anyway.
I was just answering to @Carl_Henrik_Janson saing to @Christopher_Swain “…but when you expect a free version so that you have to pay nothing, it is a demonstration of a weird attitude”.
And my point was that is not really weird and it is not uncommon, but whatever…
As I said, it is a perception based on the software you choose to use.
Different markets, different customer base. They aren’t representative. The vast majority of software I use personally is either paid for or subscription, and all professional software I use is licensed and maintained on an annual basis.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
98
Nope, @carl_henrik_janson was not replying to me. I expect nothing for free, and suspect anything that’s so offered.
OK. Microsoft SQL server has a free (limited) version. Microsoft Visual Studio has a free (limited) version. They are maintained and licensed. They are quite representative in the .NET universe which is also quite representative in the software development. Are these two enough examples to demonstrate that a free tier of a software applications is neither weird, unusual or unexpected?
They are examples as you point out. However you are comparing software developed by small company with a small team of devs, to, Microsoft… An organisation like MS, Apple or Google have lots over other ways of generating income and have other reasons for giving their software out for free. Not all of those reasons are to be applauded.
Roon has a free trial. Its 14 days but when I had some issues during my trial they extended it to 30 days. And I know they have done similar for others here too. Just how much ‘free’ do you actually expect?
My expectation for software is extremely low. Buggy. Unreliable. Terrible support. Sloppy code. Poorly trained and unskilled programmers. Money for old rope. Like Microsoft and Apple. If other disciplines were like this then aircraft would often fall out of the sky and bridges would always collapse. So far Roon is proving to be a pleasant surprise! Excellent software.
It’s fascinating to follow the various discussions in this forum about all the things ROON could (should) do. As a new user who signed up last month I’d like to point out that I don’t want a whole host of additional features to take away from a focus on enhancing my experience of listening to my digital music collection. I have a CD player if I want to listen to a single disc or track. If I want to explore music I like, make my Tidal subscription much more useful and have really well curated metadata at my finger tips the ROON is by far the best solution I have found. The investment has enabled my enjoyment much more than I ever anticipated. Keep focused. Keep a subscription based model and avoid open sourcing. I became interested in digital music with Squeezebox at the time they were bought by Logitech. Learning from that I really want a product that enables a wide variety of hardware to have a wonderful listener interface and want to pay a fair price for that. Roon seems to do this very well.
Unfortunately the most significant missing feature for many of us stop us from accessing Roon at all for well over 50% of our available time (assuming a typical person who spends 10-12 a day, 5 days a week away from home). During that time Roon is rendered completely useless and instead we have to look to other media players for our music fix - ie while travelling to/from work and while at work, especially if you are an iPhone user (Apple’s fault for limited VPN implementation).
The thing that Roon may have to be careful of is that if we have to use other media players for over 50% of our time, then when do people start to wonder if they can save themselves over 100 quid a year and make do with those other media players for 100% of the time instead?
Roon could add a manual entry fallback IP address (even my AVR allows this) to solve this problem right now while they continue to work on a better long term solution to outside-home access.
When I’m at home - Roon is excellent. Its just a shame that the rest of the time it is no use whatsoever for the sake of a tiny little thing.
Of course you can solve that problem the way I did. One Roon system at home. Another one at work. I miss Roon in the car, but thankfully I only have a 4 minute commute.
