77 replies to this topic

[lyledg]

Guys

I have been thinking about Autoit, and it's future

Not sure how many others out there feel the same, but I would be willing to pay for Autoit if it got more development time from the the likes of Jon, Larry, Cyberslug etc and was prouduced into an even easier tool to use and understand

Meaning, having two versions...one Free (as it stand with current functionality) and the other which if anyone chose to pay for, would have all the bells and whistles??

Just seems that alot of guys out there have the passion to help out on the Forum, but like just about all of us...hardly any time to spend on producing better and faster methods to take Autoit from a great tool, to a definite 'MUST HAVE"

I just think if there was a financial motivation for the developers, that we all could see the rewards from constant and quick development of Autoit into a product that could rival Visual Basic for instance?

Viable idea or not???


Comments welcome

Cheers

[w0uter]

what do you like more:

a free TV
a 100k TV

i bet the free tv will get ALOT more INTEREST.


and autoit is already a MUST HAVE


IF you want to donate you can donate to JON.
http://www.autoitscript.com/donate.php

Edited by w0uter, 24 August 2005 - 11:37 PM.

[lyledg]

I think you are missing my point here..

If it meant I could have an application that could rival the likes of Visual basic with a constant stream ou updates and greater tools in a quicker time, than yes I would certainly pay for it. Paying for it would mean we get better tools in a shorter space of time because the developers would have the motivation to concentrate on Autoit a lot more!

[MSLx Fanboy]

AutoIt isn't designed as a full-fledged programming language. It's designed for automation. Features that aren't included right now can easily be done by a standard DLL or with a custom one.

Of the network administrators and related people that I know, I've recommended it to them, and they've all asked (their first question, or second), how much it costs. By making a commerical version, there runs the risk of having to buy several licenses, even $3/machine imagine a 1,200 machine network (my school). That's more than $3,000.

AutoIt also helps people learn to program. Sure it may not be syntactically similar to C, C++, or Java, however, by getting the concepts down in this language, it can easily be ported (with a few changes) to other languages.

Do you think it would be easier to learn:

For $x=0 To 8
   MsgBox(0, $x, "The variable is now " & $x)
Next

or

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
for (int x=0; x <=8; x++)
{
   cout << "The variable is now " << x << endl;
}
system("PAUSE");

[lyledg]

Yep, I hear what you are saying and fully understand that the cost at the end of the day is something to consider....but for those that ARE willing to put in a few bucks for a professional tool, surely we could have the choice if so desired?


I was just thinking it would give the development guru's of Autoit more motivation to produce a much better product for those who are willing to pay for it..

I agree having a free version for those who want it is the way to stay..But consider the flip side too...

Cheers

Edited by lyledg, 25 August 2005 - 12:32 AM.

[MSLx Fanboy]

As far as I know, the Dev's main source of income are day jobs. I honestly doubt that people would be willing to pay, what $400/week, just for one dev. That is a lot of money.

I think that the best we can do is to thank them for their hard work, support AutoIt, and to spread the word!

[Nezoic]

Also have to consider your customer base. I'm just learning the world of programming and I love Autoit, but most programers out there already have access to VB and the sorts that are easy to use as well and already fully functional and user friendly in the gui department. Every person I know that is in anyway interested in programing has a copy of VB or Visual Studio for that matter.

Now if they went for a specialized version dedicated game hacking or something like ForceShock then I might consider it. I currently do not use forceshock because I can do everything I need in AutoIT. ForceShock has a lot of nice utility functions for packet sniffing and hooking that are appealing to a lot of people, altho in the game hacking world its a toss up as far as I know either ForceShock or AutoIT, in some cases only one or the other will do.

So question is, could AutoIT be better and in how many ways? Enough to sway someone away from VB or whatever else they mainly use? Hard to say, I personaly wouldn't pay for it right now or even with a nice GUI, Id just install VB and have to do a few things the hard way. BUT If there were a lot of options for things related to hacking or even more advanced macros I would definitly consider paying $20-$30 per year or something for it.

Just my opinion for what I do and use it for, to each his own I suppose.

[autoitNOW]

I kind of think it is too late for a number of reasons to switch AutoIt to "payware".

If AutoIt was setup to be that way (payware) from the very beginning than yes it would be easy for it to have caught on as payware, but for it to have gone so long as being free, many people will not like the change.

Another major reason, why I don't think AutoIt could switch is its "sister" project AutoHotKey. Since these software programs are so closely related, if 1 was free and the other was not, than where do you think a lot of people would go?

But I do think there are a number of ways to make money "around" AutoIt.


1. Donations - http://www.autoitscript.com/donate.php

But, the icon is not that clear and it may easily be overlooked. Perhaps it should be made more obvious that you can donate to AutoIt.

Perhaps, this donation concept, could be extended to specific programmers that are writing valuable scripts.

2. Some type of AutoIt programmer club that charges a yearly fee.

3. Have some type of AutoIt programmer certification program. People may want to get the certification and pay to become advanced programmers.

4. Setup various services for people to hire expert AutoIt programmers to solve their problems.

5. A book or books on programming in AutoIt and using it to solve various kinds of business problems

Edited by autoitNOW, 25 August 2005 - 08:35 AM.

[Jon]

I've said many times that AutoIt will remain free. _My_ primary use of it is in corporates where I solve some scripting/automation problem using it. License fees just kill that sort of thing. As long as donations approximately cover web hosting fees then I'm happy (You'd be suprised how much traffic and CPU we use.....)

I also hate ads, so I doubt you'll see ad banners any time soon. Suggestions on making the donation button more obvious without being annoying would be useful. Since we moved to a dedicated server it really has become more important...

I actually get asked quite a lot if we offer "support" for a fee, either one-off or ongoing. I have to tell them that all support is voluntary and informal on the forum. I won't be giving up my day job any day soon

[Helge]

I've actually never bought a program, but if I did it would have to
be very good and maybe even one of those life-time licenses, where
you don't have to pay again if a newer version is released. Like Winzip (?).

If I had tried a demo-version of AutoIt for the first time now, and if it
had a life-time license I would most likely buy it, if the price was right.
I don't say this because I doubt Jon's word that it will remain free, but
just to express my love for AutoIt

[/dev/null]

I also hate ads, so I doubt you'll see ad banners any time soon.  Suggestions on making the donation button more obvious without being annoying would be useful.  Since we moved to a dedicated server it really has become more important...

You could place the donate icon in the right upper corner (opposite to the AutoIT logo). It would be much more visible and by no means annoying.

Cheers
Kurt

[condoman]

I would not mind a small fee but do like free better. I currently buy and keep up to date: UltraEdit, Beyond Compare, Acronis and PKZip.

I would like to donate to oAutoIt3, but refuse to join PayPal.

[LxP]

My opinion on the matter is that I would never have given AutoIt a second glance if one had to purchase it -- there are myriad such projects around as it is. I believe that one major thing that stands AutoIt out from the rest is its price.

It seems pretty likely that AutoIt would have nowhere near the user/support base that it does now if it had ever been payware (it would most likely only be attractive to system administrators), and so there may not have been much change in development rate because there would of course be less people working on the code. I must admit that I find the rate at which AutoIt is enhanced to be incredible as it stands!

I wholeheartedly despise anyone who converts a free product into a paid one and ceases all development on the free version, for whatever reason this is done. Whether or not this is really the case, I see it as a cheap and deceptive way of developing a (comparatively) large initial user base, and as an exercise in disillusionment -- do they really think that everyone will now pay for it? Why not initially release it as trialware?

The time may come at some point where I release some form of software given that this is my choice of career path, but I know that I will never release something as free and then take that away. I respect Jon greatly for keeping his word over the years -- it must have been tempting at times and I know that he had been offered $500 at some point just for a modified version!

[ggg]

If the real question here is how to speed development then going
payware is only one possible solution.

Another possible solution is going open source so that internals
development is not restricted to a core group.

[w0uter]

another point.

if au3 became pay.
it would be cracked.

[Raindancer]

it would be cracked.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

With AutoIt

[LxP]

Another possible solution is going open source so that internals development is not restricted to a core group.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here's some insight as to why this probably won't happen.

[jftuga]

What are the prerequisites for becoming a trusted developer, then having access to the current beta source code, and being able to submit patches? In my opinion, it seems to me that since there have been so many betas since the production release (and source release) that trying to submit patches based on that codebase would not be too usable since so but has changed since then. Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

-John

[GaryFrost]

What are the prerequisites for becoming a trusted developer, then having access to the current beta source code, and being able to submit patches?  In my opinion, it seems to me that since there have been so many betas since the production release (and source release) that trying to submit patches based on that codebase would not be too usable since so but has changed since then.  Please correct me if I am wrong on this.

-John

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the public source/info, doesn't have all the bells and whistle in it is Here

[myredeemerlives]

I think you are missing my point here..

If it meant I could have an application that could rival the likes of Visual basic with a constant stream ou updates and greater tools in a quicker time, than yes I would certainly pay for it. Paying for it would mean we get better tools in a shorter space of time because the developers would have the motivation to concentrate on Autoit a lot more!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

LMAO.

You think that you can insalt VB6 in my presence????????/