[y2ksw]

You have made your point, now may I?

1. Why the hell is everything for money now?
   We must make a living, you, me, everybody. It rarely will happen a multi-milionaire to be a programmer willing to make small and big additions for free. This always has been like this, and since I remember, only old software was given for free or as a trial. The idea of Open Source was wrongly taken as Freeware = software of free and completely unpaid use. While the latter may work for Multinationals like IBM, it is the definite death of smaller companies and single developers. Strangely Open Source was enforced by the large companies, right in the view to absorb (= kill and at best employ) the small developers. Please try to make a living of coding only, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
2. Prices from Hell?
   The pricing depends on the quality and work which is put into a software product, and the number of sold copies and customers. While some developers make ridiculous offers, most sell under cost else they won't sell at all.
3. Lite does not equal feature non existant
   Many times, a light version is identical to the "extended" versions, but the way how customers and requests are handled are different. Paying customers have priority support, and can ask for features which may eventually never become published. Usually, paying customers are much more happy with a product than the free fellows, because they get also a service. Freeware is like an ambulance with no driver. Paid software has not only a driver, but also a doctor on board. Many customers prefer the latter.
4. Encryption? What the hell?
   Right. Encryption is a mod killer. but it is also the only ensurance the customer has not messed with the code and therefore there is no excuse for both sides. You can't imagine how often it happens to hear: "Oops, sorry, I have made a small change here ... does it matter?". Of course it does. I have wasted many days on searching for errors where they haven't been. But you're right, too, the code should be in clear text. What is missing to PHP is a "No Mess Lock", or an automatic warrant system, which tells a coder the source has been tampered with.
5. 'But for vBulletin and Invision there ARE NO alternatives.'
   Right. The point is, that at one side there are no free developers (top guns) available, and on the other that there is nobody willing to pay for an alternate product, even though they could make a lot of money directly by sale or on other behalf, for example advertising. And then it doesn't cost so much as somebody may believe, but no matter what, there is nobody willing to pay.
6. Custom Coding costs thousands of dollars/pounds...
   Yes, but thousands, not hundreds of thousands. It depends also if you want crap or quality. I want to recall that a top-gun developer rarely writes more than a few hundred lines of code daily, and sometimes sits on a single line for many days. But that code will still work when all other software has stopped. Two third of my customers have paid 3-8 times as much as if they had called a professional first.
7. Piracy forces encryption!
   No. Pirates have always existed and will be able to obtain the code if they really want. Good code will always be pirated, and there is no measure to avoid this, except for frequent updates. In fact this is the best existing anti-piracy strategy. If they had to update weekly, they quickly would give up - too much work for nothing

--------------- Added [DATE]1223856333[/DATE] at [TIME]1223856333[/TIME] ---------------

Whenever an ordinary fan calls out another person to try their hand at something (making a film, creating a videogame, or writing a book) before criticizing it, that person has lost the argument

Sorry, but I couldn't resist

We aren't ordinary fans - all posts I have read here are coming from professionals or at least upcoming coders and designers. We are the film-makers, and you are watching our movie and hate to pay for it