Daemon Tools Professional-freeware or shareware

[burnsy_xyz]

OMFG

thats a useless discussion in my eyes. how to you know if you like a game before you buy it (there aren't demos for every game) or if it even works (bugs, etc.)


there won't be a demo for dt pro and thats it.

[Goenk]

What guarentee do I have that I will like DT Pro, i.e. it works on my machine with Flat Out 2 and Darkstar One, without buying it first?

Did you test Windows before you bought it?

[professorx]

I guess some people are happy to part with money for something that they can only hope will work

Any product migrating from shareware to be fully commercial without a try-before-you-buy should come with some refund policy or hardware compatibility requirements.

I'll bet anyone that the price will reflect a commercial product and will be much higher that 15 euros!

I'm just a consumer like the rest of you but hey...feel free to flame me if you've nothing better to do.

As for Windows...if I could get my money back I would! Now that's one piece of s**t that should be freeware.

[burnsy_xyz]

Any product migrating from shareware to be fully commercial without a try-before-you-buy should come with some refund policy or hardware compatibility requirements.

there will always be a non commercial version of dt available, even if dt pro is out. just stick to this one, as you already use it.

[Black-]

any info on what will be included in DT pro?

can it beat the newest starforce versions?

[AnalCobra]

These are the most important functions of DT Pro:
-it'll be able to create images
-it'll have a virtual IDE drive which should really beat starforce

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/t12019-dt-pro-announcement.html

[xson]

Seems that the Problem cause by StarForce is not a problem
SecuRom and SafeDisc both is a problem

[Blazkowicz]

Only Tages is a problem and newest versions of StarForce, rest is no problem.

[LocutusofBorg]

DT Pro try's to cope all (important) protections.

@professorX: I can see a problem when you f.e. think about
to "try" a game, as here the "I like it"-factor is really what
counts (beside stability etc etc).

DT Pro is an application. Its main purpose is to serve you in the
processes it was created for, imho(!) there's no such "I like
it" reason. It should fit your needs. What DT Pro is capable
of you will notice as soon as we released it, I'm sure someone
will post about it here. Apart from that: A game is really unique
(mostly) and therefore a "need" for a specific game is acceptable. (Although its of course not really "vital" for your life).

What concerns applications, you can chose between many
cd-emulator-tools, most also have a trial-version available.
In that case, you can easily check if they fit your needs.
If you come to conclusion to still stick to DT (Pro), you're
welcome. Apart from this, we not finally and once and for
all decided if there's later such thing like trial-version.
My best suggestion here is to simple wait until we release
trial-version and test then. Everything else may dissapoint
you and that's not in your and our interest

[MikeSchinkel]

Thoughts on a Trial Version

Hi,

After reading this thread, I just thought I would give me two cents on the benefits to a vendor of offer trial versions of software. In 1994 I founded a reseller that sold Visual Basic developer tools to software developers called VBxtras ; we later changed the name to Xtras.Net because of selling .NET developer tools to both VB and C# developers. I sold the company earlier this year and have no continued involvement but you can see it is at http://www.xtras.net.

Anyway, first let me say I don't care if you do or do not have a trial version; makes no difference to me. However, we found that over 90% of developers expected a trial version of software before purchasing to ensure that the software fit there needs, and these were people who spent money with us, not the "tire-kickers" that wanted software for free. Further, the vendors whose products did not have a trial version did not sell very well at all, primarily because our customers wouldn't consider using their products if they couldn't try them out first.

On the subject of "cracked" software, I spoke with several of my most successful vendors on that subject and they all told me that theri software was cracked but that it was okay with them. 1.) they couldn't stop it if they tried, 2.) if people used cracked software it meant they liked it and they were not using a competitor's software, 3.) many who first used the cracked software ended up later purchasing a license for many different reasons: to support a quality vendor, because they needed support, or whatever, and finally 4.) it is not about how many people are using the cracked software, it is about how many people pay for it and everyone I spoke with who had a significant amount of cracked software also had a large amount of sales as cracked software if free marketing in that it provides name recognition.

I understand professional developers might be different than the customer base for Daemon Pro and hence my decade+ of experience might not be as relevent, but I thought you might at least appreciate an objective viewpoint on the benefits to a vendor of trial software.

Respectfully,

-Mike Schinkel

[professorx]

DT Pro try's to cope all (important) protections.

@professorX: I can see a problem when you f.e. think about
to "try" a game, as here the "I like it"-factor is really what
counts (beside stability etc etc).

DT Pro is an application. Its main purpose is to serve you in the
processes it was created for, imho(!) there's no such "I like
it" reason. It should fit your needs. What DT Pro is capable
of you will notice as soon as we released it, I'm sure someone
will post about it here. Apart from that: A game is really unique
(mostly) and therefore a "need" for a specific game is acceptable. (Although its of course not really "vital" for your life).

What concerns applications, you can chose between many
cd-emulator-tools, most also have a trial-version available.
In that case, you can easily check if they fit your needs.
If you come to conclusion to still stick to DT (Pro), you're
welcome. Apart from this, we not finally and once and for
all decided if there's later such thing like trial-version.
My best suggestion here is to simple wait until we release
trial-version and test then. Everything else may dissapoint
you and that's not in your and our interest

Thanks for clearing that up; but I didn't understand what 'f.e.' stood for ?

[Elandril]

f.e. = for example

Technically "f.e." is wrong, since the official english abbreviation would be:
e.g. = for example [from latin: 'exempli gratia']

[LocutusofBorg]

Hi,

After reading this thread,----- (many text, see above)
-Mike Schinkel

thank you for this interesting point of view.

Yes, it is indeed not comparable, as a developer-tool is really
something you MUST try first.

However, like already explained, it is not decided, we really
think about some sort of trial. Personally, I have nothing
against it, so it might become true and thats why I can
only suggest to that ones who want test it first to WAIT!

You can clearly see that we do not advice people to buy
the cat in the back. I can fully understand professorX.
But he can't buy a license for DT Pro atm anyway

[Jito463]

f.e. = for example

Technically "f.e." is wrong, since the official english abbreviation would be:
e.g. = for example [from latin: 'exempli gratia']

I always used e.g. to mean example given.
Just as i.e. meant - for my purposes - inferred example.

[Elandril]

i.e. = that is [from Latin: 'id est']

Many abbreviations in English do not stand for English words, but come from the Latin translation. It's kinda funny that the abbreviations totally dismiss the actual language and are still based on the base language that isn't even spoken actively any more (outside of classrooms ).