4 ms·

I love the editor, it's still better than its competitors. But in terms of management I think they're making two mistakes: 1) I bet almost everyone that uses

I love the editor, it's still better than its competitors. But in terms of management I think they're making two mistakes: 1) I bet almost everyone that uses Sublime Text for production work are using the "Beta" version (3) and not the release version (2). However, version 3 is suppose to be a paid upgrade from version 2. How long can you leave money on the table like this and still have a business, especially when the "beta" status probably doesn't have much meaning with your customer base? Maybe these guys have day jobs and this is just funny money anyway... 2) By remaining in beta so long and now that many people are using it... when they do pull the release trigger on version 3, that will be a very sudden expense for people that maybe have grown to depend on it without having paid for the upgrade. While everyone on version 3 should know that the day will come when that's a new license to pay for, if it rolls out as a standard update and doesn't obviously leave room to stay on the last beta version while people digest the upgrade fee... you might see a lot of people upgrade to the alternative editors instead. (OK, OK... that's a potential management mistake, not a concrete one as yet...)

carc1n0gen 9y ago
According to the sales faq[1], a license is valid for version 3. A future upgrade to version 4 will require a payment. [1] https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq
- sbuttgereit 9y ago
  Good call! That's changed then since I last looked at the license (probably about four years ago or so when I purchased version 2 and version 3 was going to be the paid upgrade). So they dodged my point two. I hope they don't amplify point 1 with that move. [Update] Actually, this is not fully correct in regard to my point. I re-read your link and this is the key bits. "Until such time, upgrading is not required, as Sublime Text 3 will accept Sublime Text 2 license keys during the beta period. [...] For customers who purchased in the 90 days prior to the announcement of Sublime Text 3 [Jan 2013], we are reducing the cost of upgrading from $15 down to $11. Customers who purchased Sublime Text 2 before this time period are still subject to a $30 upgrade fee when 3.0 is released." So version 2 subscribers are not automatically grandfathered into version 3; there is a class of version 2 users that are, but not all. Apparently there is a time at which they considered licensing to be version 3. http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades. So for example, I bought a version 2 license in 2012, have been using version 3 since 2013... an automatic update to a full release version would force the update issue.
  - carc1n0gen 9y ago
    Using web.archive.org, it looks like licenses have counted as version 3 licenses since April of 2013[1]. So I guess licenses purchased before that are for version <=2 like you said. At least it isn't as bad as you'd thought. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20130518184355/http://www.sublimetext.com:80/sales_faq https://web.archive.org/web/20130518184355/http://www.sublim...
wbond 9y ago
1) Yes, well over 90% of Package Control users are running Sublime Text 3. We haven't brought it out of beta yet because there were still a number of rough edges and improvements we wanted to make before then. Jon mentioned in the last beta blog post (https://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/sublime-text-3-build-3124 https://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/sublime-text-3-bui...) that this dev cycle is leading up to the 3.0 launch. And no, we don't have day jobs. Sublime Text is my day job. :-) 2) In terms of the expense, the only people who will be required to pay an upgrade fee are users who purchased a license before the Sublime Text 3 beta was announced. So effectively users who have been using ST2 (or ST3) for more than four years will be paying. Everyone who has purchased since the ST3 beta announcement have an ST3 license already (http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades).
- akulbe 9y ago
  I paid for a license already, and I'm not sure where I fall in the timeline of being eligible for a free upgrade, or not. That said, I'm happy to pay for a license for the upgrade. As a longtime customer, I wish there was more communication about the state of things, and plans for features, things like that. Basically, more communication, and less radio silence.
- mediaserf 9y ago
  "Linux: Added repositories for apt, yum and pacman" - Thanks for including Arch Linux (pacman).
- sbuttgereit 9y ago
  Thanks for your response and hard work. I want you guys to make more money to have incentive to make Sublime Text better/faster since that helps me to be better/faster in my work! I will be in the paid upgrade class. I'm happy to do it, and the price is trivial compared to the return on that investment. I'll leave you with this... My wife worked in Hollywood for a long time and we knew some wanna-be script writers... some of them wouldn't ever try to get their scripts sold or read because... for years on end... the scripts "weren't ready yet"... those guys usually just ended up doing other work and never selling a script since they couldn't live without cash flow. Don't be those guys :-)
vixen99 9y ago
its competitors
- sbuttgereit 9y ago
  fixed
specialist 9y ago
I used to publish my own shareware. So maybe I see these things differently: Today's customers are paying for continued development, for future releases. If a product is dead, there's near zero chance I'd pay for it, or use it (willingly). If this dev is happy, I'm happy. When I was in the game, I was thrilled to have steady income, enough to stay solo and continue to do what I loved. (I bought a personal license and make each of my employers buy me a work license. I love SublimeText and am happy to pay.)

carc1n0gen 9y ago

According to the sales faq[1], a license is valid for version 3. A future upgrade to version 4 will require a payment. [1] https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq https://www.sublimetext.com/sales_faq

sbuttgereit 9y ago
Good call! That's changed then since I last looked at the license (probably about four years ago or so when I purchased version 2 and version 3 was going to be the paid upgrade). So they dodged my point two. I hope they don't amplify point 1 with that move. [Update] Actually, this is not fully correct in regard to my point. I re-read your link and this is the key bits. "Until such time, upgrading is not required, as Sublime Text 3 will accept Sublime Text 2 license keys during the beta period. [...] For customers who purchased in the 90 days prior to the announcement of Sublime Text 3 [Jan 2013], we are reducing the cost of upgrading from $15 down to $11. Customers who purchased Sublime Text 2 before this time period are still subject to a $30 upgrade fee when 3.0 is released." So version 2 subscribers are not automatically grandfathered into version 3; there is a class of version 2 users that are, but not all. Apparently there is a time at which they considered licensing to be version 3. http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades. So for example, I bought a version 2 license in 2012, have been using version 3 since 2013... an automatic update to a full release version would force the update issue.
- carc1n0gen 9y ago
  Using web.archive.org, it looks like licenses have counted as version 3 licenses since April of 2013[1]. So I guess licenses purchased before that are for version <=2 like you said. At least it isn't as bad as you'd thought. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20130518184355/http://www.sublimetext.com:80/sales_faq https://web.archive.org/web/20130518184355/http://www.sublim...

wbond 9y ago

1) Yes, well over 90% of Package Control users are running Sublime Text 3. We haven't brought it out of beta yet because there were still a number of rough edges and improvements we wanted to make before then. Jon mentioned in the last beta blog post (https://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/sublime-text-3-build-3124 https://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/sublime-text-3-bui...) that this dev cycle is leading up to the 3.0 launch. And no, we don't have day jobs. Sublime Text is my day job. :-) 2) In terms of the expense, the only people who will be required to pay an upgrade fee are users who purchased a license before the Sublime Text 3 beta was announced. So effectively users who have been using ST2 (or ST3) for more than four years will be paying. Everyone who has purchased since the ST3 beta announcement have an ST3 license already (http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades http://www.sublimetext.com/blog/articles/upgrades).

akulbe 9y ago
I paid for a license already, and I'm not sure where I fall in the timeline of being eligible for a free upgrade, or not. That said, I'm happy to pay for a license for the upgrade. As a longtime customer, I wish there was more communication about the state of things, and plans for features, things like that. Basically, more communication, and less radio silence.
mediaserf 9y ago
"Linux: Added repositories for apt, yum and pacman" - Thanks for including Arch Linux (pacman).
sbuttgereit 9y ago
Thanks for your response and hard work. I want you guys to make more money to have incentive to make Sublime Text better/faster since that helps me to be better/faster in my work! I will be in the paid upgrade class. I'm happy to do it, and the price is trivial compared to the return on that investment. I'll leave you with this... My wife worked in Hollywood for a long time and we knew some wanna-be script writers... some of them wouldn't ever try to get their scripts sold or read because... for years on end... the scripts "weren't ready yet"... those guys usually just ended up doing other work and never selling a script since they couldn't live without cash flow. Don't be those guys :-)

vixen99 9y ago

its competitors

sbuttgereit 9y ago
fixed

specialist 9y ago

I used to publish my own shareware. So maybe I see these things differently: Today's customers are paying for continued development, for future releases. If a product is dead, there's near zero chance I'd pay for it, or use it (willingly). If this dev is happy, I'm happy. When I was in the game, I was thrilled to have steady income, enough to stay solo and continue to do what I loved. (I bought a personal license and make each of my employers buy me a work license. I love SublimeText and am happy to pay.)