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Many years ago I tried a few free screen-saver creation programs. Some programs made a sort of slide show as well. All very simple. The one I liked best was P2E, but you had to pay a little something for it. It came with a lifetime-upgrade promise. A lifetime is a long time, and I imaged some improvements might be in store--but at least I had a program I could probably use for a few years. Then Igor got busy. He really made P2E into something amazing. While the program still made screensavers and slide shows it became a totally different product. For years, faithfully, I got free upgrades anyway. Software development takes time and money and Igor and Friends have to making a living, so if development would continue at such a pace, more revenue would be needed. Presently, there is a sort of gray area between what is an old product with a life-time upgrade promise and a very different new product--a sort of distant cousin to the original product which we have to buy. Because the old product wasn't phased out and upgrades ended, while a new product with a new marketing plan was introduced, I got a sense of entitlement. Hey, anything WNSoft produced I ought to get for free for a lifetime? Why not? When I learned the policy had changed and upgrades were no longer free, I felt a bit miffed, like trust was broken. I also realized that a lot of communication can be lost in kind, generous business practice and communication across languages and cultures. Here is how I think we should fairly think about this whole lifetime upgrade vs. now-you-have-to-pay-for-it matter: There was a great old product. Pictures to Exe. It had a good life with free upgrades for life--as long as the product was developed. Eventually the lifetime of that product ended. A new very different product was developed which in many ways resembled the old product. At that point Igor in magnanimity just kept on giving away a new different product to users of the old product--bless his heart. My opinion is that the new product should have had a new different name. The old name and product should have been retired. The new didn't get a new name, and the old wasn't retired. Now we have a sort of reincarnated product with upgrade entitlement from its former life. The cure might be to find a business way to formally retire the old product. Lay it to rest in all its glory. Then market a new, fresh, better product with a new name. Version 1.0. Perhaps this should have been done a couple years ago, or maybe it's not too late yet. Maybe Igor thought all this out and has his own reasons for doing things the way he has. Maybe he is just really really nice and some of us (me included) would love to get entitlement to freebies for life at his expense. I am a parsimonious, miserly, closefisted, covetous old scrooge--scrimping, scraping, clawing--and don't part with money easily. I finally upgraded after a twinge of annoyance. Now when I look back I feel embarrassed at my former greed and ungratefulness. I am very grateful for such a wonderful new product. Thanks Igor! I love P2E.