Rollback RX Home End of Life (Discontinued Development)

[93803123]

"We are sorry to announce that after many upgrades and changes throughout its duration, development for RollBack Rx Home has come to an end. "

RollBack Rx Home - End of Life | Horizon DataSys Corporation Horizon DataSys Corporation

After many upgrades and changes throughout its duration, development for our freeware RollBack Rx Home has come to an end.

horizondatasys.com

Another highly specialized program freeware version bites the dust because of the high costs to maintain a freeware version.

No publisher in their right mind will offer freeware versions. The costs to maintain makes sense if, and only if, the freeware version generates a lot of sales.

HDS also shutdown its dedicated support forum. HDS cited vulnerabilities in vBulletin as the reason for the move.

Our Community Forum is now on Reddit! | Horizon DataSys Corporation Horizon DataSys Corporation

Our Community Forum has migrated over to Reddit for all future message board related needs

horizondatasys.com

 

[Burrito]

That's too bad.

But wait.... just give it to the crack team that is going to maintain/update/improve Sandboxie.

Yeah, they'll do it too.

Those guys are the greatest..

 

[[correlate]]

Really very bad news could have made very simple changes to improve the work of your product
For example improved program interface and retrieval time
The system.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

No publisher in their right mind will offer freeware versions. The costs to maintain makes sense if, and only if, the freeware version generates a lot of sales.

This. Freeware is basically a dying breed. Especially considering the development resources required to maintain it in the face of rapidly changing and advancing technology. The average consumer really doesn't understand the cost to maintain software. It requires development tools, resources, testing, management, engineering.. It's all complex, expensive, and time consuming.

I've seen so many free products cease development in recent years, including many I had learned to depend on.

Even in IoT, free is going to kill you. People knock Gryphon for charging a yearly fee. But that yearly fee covers hardware warranty, support, updates, and the licensing of technologies that all make Gryphon happen. Without a yearly fee it wouldn't exist for very long.

LEEO just ceased operations. They were a brilliantly designed IoT device that turned your existing fire/smoke/carbon/water alarms into smart devices by using a specially tuned microphone that only picks up those tones, and when it hears them it notifies you of the alarm via the app. They charged $49 for the device and nothing more... They couldn't maintain it at $49 one time fee, the business model was flawed yet the product was brilliant. Clearly, it should have had a subscription model and it would have been a sustainable operation.

Free will ultimately kill a product. In cases it doesn't, then expect that they are using the free product/software/service to spy on you. Where you yourself become the commodity. Otherwise.. Forget it.

 

[Burrito]

LEEO just ceased operations. They were a brilliantly designed IoT device that turned your existing fire/smoke/carbon/water alarms into smart devices by using a specially tuned microphone that only picks up those tones, and when it hears them it notifies you of the alarm via the app. They charged $49 for the device and nothing more...

Hmmmm.... I've never heard of this before. That sounds like something I would want. It's a bridge product to the future when a lot of that will be built in.

I squarely place the blame of the failure of LEEO on you Sly. Yep, pretty much all your fault.

Had you told me and MT, that product might have taken off...

 

[Viking]

That's sad to hear, I'm using the free version on one of my laptops.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Using RX is playing with fire, very unstable in certain situations, I know this software from the inside out and used to praise it.

Sadly now, the risks aren't worth the benefits especially when traditional backup softs like Macrium are almost as fast to backup and restore and way more stable. Not mentioning, the ability to create a rescue media which RX lacks.

RX was very useful when backup software took 15 to 30mn minimum for a backup, now Macrium does an incremental backup/restore in less than 2mn, RX advantage over them is nullified.

I rather pay for Macrium than RX.

 

[93803123]

I wouldn't do anything for free. The whole Windows FOSS movement is dying or, at best, heading fast to its last breath.

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Yes, like people expecting Sandboxie and others to be free or have a lifetime license model forever, those should go into economy and business classes.

 

[JHomes]

Not surprised. I can't imagine any company sees high value in supporting a free program. If you have one or two paying customers asking for support and a bunch of people using the free version who are you going to prioritize?

I've also found their sales are pretty good. Rollback is $70 usually for one license but on most sales goes to $35. I'll usually check their sales and promotions page (Specials and Promotions) around most US holidays and it's being sold for that price.