Re: PC Magazine free utilities - safe?

de Lou 05/29/2006 11:34

Patrick Philippot wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm one of the authors who worked for PC Mag and I wrote some of these
> utilities.
>
> First, I'd like to mention that these utilties are no longer free. You have
> to pay a smal fee to download them unless you download them from a site that
> is not sponsored by PC Mag, in which case the download is illegal. This
> change in their distribution policy caused much trouble and most of the
> authors leaved the development team (and so did I). It's a very strange
> situation now where people have to pay for a software that once was free and
> delivered with full source code. I never understood this move.
>
> As authors we were paid to write these programs - under control of PC Mag -,
> write the documentation, participate in a thorough beta testing and provide
> support and maintenance for a reasonable period of time after the initial
> release. Sheryl Canter, who was responsible for the Utilities column was
> very demanding regarding quality and I can assure you that the focus was
> really on it. Moreover, since the source code was delivered, it was easy to
> see how carefully these programs were written. Finally, each author had to
> write an online article explaining how the program works and explaining to
> other developers how it was designed.
>
> So I think that you can use these programs with confidence. Note that I'm
> not getting any money from their sales and that I no longer have any
> relationship with PC Mag. I just got a one shot compensation for each
> program. So I'm not *that* biased when talking about these programs :-) .
>
> Regards.
>
> --
> Patrick Philippot - Microsoft MVP
> MainSoft Consulting Services
> www.mainsoft.fr

I still use a free version of RoboType which is very handy.
If anyone knows of something as good I am interested.
Also StartUp Cop looks good so same question.

Lou
I eat my peas with honey.
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny.
But it keeps them on my knife.