vb4 question

Hey,
i have a owned vb licence, and i have a question coz im confused.
When vb4 comes out, will i have to pay for it, or just the publishing quite? Or will it be considered a update and id get it free til i need to pay for annual upgrades?
I hope that all makes sense?

 

If you have a current active license, and IF version 4 comes out when your license is active, you can then use the forum only (not the suite). Once your license expires, you will have to pay full price for the forum, or suite package. You can upgrade now to the suite package for a discounted price.

This is the information as of 8:45am today, it may change, as there seems to be a growing backlash about the "free" upgrade.

 

and there is no longer an annual renewal fee. You don't pay again until vB 5 is released. Most likely a couple of years down the road.

 

if your current license expires, you'll need to renew to get updates for 4.0

 

Ok, so my active licence expires beginning of next year, if VB4 is released before then, I get it for free? If it isnt released before then, and I reactivate by paying the $60 dollars, I can get it for free, or would I have to pay full price?

 

Ok, your license expires 1/10/10. Lets say vb4 comes out 1/9/10. You can download it. Say there is an update on 1/11/10. You will not be able to download the update. You will need to pay $195 to get the update, although, they say you can then get all the updates for the 4 series. No more $60 upgrades.

 

The $60 annual renewal is gone.

As of today at this time the options in front of you are as follows.

Pay $130 now (until Oct 30) and receive the 4.0 suite with all updates until 5.0 is released. (Possibly approx 2 years)

When current license needs renewal pay $175 for the forum only and and receive the 4.0 forum with all updates until 5.0 is released. (Possibly approx 2 years)

The kicker is no one knows when 4.0 will be released, if it is a viable product and if the CMS and Blog in the suite are any good.

It is a leap of faith and one has to wonder what the cost to renew the suite will be at the 5.0 level as well as what the time frame from 4.0 to 5.0 will be. It is a risk but potentially the costs can actually be lower buy purchasing the Suite now.

I think I understand what vBulletin is doing here. They want people to buy into the Suite and have offered it now for less than the cost of the forum only option. They are also moving away from annual fees to a one time fee for the life of the point release (Point release being 4.x and all variants till 5.0).

Some of the risks:

4.0 is crap (That is not a fact just a risk)
4.x - 5.0 is very fast, 18 months or less
5.0 pricing is significantly higher and you have already committed to the 4.x path making conversion to a competitor even ore difficult.

Some of the upsides:

4.0 is the bee's knee's
4.x - 5.0 takes 2+ years (giving you good value for the time the software is viable)
5.0 pricing is in line with 4.0
4.0 Suite is well integrated and negates the need to purchase some of the 3rd party software used in 3.x

vB is making a paradigm shift in the pricing and support model. People are reluctant to change but this is moving in the direction software is delivered. If you go buy an off the shelf program such as Photoshop you pay the initial price for the point release, get all the updates that go along with that point release and then have to purchase the next point release to update, usually at a discount for updating.

Any time this happens a few people will be winners and few will be losers in the value proposition. It's like going an buying a new PC today, tomorrow a better one may come out from the same company at the same price level.

 

This directly conflicts with what the staff at vb.com is saying, and Wayne on AA.

Any legally downloaded 4.x can be used forever.



Getting the ability to download those is another issue. Yes there quite probably be a need to get updated versions for security/bug fixes.


edited to add, there is some really good information in this thread! I just read the rest of the responses, excellent summaries!

 

Sorry, I should of said if you have a active license right now, and vb 4.0 comes out, you'll be able to download it and use it as long as you want. If you license expires a few months after 4.0 comes out, you'll have to renew if you want to continue getting updates.

 

Well Ive got another good 6 or so months til my licence expires, heres hoping coz I only JUST paid for owned licence, I dont want to have to pay it all over again, but then again Im not sure I will USE VB4 as soon as it comes out will probably wait til its developped a bit more and so on, but if it does come out before my licence expries Ill probably just download it so I have it?

 

If you want just the forum (not blog or CMS), and you think vB 4 is good, I'd just purchase the vB 4 license now, at the pre-sale price, rather than full-price down the road.

 

Yup, No matter which way you look at it your current license will not run for the duration of vbulletin 4.0 development which means when you license runs out you will pay full price. As nick said, if you want to or intend to upgrade your best purchasing the new license now while there's a 2 week discount window.

Your current license is basically useless as are everyone elses who run under the old licensing agreement.