What Turns You Off About Evaluation Software?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "I work at a mid-tier software company (which shall remain nameless, lest I draw attention to myself). Recently we have started making 30 day evaluation versions of our software available for download after prospects register. An email containing a username and password is sent to the registrant a few hours after submission. We have been surprised to find that not a few registrants don't actually go on to download the software. We make the file size and system requirements clear up front. I would guess some slashdot readers get involved in evaluations. What process do you go through? Why might you stop short of actually downloading the software?"

Re:Joel's rule

[Efes]

You mean like not hyperlinking your URL's ?
http://www.joelonsoftware.com [joelonsoftware.com] Preach for water and drink wine ...

Re:You answered your own question

[vsync64]

Try UnZip [info-zip.org].

evaluate ~= waste my time

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me few screenshots, a feature list, specs and a detailed price list upfront. After thinking on it I may decide to play with evaluation, before I will decide to spend money on it. If I will not find same or similar software in open source.

This is the recession. And the boom is not coming back anytime soon. Forget about CTO's and COO's buying software without thinking about its price. That time it was a lot of wasting of investor's money. Now it's barely possible.

Well, you may improve your chances if you would try to play the game based on "soft" money. but in this case you don't even have to show any evaluation - show how much CTO or COO will have of comissions and the deal will be done. It was true at the boom time. it is true at the recession time. That's the way [sacbee.com] to make a profit! Or to go to jail :)

Re:I dont enter my email

[kesuki]

Perhaps at the time there wasn't a decent Open source X server, but there is a very nice one with Cygwin. However, for myself I've found that stealthing VNC and X ports with firewall rules, and using VNC to be preferable, to running an X server all the time. Obviously you'll need a local X server to get DVDs or mpeg-4 files to play, but you can't do that over the network anyways. It's easier if you configure an X server for movie viewing if needed (or to use a windows box).

Re:I dont enter my email

[ChaosDiscord]

90 day or unlimited trial only...In other words, pretty much give it away for free. (90 days apart to uninstall/reinstall or in some cases reformat is not much of a pain in the ass.) Not that this surprises me coming from Slashdot, News for People Who Don't Want To Pay.

Thanks for assuming we're all thieves. Do you work for the RIAA?

I've run into 30 day limits all too often while evaluating products for professional use. I'll evaluate the product for a day or two, then get swamped with real work for a few weeks. I finally get back to evaluating the software and discover that I've only got a few days to examine it. This is frustrating for many programs and effectively negates the value of the evaluation for programs you need to use pervasively for a few weeks to try (development environments are a good example). Sure, I can usually request an additional key to unlock it for another 30 days, but that's frustrating. Free Sales Tip: Don't frustrate potential customers.

This isn't the case for personal software, but for professional software you don't need to worry constantly about pirated use. Companies using software can afford to pay for it. They certainly can't afford the risk of getting caught. Put in nags and give long demo periods.

(One improvement that I've seen several products use is to limit you to 30 days of use. So if I get interrupted for a few weeks in the middle, I'll still have a few weeks to examine the software.)

...if you're downloading a trial of a professional software package it's more professional, in my opinion, if after downloading it you get an e-mail from Bob Soandso and his phone number if you have any questions about how to use the software, etc.

My experience with professional software development packages is that I often end up on the offering companies bulk email advertising lists. I had this experience five years ago (Rational), I had this experience three years ago (Several dongle manufacturers), and I had this experience last year (several ActiveX control suppliers). The "best" I've ever gotten is a clear form letter with my name stuck into it. Gee, real professional. Getting this junk email really lowers my opinion of the senders. Unfortunately, I'm often forced to report, "Product X is really good, but their sales people are rude and spammed me." Management orders the product and the stupid sales people are left with the impression that their nasty tactics worked. Grrr.

Anyway, as a result I'm very hesitant to check out professional software. If I need to evaluate the software ("Culd you evaluate memory leak detection tools and tell me which one to buy for the team I'll do it."), I'll enter my email address with a warning attached. ("[e-mail] DO NOT CONTACT ME"). If it's personal investigation, ("Hey, this product might help me with my work"), I'll generally pass unless there is a clear, english promise to not spam me. If you insist on an email address, you migh lose me as a potential customer.

Re:I dont enter my email

[Sklivvz]

The commercial idea behind shareware is to get your software on as many desktops as possible with low cost. You know from the start that most people will not pay for what they get, but still, the more people use your software, the more people will buy it.
Take for example winzip, everybody has it, but just a few pay for it, mainly companies. The guy behind it is still making loads of cash, and wouldn't be if he sold it as shrinkwrap.
If I crack a program is either to evaluate it, or because I can't afford it/it's not worth the price.
Shareware works on word of mouth ads, and most of the people who carry the word are not paying for your software. If you don't like it, go shrinkwrap. Then you can call it theft.