Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on Linux

Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by dotancohen on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @01:45AM (#17598396)

> We were very enterprise focused, but it just didn't work.

How was that focus manifested? What is your focus now?

I ask because I would love to pay for an email client that has the single feature I most need. But the Hiri website only lets me know that the software:

* Helps me conquer my inbox. How? I have no idea.

* Removes unnecessary clutter from my inbox. I actually don't want anything removed from my inbox.

* Accesses Office 365 and Exchange calendars, and a bunch of other Active Directory integration features. I already have that with Lightning.

I'm currently using Thunderbird with an extension that provides the feature that I need, and I've donated to both the Mozilla foundation and the developer of said extension. What unique features does Hiri provide that Thunderbird does not? What can I do with Hiri that I cannot do with Thunderbird and Lightning?

Lastly, why is it $120? I'll pay $10 without a second thought. I'll pay $20-$40 if it really scratches an itch. But I won't even consider $50 for an email client at all. $120 is absolutely ridiculous. I won't consider the one-year plan, nor is it even clear what is a one-year plan that includes indefinite access to updates and new features. What happens after one year?

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Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by pjmlp on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @02:32AM (#17598594)

$120 ridiculous, oh the prices we use to pay in the 80's and 70's even for basic stuff like having access to a compiler.

Pick your monthly salary, then imagine how many units of work you would need to sell to achieve the same value at what given price.

Naturally $120 means one sale equals several at $20-$40, thus easier to achieve sustainability, given the ratio of marketing and sales team efforts to effective sales.

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Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by dotancohen on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @07:03AM (#17599848)

What well-known and perfectly adequate open source competition did your compiler have in the 70's and 80's?

We're talking about a mail client here. A $120 mail client whose website mentions not a single advantage over the leading open source solution in its market.

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Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by krageon on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @07:15AM (#17599918)

I assume you are talking about Thunderbird? I used it professionally for two years before deciding it was much, much worse than the alternative (Outlook webmail + a gross CLI tool for other misc email). It's slow, it uses a lot of disk space for bad reasons and just generally operating on a lot of email is a massive pain.

Compared to that, I'd have difficulty believing there are many email clients out there that are actually worse. Even emacs as an email client was better (and it still wasn't great as you can imagine).

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Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by pjmlp on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @07:18AM (#17599936)

A few, for those willing to type them in from university, magazines and hobby club listings.

I guess sendmail and p̵i̵n̵e̵̵ mutt are good enough™.

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Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by dpower on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @06:41AM (#17599737)

We tried a few price points/models. This one is what seems to work for us. Every business is different and it's a matter of experimenting until you find what works.

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Re:Our experience launching a paid, proprietary product on L... by pjmlp on Tuesday July 24, 2018 @06:57AM (#17599810)

Perfectly, that is the point I was kind of trying to make.

It is easier to ask for a random price, without taking the time to understand that there are a set of variables associated with production cost and keeping it sustainable.

All the best to your business.

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