Setback

It's a damned shame.

The software company that provided an evaluation copy of its 3D CAD program has a name that is based on the Latin root word meaning 'free'. However, from the very beginning I was assaulted with solicitations for upgrades, and now that my 30-day trial is over, I find I am unable to use the program at all, despite a one-word assurance from an anonymous support tech that I would still be able to use it offline.

That was the one and only time I made use of but a single online feature, just to ask. If the one-word response had been 'no' instead of 'yes', I would've understood -- and then I would've made better use of my remaining time. Instead, I was misled.

Of course it is possible that the tech was pretty sure he or she was giving me the correct answer, just as it is possible that the answer was simply too short, and should've been accompanied by instructions. A third possibility is that the process is purposefully complicated and time-consuming, designed to discourage the very liberty the company's name implies. A fourth is that their online (site-related) software is inadequate; Possibility 4a is that the 'glitch' was intentional.

Perhaps I should have remembered sooner that the prefix 'a-' usually means 'not' (a + libre = 'not free').

At the moment I'm too annoyed to go looking for another program...



Phil Smith
May 28, 2007



...By the way? The new header image here was done using the GIMP, an image creation/manipulation program written for Linux but now available in a Windows version. Open-sourced, of course.


Phil Smith
May 29, 2007


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