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Mac OS X  |  IT & Network Administration  |  Remote Access  |  Timbuktu Pro  |  Still Not Worth Upgrading

Timbuktu Pro

Timbuktu Pro

Remote control, file transfer and collaboration tool.

Version:  8.8

   [ Views: 1265 ]

Still Not Worth Upgrading

Feedback Type:  Commentary

Contributed by: negentropon Sunday, September 11 2005 @ 09:11 AM PDT

Product Platform: MacOSX

Used Product For: Over One Year

Recommend Product: NO

I don't know how many folks find these "new features" useful, but I'm not one of them. It's amazing that Netopia has the balls to charge 50% of the retail price as an upgrade fee. They must be learning tricks from Adobe, or something.

Look...if you're a first-time user, don't let my comment about the price influence you. There's no question that Timbuktu is the best in its class. I use Chicken of the VNC and OSXvnc, so I know that stable, reliable freeware options exist, but Timbuktu is faster, smoother, better, and offers lots more options. It's well worth the cost of a license -- well, OK...two licenses, because you need to run it on at least two machines -- assuming you need all its features.

I believe in supporting the continuing development of good software, but I don't believe in throwing money away for software whose "new features" I don't need and can't use. I'd pay 25% or even 33% of retail as an upgrade fee just to support Timbuktu's continuing development--even if I didn't need the "new features"--but 50% is ridiculous. And Netopia gets you by the short hairs on this; Timbuktu has no Tiger compatibility with any version earlier than 8.1.1.

I wonder how they figure out their price points. I assume they figure that they can't make enough money at, say, a 33% upgrade fee with the probable number of upgrades they'll get, so they raise it to 50% and hope that it covers the reduced number of upgrades at that rate. I dunno...it's their product and their company, so they can charge whatever they want, but they've just lost me. I'm not shelling out bucks to these jerks, who are showing up with their hands out just because I upgraded my system to v10.4.

Sorry, Netopia. You're not the only game in town for remote control, and forcing your customers to pay your exorbitant upgrade fees for a system upgrade isn't the kind of behavior that deserves my market support. I'd rather send some money to the freeware developers.   

11 of 16 users found this helpful.

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Comments

7 comments |

The Tiger upgrade of Timbuktu is free - Mike Silverman

Actually, the Tiger upgrade of Timbuktu (version 8.1.1) was a free upgrade to anyone who owned any 8.x version. And the newest release (version 8.5) is also a free upgrade to anyone who owns any 8.x version.

Sure, if you have a much older version (7.x or 6.x) you have to pay to upgrade to the 8.x version (which added many new features, including SSH, a push installer, and OS X user integration).

Is there any commercial software vendor in the world who provides free major version upgrades? I think it is unfair to single out Netopia for the practice of charging for major version upgrades.

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Thursday, September 15 2005 @ 09:39 AM PDT


Still Not Worth Upgrading - jeepw5

"Timbuktu has no Tiger compatibility with any version earlier than 8.1.1"

Not exactly true. While it may not support all the new features, I'm still running my version of TB2 6 on my server and my client machines (all at 10.4.3) and have no problems at all. I was annoyed when they sent the last few upgrade notices telling me that I needed the new versions for Tiger support but I decided to wait it out and see what happened... NOTHING. I still log on fine and can even restart the server from home and log back into my account on the server right from the same login window I'd use if I was sitting in front of the server.

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Friday, November 04 2005 @ 05:02 PM PST


Still Not Worth Upgrading - m.a.smith@mac.com

Same experience here...still using versions 6 and 7 with Tiger...basic control no problem. Until there are more compelling reasons to upgrade (not to mention price) it's gunna stay that way too.

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Friday, December 09 2005 @ 04:10 AM PST


Still Not Worth Upgrading - Joe Goddard

Thanks for taking the time to express what are nearly my exact sentiments about this product. I am still running 6.03 on Mac 10.4.3 and would only
upgrade if the price were right. I note that I use a full range of commercial
software, Adobe, Microsoft, etc., and do not consider myself a cheapskate when
it comes to paying for necessary or worthwhile upgrades. JDG

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Saturday, December 17 2005 @ 06:08 AM PST


Still Not Worth Upgrading - bill89

Just a technical correction.

I use TB2 version 6 on Tiger without any real problems. Getting it to launch at startup takes a couple trys, (doesn't seem to set the permissions correctly on the startup item, but now tiger offers to fix them for you) but after that it works fine.

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Friday, February 03 2006 @ 09:42 PM PST


Still Not Worth Upgrading - redpola

I totally agree. Well said. I think Netopia are crazy - I have three copies of Timbuktu (2x Mac, 1x Windows) and only ever use one machine-machine connection at one time ever. The upgrade cost for me is utterly ridiculous for almost zero value.

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Friday, February 10 2006 @ 08:10 AM PST


Still Not Worth Upgrading - Mike Silverman

If the new features of a product are not worth spending the money it costs to upgrade it, then by all means, do not pay for the upgrade. I know people who are still happy using Microsoft Word 98 in Classic mode on MacOS X because it works fine for them!

It is probably a testament to the quality of the software that an old version is still working well for you even today :-)

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Thursday, February 23 2006 @ 08:03 PM PST