Curio 15 is out

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Posted by satis
Apr 29, 2021 at 02:57 PM

Release notes here

https://www.zengobi.com/curio/releasenotes/?v=15

PDF Manual

https://www.zengobi.com/curio/docs/15/Curio Documentation.pdf

Posted by Simon
May 2, 2021 at 05:17 PM

I was an keen user of Curio, but just cannot support their push to yet another subscription service. Their prices are extremely expensive and the normal single version licence has now been reduced to an annual licence (one year of updates). Their latest pricing doesn’t even make sense. If you buy version 15 under their “traditional” license, you’ll only get v15 updates for one year. They already brought on a subscription last year for an annual license. How is this any different? A traditional licence is one where you get bug fixes/updates until the next version. This is anything but. These licensing moves do not encourage me to support the developer, but move me to drop the software.

Posted by marlowe
May 2, 2021 at 05:26 PM

I’ve used Curio on and off since v7, and I don’t upgrade every cycle. I will probably upgrade to version 15 but may purchase an upgrade every other year or so. I think this licensing model is a fair one and a decent alternative to going all subscription.

Posted by NickG
May 5, 2021 at 10:12 AM

I may not be firing on all cylinders, but I don’t really understand this.

In the old, non MAS scheme, you we paid a one-time fee for Curio which included minor updates. Major releases were roughly annual, and once a new major release was out, no more updates for the older version (occasional exceptions), but we kept it as long as we wanted (and Apple OS updates permitted)

In the new non-MAS scheme, we pay a one-time fee for the current version and get a year of major updates. After a year, no further updates, but we get to keep the existing version for as long as we want (Apple OS updates permitting).

So the only differences I can see are:

- A defined year duration for updates (instead of “about a year between major versions”)
- The promise of major new versions during that year (instead of minor updates)

In practice, I can’t see that that its worse than the previous position, and it has the potential to be better (time will tell, but my experience of George is that he keeps his commitments).

The MAS position is different - it’s a subscription and always has been. The cost of the sub is about half that of a one-time direct purchase.

Simon wrote:
I was an keen user of Curio, but just cannot support their push to yet
>another subscription service. Their prices are extremely expensive and
>the normal single version licence has now been reduced to an annual
>licence (one year of updates). Their latest pricing doesn’t even make
>sense. If you buy version 15 under their “traditional” license, you’ll
>only get v15 updates for one year. They already brought on a
>subscription last year for an annual license. How is this any different?
>A traditional licence is one where you get bug fixes/updates until the
>next version. This is anything but. These licensing moves do not
>encourage me to support the developer, but move me to drop the software.
> >

Posted by J J Weimer
May 5, 2021 at 03:13 PM

I would not presume to make a blanket statement about cost. The RoI in certain software can come down an individual decision. Curio is unique but not absolutely so. Its RoI is what you make of it in this framework.

If I would be a seasoned, individual, commercial developer, I would not want to live on having to meet promises to release a major, feature laden upgrade to earn a spike in income that has to be budgeted over to the next cycle. As a customer, I appreciate the change to a step-wise release of major upgrades with an opt-in path to continue to sustain such incremental updates as my needs dictate.

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