Lite/Free version and other plattforms

[nikkho]

I am convinced that PowerArchiver is an excellent product, very complete in terms of features, cheap compared to the competitors, and with a superior native PA format.
Of course it needs to improve in terms of startup and close speed, but to make it widely used I guess we need:

Lite/Free version
A less capable PA which can be used free for non-commercial use, without any nag. Some features could be removed such as SFX, or encrytion, but basic capabilities should be there. Users would be able to be used to it, and if they need more power, pay for the commercial versions. In the meantime due to its superior compression ratio, more and more files will be available compressed in PA format on the internet.

Having more PA files, will come with more users using PowerArchive, some of them, which will pay for the full version.

OS/X and Linux support
Even if recent Delphi versions support OS/X and Linux targets, as a developer, I am aware that supporting those plattforms is not as easy as recompiling. Probably since the begining, there is lots of native Windows code in PA in order to optimize performace. Of course these code, should be isolated, to allow in a mid term, being able to have versions for OS/X and Linux, either Delphi or Lazarus built.

As a short term solution PACL should be able to port to those plattforms, meaning that at least Mac and *NIX users will be able to manage PA archives using the command-line. Market share for OS/X is near 20%, while Linux Desktop is 2%, meaning that this measure will also come with new users.

If that is difficult, at least a PACL extractor only version, such as RAR is providing. If it is in source form, being able to be compiled with Lazarus, it could be backported to even more plattforms.

[spwolf]

@nikkho there will be pacl for linux for sure, and we are seriously thinking about os x gui version… but that will take time and our current customers come first. Gui is not that complicated, it would simply have less features to start with but engines are a bit more complicated.

As to the free version, we usually have older versions of PA in magazines and as part of some deals on website. We can not have truly free/lite version of our site because we are commercial business that has to pay xxx amount of salaries each month. As a plus, this is a reason we can develop PowerArchiver with all these features, just like WinZip or WinRAR do :-).

With PA 2017, we have made it so it does not expire after initial period… so users will get a nag screen but can continue using PA, especially to extract archives.

Thanks!

[alexmiller]

@spwolf I actually would pay for a lean ‘core’ version focussed simply on maximum performance. Think a multithread Winzip 1.0. I generally don’t use the advanced features, sfx, encryption, etc… All I need is an ultrafast startup, compression and decompression. Even with a 90s interface I wouldn’t mind

[spwolf]

@alexmiller said in Lite/Free version and other plattforms:

@spwolf I actually would pay for a lean ‘core’ version focussed simply on maximum performance. Think a multithread Winzip 1.0. I generally don’t use the advanced features, sfx, encryption, etc… All I need is an ultrafast startup, compression and decompression. Even with a 90s interface I wouldn’t mind

compression and decompression is as fast as it can be in PA 2017 already, it is really well optimized. Did you check .pa format?

For startup speed, lets use that other thread :-).

thanks!