All that may be true but if I did not like the product I would not be out any dollars. You cannot seem to use Pay Pal to get the product. I do not use credit cards. Something about billing for a product that is not yet released. I prepaid for Windows 7 using Pay Pal wonder how that works. Again I will not pay to be a beta tester for a product I may or may not want in the future
Well, you know what you're buying. Except for the fact that no feature list is given, this is the new ObjectDock. Participating in the beta just means you get access to it sooner and you may (as Doc pointed out) have input on features that appear in the RC version.
Let's clarify even further. Although they were time-limited (what's wrong with that? a lot of shareware works like that), they were also fully functional. This means that people are able to fully test the software before clicking on that big "Purchase" button.
Well said and totally agree
Clearly you missed my point. You're not "buying a beta"; you're buying ObjectDock 2.0 which happens to be in beta at the moment. You get the full product upon release. Again, I don't think you're paying for the privilege of beta-testing software. You're paying for the product, plain and simple. The fact that it is not yet a release candidate is not relevant.
Look, I'm not a Stardock apologist and Brad Wardell doesn't sign my paychecks. However, I've been around here long enough to know this is how SD does business. Actually, if you pre-purchase games, it's a pretty similar concept. Many MMOs and Stardock's Elemental (just to name a few) grant access to the beta after the product has been paid for. This allows the user to tinker with and experience the product before release and possibly have a hand in shaping the final RC.
Let's look at it from another perspective. Would you be more or less happy if Stardock said, "Here's ObjectDock 2.0. It will be available on March 6 for a price of $20/$10 upgrade"?