honestly.. i dont have an issue with a new version. like a lot of software you pay for a major version. this start11 thing doesnt totaly "feel" like that to me. "this grants you a perpetual licence to version 1 of the program". vs what it is now "buy start11. at some point we gonna suprise you with a version 2 which you going to have to pay for"
startX has had its versions like start8 / start11 etc. so unless even going forward theres a start11 for windows 15 then sure... charge for major version upgrades. but if you release a start12 then thats just bad form.
im not sure the feature set in this v2 makes it worth a major version tho, but has been pointed out.. it is still cheap(ish) so w/e
my main gripes... after installing it and trying my licence a ton of times and it saying no licence found / cant authenticate i came to the forums to see wtf is going on. no where does it say "your v1 licence wont work, but dont worry we'll give you a discount if you did purchase v1"
"upgrade" doesn't totally feel like it makes that known. "upgrade from version 1" or "upgrade from previous licence" would make it a bit more clear.
would also suggest a banner near the top under (The Industry's Most Advanced Start Menu) or close to it "we're excited to release v2 of the product. so excited we're giving everyone a special introductory price, those of you with v1 licences can upgrade for even less check the upgrade licence button for more info"
the way it feels now is that the ceo went and said they need a new car and team must release their roadmap items as a standalone version in and charge for it. - the actual price doesn't matter. its the principal for most of us (i think).
you buy start11 so all versions of start 11 should be paid for once, you pay for start8... type thing. the "version" is basically linked to the OS. releasing a sub version for a fee... yeah low blow imo. what happens when start12 comes out?
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also consider what went into this "new" version.
- 3 new styles of start menu
- being able to pin files and folders to the taskbar
- being able to backup your settings
yips defs seems like a totally new version