Hamilton C shell Updates Policy

Policy Change:  August 10, 2003

Hamilton Laboratories has always been a very unusual vendor.  I’ve never charged for updates.  It was a decision that matched my personal style, that if you buy something from me, that whatever it takes, you have to be satisfied.

But this policy came at a cost, that I could only make money from new customers, not existing ones.  I couldn’t generate business just from continuing to be around, supporting the product.  That doesn’t work to your favor either:  If you’ve liked my work in the past, you might like what I might create in the future -- and be happy to support the effort or at least to have the choice, when you see it, to decide if you want to buy it.

The dot-bomb collapse became a crisis for my business and for me in July 2001.  Overnight, new sales dropped 90% -- then they fell some more.  It forced me to make some life changes (moving to Redmond and, for a while, becoming an employee again) and some changes in how I do business and what the product is that you will get from me.  I think, on the whole these are very good changes. Some of them are long overdue.

One change I’m sorry and sad to announce is that I can no longer offer free updates.  But think of it this way:  Some of you have grandfathered all the way from OS/2 in 1988 to Windows XP today with free updates. That’s quite a ride by any standard.

What I will promise is that I’ll do my best to keep the pricing fair.  I’ll try to ensure that if there’s an update fee, that there has to be something to justify it.  If it’s just bug fixes and little tweaks, that will continue to be free.  If you buy the product or pay an update fee, you will always get all new updates for at least the next year (and maybe more if it’s only just bug fixes.)