I'm confused about what the new license system means for me

[phpempire]

Officially we are not guaranteeing any specific future development on legacy licenses (which is why the warning exists), so @Richard G is correct to say don't assume anything past what is functional now (CentOS 9, Debian 12 / Ubuntu 22).

@zEitEr is correct that going with a CentOS fork like AlmaLinux takes you to 2032 -- a little more than 7 years away.

Even if it ends there, that means these legacy products would have had an approximate 30-year run -- something virtually unheard of in the software world. We understand any disappointment, but we ask you to remember: no one else would have delivered this much value -- no one.

What our customers received goes far beyond what is typical for software, and we're proud of that.

This is illegal. You received thousands of dollars for a lifetime license, and now you regret it and are trying to force users to switch back to a monthly subscription in various ways.

 

[ericosman]

This is illegal. You paid thousands of dollars for a lifetime license, now you regret it and are forcing the user to switch back to a monthly license in various ways.

Nope not illegal, the lifetime is always for a products life, you can keep using it, but it shall not get any updates.
e.g. if you bought Office 2003, you can still use it, just no updates....
It's not like Microsoft says "Oh you bought it in 2003, here is Office365 'free of use' for you"

 

[phpempire]

Please don't give me irrelevant examples, Office 2003 has nothing to do with DirectAdmin.
In your example, we actually purchased Office itself, not just the 2003 version.
When we bought the license it was supposed to be lifetime with support.

 

[johannes]

Please don't give me irrelevant examples, Office has nothing to do with DirectAdmin.
When we bought the license it was supposed to be lifetime with support.

Save your nerves. You`re running against a wall. There were already endless discussions about this here in the forum. Just my 2 cents. It wont change.

 

[phpempire]

Nothing is going to change, but if you persist in your mistake, you should expect new restrictions.

 

[johannes]

Nothing is going to change, but if you persist in your mistake, you should expect new restrictions.

I fully understand you. I was pissed too, as i just bought 2 lifetime licenses shortly before they changed all. You can easely find the threads (and answers..) here in the forum. Take a ride and read them .. but think at your nerves..

 

[Richard G]

In your example, we actually purchased Office itself, not just the 2003 version.

Compare with Windows XP then or other software out there. The lifetime licenses are declared legacy. As you know in software world, it's quite comon to declare lifetime software end of life too (there are examples out there). So be glad it's just legacy, they can still be used and -even- are still updated, which would not be the case when declared EOL.

You can keep using the licenses, only updates are gone and as @johannes already said, there are several threads about and at least 2 with long discussions about it, check and read those, it's no use starting a new one.

And new restrictions? Yes, we don't get new MariaDB and no new Mysql and no new OS support. But we still get updates on the current system, still better than an EOL declaration. And it's legal what they are doing.
If you think not, you have to take it up yourself otherwise, but that would only cost you loads of money, and you loose anyway.

I understand your frustration, but read the other threads first, all is said and done already before.

 

[DavidK]

I understand directadmin needs to make money. But I think they should have honored the original lifetime deal, at the very least the retail ones, and just changed their pricing for all new licenses. There is plenty of money to be made on new licenses so they really didn't need to scrape up every penny on the old licenses.
And I know you would say they did honor it by EOLing the "legacy codebase" but I don't really think they honored the heart of the original deal even if they could use legalese to get out of it officially. I feel especially bad for people that paid the full retail price right before they decided to kill it off.
As for me, i've switched to another control panel that I actually like better now. I still have one personal plus license for one small vps that I have a technical need to use it. But they pretty much lost me as a customer for all of my future servers, not that they probably care I guess.
They could have really lost a lot more money by bailing on lifetime customers, by losing a lot of future business. I have several servers now all running on another control panel. All of which I am happily paying for, that directadmin lost out on. I guess i'm saying I think they made a "pound foolish" decision that they probably don't realize cost them a ton of profits.
I realize at some point they regretted offering the lifetime deals (even though they made tons of profit on those originally). But they should have sucked it up and honored it anyways - since that was their original decision to offer it.

I once ordered from Apple and they sent the wrong product. When I called them, expecting to have to send it back and they could have saved some pennies by making me do so - but instead they told me to keep it and shipped me out the right product. They took ownership of their mistakes and kept a loyal customer. Directadmin on the other hand was downright rude to me when they decided to "transition" their license model.. not taking ownership of their own choices and not caring about retaining a customer.