What is the future for Legacy DirectAdmin License holders?

[fln]

And whats about the MariaDB 10.6 EOL in ~2 years?

MariaDB will not stop working after two years. You can continue running it for as long as you need.

 

[Richard G]

Exactly, making our licenses worthless because a decent hoster does not use EOL stuff.

 

[fln]

Exactly, making our licenses worthless because a decent hoster does not use EOL stuff.

If you do not consider running MariaDB 10.6 after two years as an option - then yes, I think you could consider it worthless for you.

Anyone using RHEL 7 based system (for example CentOS 7) and NOT using DirectAdmin gets MariaDB 5.5 from the distro packages. Yet there are lots of servers running in such configuration. So it really depends on what you need or what requirements you have.

 

[ericosman]

But that is speaking with ifs and buts;
If i would have bought cpanel, i would not have DirectAdmin.
And my neighbor does it so i can too.

That CentOS 7 comes with MariaDB 5.5 is all fun and giggles, but that doesn’t mean that you can also “under deliver” now.

I think (and this is based on what i read, i don’t own any legacy license myself) is that some things went wrong.

Da wanted to become populair so sold “owned licenses”
Da happy, client happy

Then DA became populair bc of the pay once use forever.

Then DA stoped selling those and only kept selling monthly packages.

DA was not as populair anymore…

DA prohibited the selling of “owned” license —> pretty strange there it’s owned… but hé who am i

(Then DA changed the license verification bc there was a lot of abuse)

Then CB got fused with DA.

And then; No MariaDB updates anymore for you guys! The rest you can use but not this.

Okay…… so people try to update it by hand, but than your DA server tells you to downgrade it otherwise you cant access DA?!?

And i get you guys are not a charity, and i don’t know how many owned licenses are in use at this moment. But let’s say 1.000 (for the ease of calculation) x $2 = $2000 each month extra )

Edit: i know 2k it’s nothing, but it’s 2k more than you have now

 

[Richard G]

If you do not consider running MariaDB 10.6 after two years as an option - then yes, I think you could consider it worthless for you.

Maybe slightly longer but yes. And you know what I mean, don't start giving smart answers. This is totally different as what DA manement told us before. And if idiots want to use old stuff, it's on them. Doens't mean it's good practice.

It was always good practice, also with DA to use up to date things and no EOL stuff. That is the reason people wanting ancient stuff using Cloudlinux because DA was not about EOL support. Although they had some support for EOL until a certain time.
And now it fits in DA's street (dutch saying) "it depends on your needs"?

You're trying to distract from the fact of the taking of the lifetime upgrades, you know exactly what we mean and are talking about.
I will stop talking here now and await other responses, because my good guess is a load of people will still be angry about this nonsense and in fact price raise of 180/year per license in 2 years.

 

[Stije]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for the feedback. Let us clarify the situation of legacy licenses. The future of legacy licenses is somewhat stagnant due to a shift towards ongoing maintenance rather than future features/integrations.

Why are you not letting users install opensource software outside of custombuild? This is something i am really curious about. I do not use custombuild for a lot of installs. Always my own installs. If I want to install something I should be able to.
But if I do it DirectAdmin tells me I cannot run DirectAdmin anymore because I installed something. I don't mind to get licenses, I do mind someone telling me what I can or cannot install myself. If i break my server or install this is my own risk.

But to stop people from installing software is not decent. In your license agreement you only talk about not getting support if you do this.

Please let people install opensource software they want with the knowledge that they will not get support and they will not hold you responsible.

 

[johannes]

If you do not consider running MariaDB 10.6 after two years as an option - then yes, I think you could consider it worthless for you.

Why you hinder us on purpose, to install higher MariaDB versions at our own risk? That is was nobody understands. Simply remove the license not valid blocking for higher MariaDB versions, and a lot of us will be happy again. Whats the problem with this?

 

[fln]

Why are you not letting users install opensource software outside of custombuild?

We do allow you to not use CustomBuild. The fact that CustomBuild was merged with DirectAdmin does not mean you must use it now. You can continue to manually install all software components. As long as DirectAdmin is compatible with the external software it will work just fine.

Keeping CustomBuild with DirectAdmin makes it easier to make configuration changes. For example we know how CustomBuild will configure software in each DirectAdmin version with strong guarantees. When CustomBuild was not bundled with DA there were a lot of problems because you could have old DA but new CB, or old CB but new DA (less likely scenario). Now we know what CB bundled with DA supports.

 

[fln]

Why you hinder us on purpose, to install higher MariaDB versions at our own risk?

Legacy DirectAdmin will not work with higher MariaDB versions even if they are installed manually or DB is in external server.

 

[Beherit]

While we appreciate all the feedback given, much of it pertains to extreme conversion discounts (for example, some suggesting full Standard licenses priced lower than our Personal PLUS license), under the assumption that enough extreme-discounted license orders will provide sufficient resources. Unfortunately this is not sustainable, and is an echo of our failed (and now retired) extreme-discount internal pricing model.

I have Personal license since November 2019 and now I see I need to bought more expensive license Personal Plus to have updated MariaDB. I don't need any Pro Pack features. Why you don't release some lite version of license? Personal Plus is over twice expensive as old Personal license (60$ vs 24$ per year!). I'm freelancer and I have VPS with DirectAdmin only for two hobby projects - 1 account and 10 domains limit is enough for me. Personal license was a really license for small projects. Now you make me have to look for another alternative to DA. What's worse, last month I paid for the license for another year - I saw this thread only a week after paying. Thanks for great communication

 

[ericosman]

Legacy DirectAdmin will not work with higher MariaDB versions even if they are installed manually or DB is in external server.

But why? I get that "they" will not receive MariaDB updates from you guys, sure most of them can live with that.
But why taking away the ability to do it them selfs? Most owners of these licenses are probably good enough with Linux to install / implement it them selfs (or google) but got spoiled with CustomBuild.

Again i do understand that you guys would need the money for feature development.
But the way this went, i'm afraid it will hurt you more than it will bring you.
(Looking at the forum nowadays, most "old" users are already gone)

 

[LeonDynamic]

Legacy DirectAdmin will not work with higher MariaDB versions even if they are installed manually or DB is in external server.

Before the check was introduced many people had higher MariaDB versions working just fine and was working as expected

 

[fln]

But why? I get that "they" will not receive MariaDB updates from you guys, sure most of them can live with that.
But why taking away the ability to do it them selfs? Most owners of these licenses are probably good enough with Linux to install / implement it them selfs (or google) but got spoiled with CustomBuild.

We do not provide MariaDB updates. MariaDB developers does that.

DirectAdmin provides two things:

• Easy way to install MariaDB with CustomBuild [item 1]
• MariaDB integration with DirectAdmin (to allow managing databases via GUI) [item 2]

As DB software evolve (new MariaDB and MySQL) for DirectAdmin to be able to control databases it requires continuous integration work. For example older DirectAdmin versions would leave phantom database users after you create and delete user account, and you can no longer create new database or user with the same name. This would happen only on modern versions of MariaDB/MySQL because on the internal changes on how they manage user accounts and databases. To address the issue the way DirectAdmin integrates with MariaDB/MySQL needs to be changed and exceptions for various differences between the versions needs to be added. So the line is drawn now, we make sure legacy DA works with MariaDB up to 10.6, but not with newer versions. While subscription based licenses continues to receive integration updates to work with the latest versions.

From CB perspective [item 1] difference between MariaDB versions is not that big. From DA internals perspective [part 2] difference between MariaDB versions is big. This is the reason why the approach to limit support for newer MariaDB versions is implemented in this way.

 

[bertvandepoel]

I'm sure drawing that line took months of discussion. Why was nothing formally communicated with license holders? Even up to this day, many license holders with active licenses have had no communication from DirectAdmin. An email to explain that support beyond MariaDB 10.6 has been pulled from the license (or however you want to phrase it) is the very minimum that I would expect.

I also notice that you're not engaging with the core question by @Richard G . The 50% price reduction from 29USD to 15USD is certainly an interesting offer. However, many of us own multiple licenses so we can add servers when more shared hosting customers come in, have licenses for project servers for customers, test licenses for plugin development and large upgrade testing, or other forms of temporary or inconsistent use. I just checked in the client portal DirectAdmin offers and only 60% of the licenses we own are live right now, the other 40%, a substantial amount, are not in use. If we convert all our licenses, we would be paying for inactive licenses, since there seems to be no way to pause the license. We could cancel the license, but then we lose our discount. This forces us into a situation where either we're pay 15USD for many licenses that are just sitting there until needed (which could be for a month or for 2 years) or we lose our discount and have to pay 29USD for all the licenses we didn't know for sure we would be using.

We are willing to accept that we will be paying each month. If this means DirectAdmin will keep getting maintained and that some things, e.g. documentation, will improve, we are even happy to support it. However, we also have to manage our costs as a hosting provider. A way to "snooze" an unused license while keeping the discount is really a big thing for us. A reaction on that aspect, which Richard also talked about, would be appropriate and greatly appreciated.

 

[fln]

Before the check was introduced many people had higher MariaDB versions working just fine and was working as expected

This is inaccurate. We know how many systems were affected and it was only a handful. The ones who reached out about this were offered a free MariaDB downgrade by our tech staff. Most did not care because they they were just testing things out.

 

[LeonDynamic]

This is inaccurate. We know how many systems were affected and it was only a handful. The ones who reached out about this were offered a free MariaDB downgrade by our tech staff. Most did not care because they they were just testing things out.

So my statement is in fact accurate then and your reply is a contradiction in itself.

They were only ‘affected’ because you introduced a check. The panel worked fine.

 

[Ohm J]

@LeonDynamic

It not safe to use mariadb 10.11 on Legacy Codebase. something might not cleanup when doing add/delete user from directadmin panel. In the past, I upgrade and testing 1 2 3....then found issued. After that I downgrade by myself. ? so shit time in my lifes.

 

[Hostmavi]

Hi;
Sorry DA team but i lost trust of you !!!. am sure many of us too..

every one waiting for an answer onyl one question "WHY this screet changing sudenly happend "!!!
you tell us everyting will be same after 1.8.2023 wher is your promis ??
whats will be next apache , nginx, php, other service ...??
years custombild work well whit cli (bash). Now it is part of directadmin do you planing other changing too !!! " i can imaging what it will be next

I am sorry this film allready we watched 2018-2019 started by cpanel epidose I
now Epidose II by Directadmin . and Epidose II same as Epidose I .!!

I will not comment any more here.
everyone should make own decition. " I made allready"

i wisch everyone luck to find some one holding his promis.

 

[nmb]

This isnt making easy for us but for the last time:

If we buy as existing customer NOW, then the lifetime license we buy will be lifetime and get all the program updates till 2038 ?

When confirmed we will buy one

Existing customer with a license already in your account, then yes! (A completely empty account, NO)

Pricing changes/updates as of July 1, 2019 (No, we aren't raising our prices)

working on maybe 4 hours of sleep per night. I think it's John et al. The openness and candor is great.. Go lay down and sleep. Take a nap. Edison said Naps were the key to inventiveness. We will all be here when you get back. I for one will be. Not saying we won't buy more...

forum.directadmin.com

 

[Richard G]

@nmb You have to look for another quote, I know somewhere there must be one but I can't find it that quickly.
In the one you linked to now, it's talk about update, not upgrade. And we do get all upgrades, but no new upgrade. Slight but important difference.

Edit: found it. Spoke here upgrades would not be lifetime anymore.

Pricing changes/updates as of July 1, 2019 (No, we aren't raising our prices)

So, if I understand this correctly, in the future I'll have to pay for updates for new lifetime licenses? It's not that I don't want to pay for them, but it can become a large cost quickly I think... I currently have two licenses (but this was planned to become four in the near future). So this...

forum.directadmin.com