Because it's free and not that different?
To clarify, I use and I don't pay; but am seriously considering; probably will pay once beta's over (I'm using the beta for version 3); definitely appreciate the tool; I really enjoying using Sublime tool.
most developers hate paying for development tools. thats just how it is.
I payed for Sublime a long time ago for 2 reasons: 1) if I'm publishing plugins for it, I should probably have a legit license for it. 2) It's the best text editor out there for me, period. I use it enough I owe it to Jon to buy a license.
That said, I doubt I'll pay for any future versions licenses. I don't want to rely on closed source tools, and the editor/IDE arena has always been one of the areas I can't seem to go totally FOSS. Hopefully atom continues to improve; I might switch over when 1.0 comes out.
most developers hate paying for development tools.
I payed for Sublime a long time ago for 2 reasons: 1) if I'm publishing plugins for it, I should probably have a legit license for it. 2) It's the best text editor out there for me, period. I use it enough I owe it to Jon to buy a license.
I paid, since I use it professionally. Just like I would donate to useful open source software if they have an option for this. They do the same to my apps...
Because apart from the popup you eventually unconsciously dismiss every x number of saves, there's no reason to pay up.
I've been using it for 4 years unpaid, sublime has helped me get my first home. If I was forced to tomorrow because I could no longer use it I'd pay for it immediately, but right now there's nothing pushing me to part with my cash.
I paid for it because it's valuable and deserves payment. I get paid for doing work in which I use it. I want its maker to continue to thrive and sustain it (a wish, I admit, that has not panned out as expected; development on Sublime Text is incredibly slow). All ethical logic says I should pay and so I did.
What makes you think that "nobody" pays for Sublime? Perhaps you mean, "I'm using this essential tool without paying for and I'd like to believe that lots of other people are also cheating its maker and would they please give me some rationalizations I can use to make myself feel better?" What's the question exactly?
Sublime text is purposefully "winrar free" (free to use but asks accepts payment for a license). I do agree that the developer has made a product of worth and I myself will be purchasing a license shortly to support him/her. However, it is not "morally" better to pay for the software or not as the developer has chosen to make it freely available to all with an internet connection.
Oh and to answer the original question (why do so many use sublime text without purchasing it), its because they don't want to spend the money and don't have to in order to use the editor
I was always intending to pay for Sublime but I no longer use it, now using vim for all of my editing needs.
Opinions on nagware aside, Sublime is a good tool and I did feel bad about using it to make a living and not contributing.. but I was also afraid to get too attached to a closed source editor. I think maybe sublime is kind of in a deadzone of being a nagware text editor that is free to use, but not an IDE with a huge feature set for an ecosystem that requires it, or an IDE that accesses some kind of propeitary vender-locked tech stack. For everything that's good about it, ultimately it's just a text editor and there are a lot of text editors of similar power out there if you're not looking for a sexy GUI.
When I started using Sublime it seemed that the new version was just around the corner, and I thought there would probably be some sort of release (or near release) discount just around the corner as well.
Then the project went silent, came back, but had this weird we're back but we are mostly telling it to paying customers, so it was a bit confusing what was going on. I'm kinda still waiting to see if I should switch editor or if the release of sublime3 will reawaken the plugin ecosystem.
I haven't paid for it yet, but have used for a couple of years. The reasoning was simply that v3 was about to drop, so I figured I'd wait for that before buying.
At this point though, I'm ready to move onto a more serious IDE.
I have it but I don't use it much.. if at all.. I use Atom..
If the license was around half of what is it or if I can find an license on a discount I probably would and start using it regularly.
It is not part of my daily routine..
For example I have IntelliJ license because this is what I use
Because I already got burned once paying for TextMate and having the development basically die. The same pattern seems to be happening with Sublime Text.
So I finally just started using Emacs instead. Setup my keybindings so they're Mac/Sublime Text like and wrote a little custom frame/window manager in elisp to make the application behave the way I want, and I'm free from having to worry about one of my core tools turning into abandonware.
I felt the same way. Bought a license for 2, then for 3. Then immediately watched a lack of updates for nearly a year (or any of substance). But the 3 "dev" channel is pretty active currently: http://www.sublimetext.com/3dev
None of that changes your point, that you're still at the mercy / whim of a developer.
Im a casual coder and love the built in features, but never paid because I never identified as a full time developer. I always thought I would pay for it once I needed all the time, but that never happened.
Now I use Atom, not the same hot keys but good enough for a few docs a month.
Depends how much you value the other features - if my professional time is worth $100k/year and sublime makes me more than 0.07% more efficient compared to using another editor than spending $70 yearly or less might make sense.
I paid for it. It's incredibly useful and I use it every day, and since I expect to get paid for apps I release, why would someone else's work be different?
I paid for Sublime Text 2. Still use it all the time. Worth the money.
The "why nobody pays for" line reminds me that at one point, a comedy site announced "first person pays for mIrc IRC client!" because really, who would pay for that program? And yet, if you looked at the occasional charity sessions the author held, it appears mIrc was pulling in $40K-$50K per month. Not going to attract VCs, but good coin.
I agree. $70 seems steep for a text editor, no matter how good it is. I use Textpad, which I got my company to pay for years ago, but it's much cheaper. Maybe it's not as good as Sublime, but it's good enough. Since I know the nag screen would bug the heck out of me, and I'm too cheap to pony up $70 (and not willing to go to the trouble of talking my boss into paying for it), I'm not tempted to even try Sublime.
I bought it because I use it. Every. Single. Day. So, almost any price is worth a tool that is used constantly and delivers untold benefit. It might not be the same for you; you might not get as much value out of it as I do. But if its something you truly use "day in and day out" how can you not purchase it? It just makes good sense.
Listen, good tools are hard to come by and supporting those tools helps to ensure that they are there when you need them. Not supporting something that helps you make money endangers your ability to continue to make money. That's my $.02
My guess is that Jon Skinner was more interested in capturing users to help him make a great editor than in maximizing the capture of money from fewer customers.
If he wanted to maximize the capture of money, instead of nagware it should be a exploding trial, perhaps for days of use instead of calendar days.
Probably the right price for Sublime Text is $49/year with upgrades included or, if not tecnically feasible, $99 permanent with no upgrade discounts. It might seem counterintuititive not to offer upgrade discounts, but Someone who has paid you once the full price is a lot more likely to pay you again the full price for a new version, especially at sub-$100 price point.
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[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 91.3 ms ] threadIf I released a "pay if you want" product I'd want people to feel like it's worth it and give me money. It'd be hypocritical for me not to pay.
I payed for Sublime a long time ago for 2 reasons: 1) if I'm publishing plugins for it, I should probably have a legit license for it. 2) It's the best text editor out there for me, period. I use it enough I owe it to Jon to buy a license.
That said, I doubt I'll pay for any future versions licenses. I don't want to rely on closed source tools, and the editor/IDE arena has always been one of the areas I can't seem to go totally FOSS. Hopefully atom continues to improve; I might switch over when 1.0 comes out.
I payed for Sublime a long time ago for 2 reasons: 1) if I'm publishing plugins for it, I should probably have a legit license for it. 2) It's the best text editor out there for me, period. I use it enough I owe it to Jon to buy a license.
I've been using it for 4 years unpaid, sublime has helped me get my first home. If I was forced to tomorrow because I could no longer use it I'd pay for it immediately, but right now there's nothing pushing me to part with my cash.
What makes you think that "nobody" pays for Sublime? Perhaps you mean, "I'm using this essential tool without paying for and I'd like to believe that lots of other people are also cheating its maker and would they please give me some rationalizations I can use to make myself feel better?" What's the question exactly?
Oh and to answer the original question (why do so many use sublime text without purchasing it), its because they don't want to spend the money and don't have to in order to use the editor
Opinions on nagware aside, Sublime is a good tool and I did feel bad about using it to make a living and not contributing.. but I was also afraid to get too attached to a closed source editor. I think maybe sublime is kind of in a deadzone of being a nagware text editor that is free to use, but not an IDE with a huge feature set for an ecosystem that requires it, or an IDE that accesses some kind of propeitary vender-locked tech stack. For everything that's good about it, ultimately it's just a text editor and there are a lot of text editors of similar power out there if you're not looking for a sexy GUI.
So, I have no idea.
Then the project went silent, came back, but had this weird we're back but we are mostly telling it to paying customers, so it was a bit confusing what was going on. I'm kinda still waiting to see if I should switch editor or if the release of sublime3 will reawaken the plugin ecosystem.
tl;dr: bad excuses.
At this point though, I'm ready to move onto a more serious IDE.
So I finally just started using Emacs instead. Setup my keybindings so they're Mac/Sublime Text like and wrote a little custom frame/window manager in elisp to make the application behave the way I want, and I'm free from having to worry about one of my core tools turning into abandonware.
None of that changes your point, that you're still at the mercy / whim of a developer.
Well, aren't we all?
Now I use Atom, not the same hot keys but good enough for a few docs a month.
The "why nobody pays for" line reminds me that at one point, a comedy site announced "first person pays for mIrc IRC client!" because really, who would pay for that program? And yet, if you looked at the occasional charity sessions the author held, it appears mIrc was pulling in $40K-$50K per month. Not going to attract VCs, but good coin.
The price is also above my imaginary software impulse buy level. If it were $19, I would have already impulse bought a copy.
If it turned into trialware that disabled features after a certain amount of time, I'd ditch it and use another editor. Lame, but I'm being honest.
Listen, good tools are hard to come by and supporting those tools helps to ensure that they are there when you need them. Not supporting something that helps you make money endangers your ability to continue to make money. That's my $.02
If he wanted to maximize the capture of money, instead of nagware it should be a exploding trial, perhaps for days of use instead of calendar days.
Probably the right price for Sublime Text is $49/year with upgrades included or, if not tecnically feasible, $99 permanent with no upgrade discounts. It might seem counterintuititive not to offer upgrade discounts, but Someone who has paid you once the full price is a lot more likely to pay you again the full price for a new version, especially at sub-$100 price point.