Desktop "boxes"

danke Ed.

Edwin said:

Ross is a good dude, and supportive!

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I paid fopr portal on a donation, still have not got licence but dont want it now anyway. Portal really screwed up the desktop, made folders for folders, for folders and lost a few games. Was up till 0400, got up at 1200 and still sorting desktop. Thanks anyway Edwin, appreciate your input. Portral deleted, now I want a refund

Here's a simpler one that doesn't have as many features:

antspants said:

Updates, new features.

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Edwin said:

Most of us have thousands of dollars worth of hardware, and hundreds of dollars worth of peripherals, yet we b*tch about a couple bucks for software!!!

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I don't think I'm b*tching. I just can't see it as being worth being a yearly subscription. IMO, bug fixes should be free until a new version is released. One should only have to pay for new release if they want to use the new features. I see that they do sell permanent licenses for those that don't want the yearly subscription.

Winuser said:

I don't think I'm b*tching. I just can't see it as being worth being a yearly subscription. IMO, bug fixes should be free until a new version is released. One should only have to pay for new release if they want to use the new features. I see that they do sell permanent licenses for those that don't want the yearly subscription.

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Lucky they’re not forcing anyone to pay for a subscription then? We all have choices.

elbmek said:

It says DONATING DOES NOT CREATE A LICENSE KEY!

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elbmek said:

I paid fopr portal on a donation, still have not got licence

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Winuser said:

I don't think I'm b*tching.

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I wasn't implying that, sorry bout that!

Edwin said:

Most of us have thousands of dollars worth of hardware, and hundreds of dollars worth of peripherals, yet we b*tch about a couple bucks for rubbish software!!!

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Fixed.

Edwin said:

That's actually a good point!
Most of us have thousands of dollars worth of hardware, and hundreds of dollars worth of peripherals, yet we b*tch about a couple bucks for software!!!

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Yeah, but a subscription here, a subscription there, another subscription here, another subscription there, begins to add up. Nickle & dimeing. -- No thanks!

Edwin said:

I wasn't implying that, sorry bout that!

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No problem, we're still forum buddies!

Plenty of versatility to be had here...

cheaterslick said:

Yeah, but a subscription here, a subscription there, another subscription here, another subscription there, begins to add up. Nickle & dimeing. -- No thanks!

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Yeah - the key problem is subscription fees do not really reflect the usefulness of the product e.g. I pay £18 pa for Macrium Reflect VX (with 50% discount), c. £72 pa for Office 365 6 user licence, Amazon Prime etc. as these are mission critical for me.

The online UK newspapers want between £24 to £48 pa to access premium news which you can find elsewhere on web for free. No thanks!

Lots of minor utilities are wanting £15 or more pa.

In the end, most of these tools rarely do much and never get updated or properly supported and hence are not truly value for money.

You could easily end up paying over £50 per month for what is basically froth.

I always ask myself "Is this feature useful enough to be subscribing to?"

In the case of tool to manage desktop icons, I personally say no. You can group icons on desktop folders for free if you want some segregation for one extra click.

Another thing is bank account security - I am prepared to let companies like Paramount (Macrium Reflect) have access to my banking details for subscription payment.

For many if the smaller utilities of unknown pedigree, no way will I give access to my bank details. If they do not accept PayPal payment (where you can easily cancel) then I usually do not touch them with a bargepole.

I also have a pay and go debit card not related to my bank account. I just top up periodically, rarely keeping more than £100 on account limiting my loss in event of fraud.

A friend of mine does similar but opened a second bank account with his own bank but only keeps limited cash in it, and makes sure no overdraft, so bank bounces any payments if it would go overdrawn. As he pointed out, the main UK banks have quite strict fraud protection. A pay and go debit card may not have such protection depending on their registered address.

In the end, I urge common sense when it comes to subscription payment. The more you give vendors details of your bank accounts, the more you risk hackers getting details of your accounts.

Edwin said:

Plenty of versatility to be had here...

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elbmek said:

my '**tch' is only that it costs more than double in UK. Thats rip off.

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You do understand that 1 U.S. dollar is equal to .75 pounds , right? so naturally U.S. made software will cost more in the UK, you're not being ripped off

Dark Knight said:

You do understand that 1 U.S. dollar is equal to .75 pounds , right? so naturally U.S. made software will cost more in the UK, you're not being ripped off

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The true reason you're being ripped off, blatantly, is simply because better software can be had at the mere cost of nada/zilch/zippo/bupkis (aka nothing).

elbmek said:

I want a refund

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cereberus said:

You can group icons on desktop folders for free if you want some segregation for one extra click.

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QTTabBar...

thanks everyone for your invaluable input. The bottom line is I abandoned the idea. Dark Knight spoke of the RoE between £ and $. Which ever way you look at it it does not equate to more than double the US cost.

cereberus said:

Yeah - the key problem is subscription fees do not really reflect the usefulness of the product e.g. I pay £18 pa for Macrium Reflect VX (with 50% discount), c. £72 pa for Office 365 6 user licence, Amazon Prime etc. as these are mission critical for me.

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There are other alternatives besides Macrium out there. They've even been mentioned here in the elevenforum.

Even with Office you can get with a one-time payment that's downloaded and hard-coded to your HD. True, it doesn't have all the latest Office365 2024 bazillion-kazillion feature bells-and-whistles woo-hoo, but it wouldn't surprise me if many people out there (like myself) don't want or need that. I definitely won't be paying for that over & over again. Not happening.

On amazon prime, I found the ever-growing fees to be an added expense that I didn't need so I dropped it. Besides, I try to avoid buying on amazon as much as possible nowadays, anyway. They've gotten too big and too powerful, putting many local retail establishments out of business.

cereberus said:

In the end, I urge common sense when it comes to subscription payment. The more you give vendors details of your bank accounts, the more you risk hackers getting details of your accounts.

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And think about it. Look outside software towards your monthly home mortgage, utility bills (gas, water, electric), taxes and road fees, child support, etc. Those are also a form of subscription and by law, some of them I have to pay for. Again, more nickle & dimeing of your bank account. Then at the end of the day when you look at your final paycheck statement and see the piddling amount left over, you begin to wonder where all the money went to. -lol

So on some things, paying for it over & over again is a rip-off. It's a reminder that means they're in control of something and I'm not. For me, if that means doing without some things then so be it. I can live without it.

Yeah, I get it. What's important to some, isn't important to others. Yup, I know everybody's different, but that's my attitude about the whole thing.