Sublime Forum

After recent update I see LICENSE UPGRADE REQUIRED

#32

So you’re justifying the following scenario: I buy the license for ST3, use it for years, don’t care about upgrades along the way but accept them to stop nagging (update_check option is not documented), then one day I’m forced to uninstall ST4 that I didn’t ask for, didn’t agree to, was not warned about in the update dialog, reinstall ST3, and deal with eventual fallout problems.
You’re saying this is a normal thing to happen with software that you bought?
I agree, we should save time, but I would like to save it on fiddling with the tool I’m using to do actual work because it suddenly decides to pull the rug under my feet.

5 Likes
#33

I’ve had PaintShopPro for about four years now. Every so often it tells me that there’s a new version that I can get for £XX. And I politely decline. I’m happy with the version I have.

Never has it offered me what looks like a bug fix, moved me to the latest version, and then told me my license isn’t valid.

My office is trying to get us all using a different IDE in the interests of standardisation. My team have resisted because ST3 is light and friendly and does what we want. And we have licenses. I think I’ve just lost all arguments about why we should hold out. If only ST4 had provided a compelling reason to upgrade, we would have.

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#34

Yeah, I’m just very disappointed. ST is literally the only piece of software I ever bought (other than Windows on some machines I bought), and this is literally the only forum I ever signed into, just because of this problem.
I would expect something like this from other software, but not from an editor that NEVER crashed or slowed down or started acting weirdly for me.
@djohnston: I don’t need new and exciting features quickly. I need a completely transparent tool that I settle into like a comfortable pair of shoes and do my work.

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#35

Hi @bcace, completely understand where you’re coming from and we’re going to do our best to improve the messaging of the update dialog. We we’re just so excited to release Sublime Text 4 that we missed improving the clarity of our auto update system.

We’re working on improving this, and we hope you continue to enjoy using Sublime Text. Thanks again for sharing your feedback.

1 Like
#36

No, OdatNurd - we’re saying that we had ST3 licenses that didn’t expire but that we’ve been shifted on to ST4 without our consent and we’re now being asked to pay for a choice we didn’t make.

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#37

The developers have accepted that the upgrade process wasn’t as smooth as they had expected and that a lot of people aren’t happy with the sudden upgrade to a major version without explaining anything in the auto update message.

Your license isn’t expired. You can still use ST3 with your license as mentioned in the above FAQ.

Related: https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/previous_versions.html

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#38

Funny enough, despite the shock of an undocumented paid upgrade (have bought/upgraded from 2 to 3), I was even prepared to spend the $152 US to do so and also buy the merge product. After all, I use it daily.

Then, when I go and try and purchase, BOTH of my (recently used) VISA cards were declined. Am Canadian.

Whoever approved that upgrade text for release made a HUGE mistake. That VISA process was no thrill either.

This is actually a good opportunity to give NP++ another try and to continue to use VS Code / Platform IO as I wasn’t really using the advanced features of my registered version of Sublime 2 and later 3 these many years.

I may come back and look for support (if this forum is the proper support mechanism), and I may not.

Edit: Now that I’m retired on fixed income and just working on open source projects, not sure if that expenditure was in my best interest anyways.

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#39

I’m pretty shocked at the amount of whiny, entitled sounding people on here.

Yes, the upgrade notice/process was a mess and confusing — but the devs have held up their hands and vowed to make this better. Jeez, has no-one here ever miscommunicated? What more do you actually want or expect at this point?

Look once you calm down you will realise: No one has taken anything away from you!

Sublime Text 4 is an excellent piece of software. You don’t want to pay? Don’t pay.

Think VSCode is better? Go and use it (and enjoy giving away your data).

If you are having problems with your licence, contact sales and they will sort it!

All the ridiculous threats that you will effectively ‘take your ball back home’ if people don’t jump through hoops is pathetic!

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#40

Yeah, I agree. But I think those posts needed to exist. It just was unclear if the developers were audacious and evil or just didn’t think about the whole update/upgrade process. The latter is just human error and no evilness :slight_smile:

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#41

I think it’s worth being honest that this upgrade experience was pretty bad but that it clearly was not the result of maliciousness on the developers’ part. I feel this could be avoided by simply showing the changelog screen – and everything that would change, licensing, broken plugins, etc. – BEFORE the upgrade.

1Password does a really good job with this. I understand this is a “for-devs, by-devs” app but a little more UX around the upgrade process would go a long way.

Look to other indie devs like Panic for great experiences here. Lots of warning time, lots of support people available to talk to confused users, and blog posts that highlight the changes coming up.

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#42

Exactly, “making things better” happened because of the posts. And I don’t want anything more from the devs, just needed to get a confirmation that I can continue using ST3 as before, and I got that.

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#43

This is highly disappointing the way this update was rolled out without any notification. Please try to do better next time, first, you barely provided any features in 3 years, then there are free IDE and VSCODE and you rolled out a feature for mangaing GIT and want to charge $70 to use the IDE. Please, there are better ways to make money then rolling shady updates. I was a big fan until now after reading this nonsense about the sales FAQ and 3 years and also the pricing, better asks for crowdfunding next time and your users will support but this needs to stop and this issue needs to be resolved.

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#44

Yes, the only thing worse than the utter deluge of complaints is the occasional interjection from some smug ST apologist, acting as if on the behalf of ST, but really only creating a negative air of insensitivity in the face of an overwhelmingly unified sentiment of frustration and disappointment in the process. Hopefully the “shock” at least means you’ve registered how out of touch you are with the majority of users. Thanks for your contributions to this community! :slightly_smiling_face:

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#45

ST is text editor, SM is git client, none is IDE. I think that the devs are pretty aware of current topic, and they are working hard to resolve similar future situations. I think also that it’s very rude to talk like that.

No one pulled a gun on you and told you “you must purchase sublime products”… you are free to work with whatever suits you…

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#46

I feel the same that when you roll out product for your paying customers there needs to be similar respect shown to your customers from a business standpoint. And you’re right no ones pointing anything to my head it’s my choice and I can express my frustration caused by this release, it’s not a breaking change but when you put trust in something and pay for it you expect transparency, not refer to purchase FAQ’s in response. There’s been no updates from your product in 3 years.
Last update on release 3.2.2 (BUILD 3211) 1 October 2019, that’s almost 3 years ago. So I paid 3 years ago and received no features, no updates. You see my point here.

1 Like
#47

i totally understand your ‘frustration part’, but no one is going to benefit from constant all-around rant, if we can agree.
No bad intentions from my side neither, i just wanted to point out that rant isn’t going to bring us any good (i suppose)

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#48

I’m also really disappointed in this upgrade path. I bought Sublime Text in 2012, gladly upgraded to 3.0 for $30 in May 2018, and now would have to pay almost full price because my licence is 3 years and 3 weeks old.

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#49

This is forum for discussion. If you have a real issue, report it on github. Don’t come here to complain about non-issues.

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#50

This is an extremely user hostile choice, I bought a LIFETIME ST3 license - thats the way it was marketed when I bought it. By forcing a ST4 update (without warning) you have violated the terms of the license.

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#51

f you purchased Sublime Text 3 license years ago then by all means you are covered by those old terms. You basically have access to a perpetual license for that version. But Sublime Text 4 or now simply called Sublime Text has new terms now. Now instead of having a perpetual license for that specific version, you are paying for 3 years of support.

solution A: pay for the new version or keep using it unlicensed.
solution B: downgrade to ST3 and keep using it happily with your perpetual license for that version.

1 Like