I agree, and would like to add that I have done this, and did encounter an issue where people had an expired beta and therefore couldn't use the program until they had downloaded an update, and were annoyed by that - especially if they were on the road and had no internet connection. Although I explained to them the benefits to all parties of them running the latest beta, it was still an issue.
So if you're going to be doing an extended beta program, you might like to think about either having an expiry date that is always far enough in the future so that people who download a beta are never in a situation where they would have to download another version in just a few days time. And for the internet issue, maybe you could have something that would allow them to use the beta beyond the expiry for a couple of weeks if they don't have an internet connection, but require them to download the next beta, or release version if they have an internet connection. Obviously it depends on your exact situation, but I thought it worthwhile to mention my experiences of doing this sort of thing in case it is of some use to you. Regards Gideon On 15/08/2011, at 8:44 AM, Nick Zitzmann wrote: > I would just use the system clock. Most people aren't going to change their > clock to run something that's time-limited that has expired, especially if > that would interfere with other applications, and the people who will do that > probably won't buy the final product anyway. And requiring a network > connection to run software that normally doesn't need a network connection, > such as your proposal, is a major inconvenience for a lot of people. > > Restrictive DRM inconveniences people, and really restrictive DRM drives > people to piracy if the pirated edition is more convenient to use than the > legit version. _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list ([email protected]) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [email protected]
