Jay 🆘Jan 26, 2023

Software used to cost real money, because writing and maintaining it takes real work.

When I was getting on the internet, you could buy Netscape Navigator — a *web browser* — in a *box* at a *brick and mortar store* for FIFTY DOLLARS.

So unless you would honestly pay a one-time purchase of $50 for that app whose subscription model you hate, be happy! You are getting a bargain.

Show threadPhillip Hallam-BakerJan 26, 2023
@jsit But you could always download Netscape for free if you were a non-commercial user.
Show threadJay 🆘Jan 26, 2023
@hallam Haha oh crap am I misremembering that? I thought it was always bugging me to buy it.
Show threadKay Bien
@jsit @hallam Everyone is right. Navigator was released free for non comercial use, but upon 1.0 they changed their tune. They still made an "Evaluation" version, and that had an "N" in the program title that was out of place. Then it was renamed to communicator, and their retail version had bloatware, i mean, dev tools, but ultimately, no one paid for it that didn't want to.
Jan 26, 2023 at 9:02pmWeb
Show threadPhillip Hallam-BakerJan 27, 2023

@kay @jsit Ah yes, communicator was a separate tool suite and Navigator was one part of the bundle.

The suite came with a so-so mail client, so-so newsreader etc. etc. It might have been worth having if you were on Windows. But I had better tools on my UNIX machine.