Announcing New Unraid OS License Keys

[enJOyIT]

10 hours ago, ddube said:

Aged like fine milk.

It's still true.

[noecu]

I just hope Limetech keeps its promise. I have been a home user with a basic license for several years. I don't need more disks but now I'm worried.

[Interstellar]

Unsurprising that this is leading to some concern and misconceptions.

 

Its good that us long time licenses are grandfathered but at the end of the day I paid $100 or whatever 10 years ago and have had many thousands of dollars of dev for that money.

 

That sadly does not pay the bills at Limetech!

 

With this new plan UnRAID keeps working albeit without updates, this means you haven’t lost functionality, you technically got what you paid for, which was the use of UnRAID in perpetuity and updates for a year. I’d imagine quite a few basic users don’t even remember to update that regularly anyway!

 

Security is an interesting topic, not sure what side of the fence I sit on, if you want to be up to date then pay up or should security updates for an additional year be covered? From LT’s PoV, this can only be done by maintaining multiple branches and I don’t think LT is big enough for that, so I wouldn’t blame them for saying the former…

 

It wasn’t so long ago that you’d pay regularly for new SW versions, I used to buy every new version of Lightroom…

Long story short is that a balance needs to be struck and I don’t blame LT going down this route, it seems, a reasonable balance. If I was buying again I’d just get the top tier and be done with it.

 

Edited February 24 by Interstellar

[awa1992]

On 2/23/2024 at 5:47 AM, Hastur said:

I ask one more time but in few less words:
does LT plan to increase pricing of upgrade licence key in near future for legacy users?

 

19 hours ago, SpencerJ said:

 

We are gathering common FAQs around updates, privacy, this, and more, and will release those all together.

I'm not positive but this leads me to believe they know the answer is going to be that is cost more so they don't want to tell you before so we have to pay more when they change it. Kind of frustrating 

[nc88keyz]

I have read through 11 pps on this current thread and had planned rolling a unraid server regardless of this change with new pricing tiers. I am ok with it but have 2 questions. 

 

1. I have purchased a pro key:  The server has not been built at this time. The key will be under current terms when i generate the license key for the USB when "i" am ready to build. Correct? I tend to procrastinate these projects and need have this confirmation. 

 

2. I also want to buy a 2nd key to test a smaller server, likely basic, but possibly plus as well. Is limetech purposely not answering the question of cost to upgrade as a "grandfathered user" from basic to plus or plus to pro because they do not know if it will be the same cost as it is now?  ie. will i be abled to upgrade from basic to plus (6 dev to 12 dev) for same cost as it is now, or is that to going to increase/decrease based on new the two new 2 tiers being introduced. 

 

I simply want to obviously keep the unlimited upgrades, and the same price in this scenario.  It seemed Tom and the team were very passionate about being direct and fair with the inevitable pricing structure changes. The question is simple though, and it seems a lot have asked for the answer from my review of 11 pages in this thread.  

 

Can a "grandfathered user" expect to pay the same upgrade cost to move from Basic to Plus , Or Plus to Pro under their license?

 

 

The video attached from the other day at The Uncast Show really came across genuine, and if this is what allows the company to remain viable in the long term, than this is a positive path. This is coming from a synology DSM user of over a decade. Tom and his daughter truly care, it shows in this interview how much the users mean to them, at least from an outsider looking in. 

[Frank1940]

55 minutes ago, nc88keyz said:

Can a "grandfathered user" expect to pay the same upgrade cost to move from Basic to Plus , Or Plus to Pro under their license?

 

 

There is one thing that everyone who is talking about the cost of the licenses and the cost of upgrading from one class of license to another---  Here is what may be a big reveal!!!

 

There have been several increases in the cost of licenses over the years and when those prices were increased, the cost to upgrade from one class of license to another was increased at the same time.  Was there a window of opportunity to purchase and upgrade at the old price?  To be honest, I don't remember.  But, if there was, it was a very short period of time!  And there was the same moaning and belly-aching at those times. 

 

If you wondering why the pricing hasn't be announced, consider that fact that the announcement of the new plan was forced on LimeTech because someone found a snippet of code in the current release of either in Unraid itself or one of the plugins. Unfortunately, this apparently happened before all of the details of the new plan were in place.  In other words, you have what could be called 'insider' information in the Securities world.  (It is also unlawful to use this information to make a trading decision but it does happen more often than one would hope.  So think about how you might use this to your advantage.  Remember that in cases of insider information, not everyone has the necessary resources and/or smarts to figure out a way to be on the plus side at the end of the day.)

 

 

 

Edited February 24 by Frank1940

[Hoopster]

4 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

If you wondering why the pricing hasn't be announced, consider that fact that the announcement of the new plan was forced on LimeTech

I think this is an important point in all this discussion.  Limetech did not have all the details of the new pricing and license structure set in stone before they felt the need to announce early because of all the hand wringing sparked by a Reddit thread.  Some of the details, as indicated by Tom, are still being discussed.

 

4 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

So think about how you might use this to your advantage.

Not knowing what new license and upgrade pricing will look like, I opted to go with the "sure thing" on one of  my Plus licenses and upgraded it to Pro at current pricing.  I still have one Plus license left (and two Pro), which I will likely never need to upgrade as it is a small special-purpose server currently using only 5 of the 12 devices the license allows.

[Doktor-X]

Strange that WAN show did not have this as topic

[BoxOfSnoo]

On 2/23/2024 at 3:30 PM, Doktor-X said:

In that case maybe, but i think licence will cost more then 25usd i think more like 40

The blog post said basic will be at a lower price. So maybe $40 for the first year, but if so then the extensions will be only $20/year if they stick to the 50% discount idea.

[cj0r]

On 2/24/2024 at 1:14 PM, Hoopster said:

I think this is an important point in all this discussion.  Limetech did not have all the details of the new pricing and license structure set in stone before they felt the need to announce early because of all the hand wringing sparked by a Reddit thread.  Some of the details, as indicated by Tom, are still being discussed.

Frankly, that user should be banned from the community. That was such an unprofessional and unethical move. Limetech would have made its announcement when it was ready. If the user was truly concerned, they could have approached Limetech before calling a 5 alarm fire with incomplete information.

 

They are no friend to this community.

[SpencerJ]

Update: We've added additional info around the upcoming changes via some FAQs taken from the community:

https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change

[doogle]

On 2/19/2024 at 1:57 PM, lelejau said:

The price is already expensive. In 3rd country worlds we can buy months of food easily with one Pro license. I hope to buy one license.

 

"After a year you have the option of extending the key for another year of updates for a fraction of the cost of the original key"

I do hope it'll be cheap lol

 

But, this sounds to me really a subscription model, only disguised. Bear with me, who would not want to extend the license to get updates? What if some major bug is found but hey, I didn't extend my license. I would be forced to extend it or I would put my data at risk.

 

So if buy one Pro key NOW, I would still get updates for life? What if I bought a basic now and then upgrade? Still for life?

 

Geeze .... I'm all for being cheap (I'm retired on fixed income), but dang, this is a business with folks trying to make a living. I think for what you are getting UnRaid is an absolute steal. Try drinking a few less beers a week or something like that.  I only wish my car insurance or internet bill was this reasonable. And heck for one bag of groceries you can upgrade to Pro..... You can't open a support case with M$ for that.

[EGOvoruhk]

Hopefully this news means Unraid 7 is going to come with some regularly added features/upgrades to justify the increase? Seems all the good stuff the past few years has come directly from the community, and Unraid itself has just been in maintenance/security mode. My (non-internet connected) server has been on 6.11 for a year and half and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything yet

 

Would love to actually see "unlimited" devices apply to the main array, bcachefs when it's "ready", a simple way to deal with bit-rot detection (and healing), 3+ parity drive support, etc

Edited February 28 by EGOvoruhk

[EDACerton]

1 hour ago, SpencerJ said:

Update: We've added additional info around the upcoming changes via some FAQs taken from the community:

https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change

Any news on the privacy questions from earlier in the thread?

[isvein]

10 minutes ago, EGOvoruhk said:

Hopefully this news means Unraid 7 is going to come with some regularly added features/upgrades to justify the increase? Seems all the good stuff the past few years has come directly from the community, and Unraid itself has just been in maintenance/security mode. My (non-internet connected) server has been on 6.11 for a year and half and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything yet

 

Would love to actually see "unlimited" devices apply to the main array, bcachefs when it's "ready", a simple way to deal with bit-rot detection (and healing), 3+ parity drive support, etc

7.x will bring multiply array support but as far as Tom has said, 28+2 will be the limit.
I dont think they will bring in an 3rd parity, if Im not wrong that would mean an 3rd way to calculate parity has to be used, sounds too complicated

[SpencerJ]

1 hour ago, EDACerton said:

Any news on the privacy questions from earlier in the thread?

 

yes. Please see here:

[Hastur]

Quote

"Will Basic>Plus>Pro upgrades be the same price as it was before the changes?"

No. Legacy upgrade pricing will be changing alongside the new license tiers. We are aiming for the end of Q1, 2024 to launch the new license types as well as an increase in Basic, Plus, and Pro upgrade costs. We will pre-announce all of the changes 1 week prior to launch.

Like i've think...
Right now and 130$ later i've upgraded my both license to unlimited/PRO. Just in case if I ever need to change my storage config.

But tbh I do this only becouse I've already buy hardware specialy for unraid setup.

If I consider making DIY NAS/LAB solution right now i will propably go to proxmox with three micro node with some ceph storage with  VM/doker/fileserver solution

 

Edited February 28 by Hastur

[UnraidC]

Just some feedback from a very recent new user of Unraid.

 

I have been mostly happy with the experience up to now. In theory legacy users will not be affected (not that I put any money on "Trust me bro" statements right after previous model turnarounds, but that is a different matter), but I care about more than just myself when I am going around recommending stuff to people as I have been doing with Unraid since I started with it a few weeks ago.

 

It is your product and you are free to do with it what you want, obviously. I am not coming at this from any "moral" perspective or anything like that. At the same time, your end user does not care about your internal issues and cost structures (at least not the new ones signing up). That does not mean that I do not get the need for recurring income, but there are other models for doing so that are also proven in the market and that I personally find more palatable (e.g. paid business support, saying this as a business owner by the way who would potentially end up paying such support).

 

The reality is that without security updates (as confirmed in the FAQ) you are de facto turning it into a subscription model for an internet-connected server system. You can twist and turn about that as much as you want, but the twisting and turning about it is perhaps the most offputting element of this to me to be honest, more than the model change itself. At least don't insult people's intelligence, I believe my own lying eyes and cannot be convinced that gravity does not affect me while observing that objectively it does.

 

If this had been announced a few weeks ago in this manner I would have never gotten into Unraid, and I will also not be recommending it anymore to others. A friend of mine just received his server hardware on my recommendation but I told him to look elsewhere after reading this. That at least is 1 lost customer, nearly 2 if I had known before (but of course I myself will ride it out now with the legacy license while it lasts).

 

In any case, it completely shifts the USP and perception of the product and the company, and for sure made the alternatives much more attractive. I am purely from a business perspective very curious to see what this will lead to in the mid to long run, fully assuming you know best how to run your own company even though from my own perspective I raised an eyebrow and shook my head at the course you are pursuing here.

Edited February 29 by UnraidC

[BRiT]

Not surprised, but still disappointed with this aspect (as it stands now):

 

Quote

"Will security fixes/patches for the OS be included if your year has expired?"

 

As of now, we do not plan to backport or provide security updates to ineligible users whose update window has expired. However, we are reviewing this decision and intend to do what’s best for users and the company. We will follow up when this review is complete.

 

 

 

[hktvhome]

I am all in for the recurring revenue and totally understand it, though renewal fee being 50% of the purchase is quite steep. half of that would put you in line with a MS Office for instance.

 

another thing, a discount for fidelity would be welcome, buy 1 year for 50 USD, buy 3 years for 120 USD,...

[ijuarez]

9 hours ago, BRiT said:

Not surprised, but still disappointed with this aspect (as it stands now):

 

 

 

 

 

I agree that is rough pill to swallow, I would hope that they  would at least keep you patch for cve for at least 1 year after expiration of you subscription.

[lelejau]

17 hours ago, doogle said:

 

Geeze .... I'm all for being cheap (I'm retired on fixed income), but dang, this is a business with folks trying to make a living. I think for what you are getting UnRaid is an absolute steal. Try drinking a few less beers a week or something like that.  I only wish my car insurance or internet bill was this reasonable. And heck for one bag of groceries you can upgrade to Pro..... You can't open a support case with M$ for that.

I think you don't understand Brazil's reality. If the problem was only a couple of beers per week... SMH

 

But I already bought a basic license. I just hope I don't have to pay anything more for updates. Their income it's not my problem. How they will survive, still not my problem. If they close the company, oh well, that's not my problem too. I'd go find another solution.

 

The problem is going back on their word, which seems they won't do it. That's why I bought a license before this new license models takes place. For me, it does not make sense. Feel free to think what you wan't =D

Edited February 29 by lelejau

[JonathanM]

53 minutes ago, lelejau said:

I think you don't understand Brazil's reality.

How does the cost of the license compare to an 8TB hard drive?

[Hastur]

36 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

How does the cost of the license compare to an 8TB hard drive?

Actual PRO licence: 129$

https://unraid.net/pricing

Manufacturer Recertified Seagate Exos X14 12TB: 124$

https://serverpartdeals.com/collections/recertified-seagate-exos/products/seagate-exos-x14-st12000nm0538-12tb-7-2k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-512e-256mb-3-5-manufacturer-recertified-hdd

both equally trustworthy in use as sentence:

Quote

Buy Once, Use for Life.

No subscription. No hidden fees.

[Frank1940]

1 minute ago, Hastur said:

Manufacturer Recertified Seagate Exos X14 12TB: 124$

https://serverpartdeals.com/collections/recertified-seagate-exos/products/seagate-exos-x14-st12000nm0538-12tb-7-2k-rpm-sata-6gb-s-512e-256mb-3-5-manufacturer-recertified-hdd

both equally trustworthy in use as sentence:

 

Are you expecting that this drive will be guaranteed with full replacement forever????