I have seen a lot of concerning forum posts recently about license activation problems, that suddenly appear out of nowhere. These appear to be related to RealMac server issues?
I am just wondering how exposed I am with having ongoing access to software that I have paid for?
How often does Elements “call home” and what happens if it can’t make contact?
How exposed am I to being able to rely on ongoing access to products I have purchased through the Elements store - is access to these products (once installed) dependant on continued access to the RealMac servers?
In a worst case scenario, what happens if RealMac goes out of business, will Elements continue to work (with the Elements Store products I have purchased) for websites I have built.
It would be nice to have some reassurance on these points.
I’m a software developer myself, and can not directly reply, but I want to say that I’m also a customer, and Elements is an incredible piece of software, both when it comes to quality and stability. We’ve never experienced a dropout before as users, and I don’t even know if it was many.
Of course, I understand your questions, and I also wonder the details, so very good post. I just simultaneously have to say I was one that couldn’t log in that day - and the solution came very quick. It happened in the night, was fixed early morning.
Just always remember, generally speaking, I mean:
a glitch can occur for any systems
quick solutions and solid support is not found everywhere
I would rather have good support on a bad platform, than have bad support on a good one. The good thing with RealMac Software is that, luckily, us users don’t have to choose - we get fantastic of both.
Shootout to you fantastic team of RealMac Software!
However, that wasn’t the point of my questions. I have already been bitten by the demise of Rapid Weaver Classic / Stacks / Foundry 3 as a combo.
@dan is often making a not unreasonable reference to ensuring the RealMac business is viable. I am just asking what happens to the software I have purchased if that doesn’t become the case or there is some sort of major outage on the servers.
Right now, Elements performs occasional server checks, but our goal is simple: everything you’ve purchased should continue to work offline, forever.
We’re building Elements for the long term. We’re not going anywhere.
That said, I also understand the concern. If Realmac were ever to shut down, my intention would be to open-source Elements, so it could continue to run and be supported by the community.
We’ve been doing this for over 20 years. This isn’t just a business to me, it’s my life’s work, and I’m fully committed to continuing to build and improve Elements for many years to come.
