Overview
I have been a Sublime Text fan for 11 years.
“Unregistered” (license not purchased)
I decided to buy a license, but it is not exactly a cheap purchase, so I looked into the license properly. Then I found that the explanation was rather confusing. This time, I am going to summarize how Sublime Text licenses work.
What I Don’t Get
The following explanation describes how the license works.
Upgrade Policy
Personal licenses include three years of updates. After three years, you can continue using the last version released within three years of your purchase.
To use versions released three or more years after the purchase date, you need to pay for an upgrade.
From https://www.sublimehq.com/sales_faq
I do not quite understand this.
- I have never purchased a license during the 11 years I have used Sublime Text
- The version I used 11 years ago was Sublime Text v3
- I am now using Sublime Text v4
- In other words, I can use newer builds without a license
- According to the Upgrade Policy, buying a license allows you to use new builds for the next three years
- In that case, having a license actually gives you less, right?
What I Figured Out from the Forums
References:
https://forum.sublimetext.com/t/license-upgrade-again/71683
https://forum.sublimetext.com/t/why-pay-for-sublime-text-license/41698
Based on these forum discussions, this seems to be how it works:
- Sublime Text has three license-related statuses:
UNREGISTERED,LICENSE UPGRADE REQUIRED, andREGISTERED - With the first two statuses, a message appears in the top-right corner of the application. With
UNREGISTERED, a popup asking you to purchase a license sometimes appears. Other than that, all features are the same. - When you buy a license, the status becomes
REGISTERED. After three years, it changes toLICENSE UPGRADE REQUIRED. By paying a slightly lower upgrade price, you can make itREGISTEREDagain. - My guess is that the developers want the word “license” to make people feel that they have to pay, but at the same time, they do not want to add feature restrictions that make the product inconvenient. The result of that conflict may be a license with no feature restrictions at all.
I think it would have been much easier to understand if, instead of license statuses, the three statuses had been called PLEASE DONATE!, COULD YOU DONATE AGAIN?, and THANK YOU FOR DONATING.
With that in mind, let me answer my original question.
According to the Upgrade Policy, buying a license allows you to use new builds for the next three years.
In that case, having a license actually gives you less, right?
It only says that buying a license allows you to use new builds for the next three years. It does not say that you cannot use new builds after those three years. In reality, the status simply changes to LICENSE UPGRADE REQUIRED, and you can continue using newer builds. The developers simply do not make that part clear because they want people to feel that they should pay.
That’s All
Yes, I thought it was confusing. However, Sublime Text is extremely generous with what it provides. In that case, I think I can let this slide.
I look forward to continuing to use it! By the way, development still seems to be active:
