Serva - multi-server

Submit portable freeware that you find here. It helps if you include information like description, extraction instruction, Unicode support, whether it writes to the registry, and so on.
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patpat
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Re: Servea32/64

#31 Post by patpat »

Well, that tells me you never read Serva's how-to about Network Installation of Microsoft OSs
http://www.vercot.com/~serva/howto/WindowsPXE1.html
I think if you read and give it a try you will probably agree calling Serva v2.0.0 "nagware" could be a bit unfair :)

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Midas
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Re: Servea32/64

#32 Post by Midas »

patpat wrote:Well, that tells me you never read Serva's how-to about Network Installation of Microsoft OSs
http://www.vercot.com/~serva/howto/WindowsPXE1.html
I think if you read and give it a try you will probably agree calling Serva v2.0.0 "nagware" could be a bit unfair :)
Having perused the link provided, I failed in finding anything that disproves webfork's alegation; care to enlighten us?

patpat
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Re: Servea32/64

#33 Post by patpat »

Did you give it a try or just launched the app to verify if there's a nag screen or not?

If you tried the quoted how-to to let say net install windows-8, or windows server 2012, or even the old windows 2000, or whatever you want and you guys still think Serva is "nagware" then please feel free to immediately remove all versions of Serva from this website. I’d hate disturbing this community with “nagware”.

Best.

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webfork
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Re: Servea32/64

#34 Post by webfork »

This site has no problem with you wanting to make money off your program and a simple reminder/request window like yours combined with the amazing functionality provides is completely reasonable. However, nagware is a descriptor/adjective, and not an evaluation. For example, adware is software that has advertisements. Donateware is software that works via donations. Your software has a nag screen so it's nagware. The quality or power of the software doesn't enter in to it.

Great applications like mIRC and WinZip that I used for years would have been would be considered freeware if you just clicked past their nag screens. If LibreOffice (with thousands of functions and capabilities) added a screen that said "click here to donate" with a 5 second timer before you could use the software, it would still be nagware and we'd still link to an older no-nag version.

One exception to this is an occasional donation screen request that pops up (torrent client Transmission has this) with the ability to disable the nag screen. If Serva goes this route, it wouldn't be classified as nagware.

> I’d hate disturbing this community with “nagware”.

This policy and approach is not specific to our community -- take for example the site that addresses this right in the name: nonags.com.

patpat
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Re: Servea32/64

#35 Post by patpat »

With all due respect; I disagree.
I consider you stigmatizing an application as “nagware” without any consideration
of the value or quality of that application is just not fair.
What is this site about? promoting good apps or stigmatizing the developers that
have to pay their bills?

When you guys see nag screens there are other people out there that are able to
see beyond them and appreciate what the app does…
i.e. http://www.technibble.com/serva-network ... made-easy/


Please If you cannot stop categorizing Serva as “nagware” I’d appreciate very
much if you take down all the versions of Serva from this site;

over and out.

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joby_toss
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Re: Servea32/64

#36 Post by joby_toss »

Serva is a great application!

But http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nagware

Sadly, I vote for removing Serva's database listing at the request of the author (but this still doesn't change the facts)! It is my feeling that it will become payware soon, anyway (in one form or another)...

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Midas
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Re: Servea32/64

#37 Post by Midas »

I second the author's and joby_toss motion for Serva takedown -- I downvoted it already, let this topic do the explaining... :cry:

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I am Baas
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Re: Servea32/64

#38 Post by I am Baas »

patpat wrote: Please If you cannot stop categorizing Serva as “nagware” I’d appreciate very
much if you take down all the versions of Serva from this site;

over and out.
That just annoyed me like hell. I never used Serva and probably never will but I just gave it the thumbs up to make sure the program stays listed. I think it's an absurd request that should not be honored. Will Softpedia receive the same treatment should it add that information on the Serva page?

Serva has a Nag Screen and people ought to know about it.

Ruby
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Re: Servea32/64

#39 Post by Ruby »

@I am Bass, I agree.

Serva is an excellent program and should remain in the database; with a mention of 'nagware' of course.

~Ruby

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webfork
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Re: Servea32/64

#40 Post by webfork »

Ruby wrote:@I am Bass, I agree. -- Serva is an excellent program and should remain in the database; with a mention of 'nagware' of course.
Agreed on both counts.
palpate wrote:I consider you stigmatizing an application as “nagware” without any consideration of the value or quality of that application is just not fair.
Okay, I'll bite: how would you prefer we refer to the presence of a nag screen in your software?

We could take for example Softpedia, which also lists your program. They use "Limitations: nag screen" on quite a few programs. It's an important question since yours will likely be edited to include the nag screen status once someone comments on it. If you think none of those programs are Serva's equal and that yours deserves special consideration, you'll have a hard time making the case against the outstanding, award-winning UltraEdit.

If that's not acceptable either, I recommend you go full commercial or go some other route. There are lots of ways to make money from your work. I don't think you'll get anywhere fighting a standard in software from long before this website existed.

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webfork
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Re: Servea32/64

#41 Post by webfork »

One other thing I wanted to comment on...
patpat wrote:What is this site about? promoting good apps or stigmatizing the developers that have to pay their bills?
You're on a freeware site. It's right in the title. You make freeware and then change its status to start making money, we're going to call it out.

Also, we're not the bad guys here. Remember back when I contacted you about that registry entry? That came from Joby, a user who was nice enough to test it based on my recommendation. Neither of us are getting paid to inform you of that. Then I did some nice marketing for your site by creating the entry. I did some work getting the entry to sound and look right, and other folks here on the site helped test. In fact, there are 22 total edits after I initially added it care of SYSTEM, Checker, and myself. That's a lot of work that nobody here is getting paid for.

That said, our work is now evidently making YOU money. The extra traffic and attention our site brought you probably won't hurt. After benefiting from all the unpaid effort by a site with "freeware" in the title, you decide you're not going to go that route anymore and instead make some money. That's not a problem! In fact, many programs here on the site have various ways to make money from Firefox (Google traffic) to Rainlendar (premium features) and XMind (subscription service). However, because we accurately describe it, now we should "take down all the versions of Serva from this site." This after you're making money off your program and enjoying the boost that we gave you?

Now I realize you're not making much money off your program. You've probably only seen a few purchases and nowhere near commiserate to what you should be making. I know that. But I propose that you are a member of a community of people who helped you out because you helped us out: your software is awesome and there's nothing quite like it in the portable library. You can back away from that but you shouldn't because, in software, we're your friends.

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webfork
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Re: Servea32/64

#42 Post by webfork »

NOTE: what's up on the front page is not an update: the entry was listed as nagware for 2.0.0 and now it is freeware 1.5.0. PortableFreeware still treats any version change as an update.

In my testing, it didn't show anything but a place where advertisements could go in the future, so it's not listed as adware.

Why update now? I think I was really angry about the entry going nagware so I just ignored the fact that the earlier non-nagware version is available from the author website. The most recent entry comment reminded me to fix it.

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webfork
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Re: Servea32/64

#43 Post by webfork »

Replying to this post on the Servea entry:
joby wrote:I partially share your opinion, but we're in minority. Recently I changed my mind about nag screens. I don't hate them anymore, as long as I can use the app for free.
We also have a policy against adware, but since devs keep going back and adding adverts to their freeware, we have let a few of those sneak into the database. So it's really more about sponsorship: the site is to some extent a democracy and we can have a vote on basically anything, but if nobody wants to volunteer their time and energy, a vote is pointless. Programs really need to have individual advocates to monitor and keep them alive. Some examples:
  • digsby hasn't been updated to the latest version, partly because we're waiting to see what happens with their new owners, but partly because I don't think anyone's using it. If someone really kept up with this program, that wouldn't be an issue.
  • LameXP http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2094 is a great example where, for a while there, the developer was really keeping attention and energy focused on his ongoing updates/additions. Now it's my program of choice for audio conversion.
  • DocFetcher - I keep trying to draw interest in this, but I haven't converted anybody so right now I'm in the minority. If it ever gets added to the database, you can be sure I'll keep it updated. (Edit: this did eventually get added).
Anyway, if someone on the site is willing to re-test the new versions the developer puts out to make sure he doesn't go from adware/nagware to bundleware (or just quit being portable), I don't care if this gets bumped up to the latest version. I found the nag screens intensely annoying so I'm not interested in touching Serva32 past v. 1.5.0 and that's why I edited the entry that way.

The only thing I ask is that we always add a disclaimer at the bottom to note this behavior and give the option to get a non-nagware version.

b1001
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Re: Servea32/64

#44 Post by b1001 »

I'm using Serva 2.1.1 very often, it saves a lot (I mean really a lot) of time, it's 100% portable,
and as it was said before "I do not care about a nag screen as soon as I can use a good
piece of software for free".
Unfortunately the nag screen has to be there to remind commercial users that they
have to pay for the tool... but at the end those guys are the ones that pay for my
"free" version, then how can I be mad with that tiny screen?
I was very surprised when I saw you guys going back to old versions. just my 2 cents.

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webfork
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Re: Servea32/64

#45 Post by webfork »

b1001 wrote:I was very surprised when I saw you guys going back to old versions. just my 2 cents.
The anti-nagware thing was a policy since before I got to the site and we have other programs using the old versions because they went nagware. My sense is that most people don't like or want nagware, but that's just an impression. I've gone on about this plenty already so if someone would like to lobby to change either the policy or make an exception described previously, they're welcome to.

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