AxCrypt2Go & AxDecrypt

[smaragdus]

I have just discovered that the new version of AxCrypt would be commercial:

http://www.axcrypt.net/ - new web-site
http://www.axcrypt.net/pricing/ - features and prices

For me going commercial is OK (if it is clean of adware) but what I do not like and do not accept is the subscription model- AxCrypt will be sold for 3.00 Euro per month or 24.00 Euro per year.

I haven't yet found a free encryption tool (not needed to be portable) that fully satisfies me.

[Mixture]

@smaragdus,
I use Blowfish Advanced CS 2.57 for all my encryption needs because it fully satisfies all of my needs for keeping my sensitives files away from the eyes of anyone else. Drag'n'Crypt ULTRA 2.39 is also good enough for me. Both of this reliable programs has the proven encryption strength plus the necessary secure wiping of the source file(s) whenever I encrypt or decrypt file(s). Both of these apps are found in the Encryption category of the Security category.

[smaragdus]

@Mixture
Thank you very much for suggesting Blowfish Advanced CS- I have never heard of this program. I tested it (both the portable version and the installer)- it still works but it could not integrate to Windows x64 Shell (as I expected). Sure once Blowfish Advanced CS should have been a terrific program but without shell integration it loses much of its value since file encryption is always easier and handier via context menu.

Drag'n'Crypt ULTRA is no doubt a very good program and it integrates to Windows Shell but its integration is not as advanced as Blowfish Advanced CS's- please see the screen-shot below:

bfacs_5.png (4.01 KiB) Viewed 20203 times

Many thanks for the information you provided.

[billon]

@smaragdus:
http://www.gasanov.net/WOW64Menu.asp

[smaragdus]

@billon
Thank you, I will have a look.

[smaragdus]

AxCrypt has become payware, in fact- subscription, which is even worse:
http://www.axcrypt.net/pricing/
The developer also purged almost all previous versions from SourceForge:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/axcrypt/files/AxCrypt/
But I have several (both x32 and x64):
AxCrypt 1.7.2126.0
AxCrypt 1.7.2614.0
AxCrypt 1.7.2687.0
AxCrypt 1.7.2867.0
AxCrypt 1.7.3156.0
and I may upload them.
I am fed up with greedy and roguish developers.

[Enternal]

Haha naw. I don't consider him greedy and rougish. There's nothing wrong with wanting to make money off of the software he wrote. With version 2 anyways, he rewrote the entire software from scratch and this direction was something he was talking a bit about in his blog many years ago iirc so it wasn't surprising. Not only that, if you looked at his feature sheet, he integrated the features from Xecrets, which was a paid subscription product from the very beginning and is highly likely why the new AxCrypt is on this subscription model. It's pretty much his version of LastPass but one that came out before LastPass.

If you want a developer that's greedy (arguably) and roguish (definitely), we already know one very well. *cough* Free *cough* *cough* File *silence*.

[webfork]

There's nothing wrong with wanting to make money off of the software he wrote.

If he left the old versions alone and moved forward with a closed code base, I certainly understand. There's more than a few projects that have gone that route (Cobian Backup and Paint.NET come to mind) but it more bothers me because there are some helpful resources and goodwill on the part of the community for open source tools. Walking away from that by deleting old versions just to commercialize the current one is therefore dishonest.

[smaragdus]

@Enternal
I do think that removing all the free (in fact ad-ware) versions that can work on modern systems from SourceForge is a utterly ugly, roguish deed done out of greed. I consider these free versions public domain and that was why I was thinking of uploading them but I found out that they are available for download:

AxCrypt at FileHippo
AxCrypt x32 at FileHorse
AxCrypt x64 at FileHorse

Developing commercial product is fine but removing its free and open source predecessor from a repository is not fine for me.

Compare AxCrypt files at SourceForge now and before- even AxDecrypt and AxCrypt2Go have been removed- this act is enough for me never to consider purchasing anything from this developer (Svante Seleborg).

[svante]

Hi everyone!

This is Svante, the greedy, rougish developer of AxCrypt (all versions, 1.x, 2.x, AxDecrypt, AxCrypt2Go etc etc). I'm the guy who spent thousands of hours on these softwares. I'm also the guy who in this same thread got bashed pretty hard for the OpenCandy advertising wrapper, as a way to get some revenue to continue development. Now I'm the guy getting some pretty harsh comments because I stopped using OpenCandy and advertising as a revenue stream and developed some really new cool features that I'd like to charge some money for (after another 3,000+ hours of coding etc) while maintaing the same basic functionality that's been there for 15 years free and open source.

Let me make some statements of fact.

I've pulled AxCrypt 1.7.3156 et. al. from SourceForge because that place is not what it used to be, and also because they don't like OpenCandy. I retain the SourceForge account simply because it's established since a long time. However, AxCrypt 1.7.3156 et. al. is still available (with or without OpenCandy) from http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/Download.html . The source code has moved since a long time from SourceForge, mostly because it just lost to better services. In my case, bitbucket. It's available at https://bitbucket.org/axantum/axcrypt/ .

Version 2 of AxCrypt, which is also open source free software is found at http://www.axcrypt.net/download . The source code is at https://bitbucket.org/axantum/axcrypt-net/ .

I get that some of you don't like a subscription model. However, that really is my choice, and the main reason is that large parts of the extended Premium functionality is server based, and thus has a running cost. I'm running two separate synchronized servers, with bandwith, backups etc etc. I'm also trying to get some revenue, in order to be able to focus more and more on AxCrypt, both free features and for-pay. I also think it's more fair, consistent and predictable than the typical model with a license which is only valid for minor upgrades, when the maker decides to increment the major digit - there you go again... The cost is equivalent, but it's not as clearly stated. With the subscription model you're paying for services provided: Servers, Bandwidth and me and my pals coding our fingertips bloody, responding to support etc

AxCrypt 2 runs in one of two flavors - Free or Premium. Free is roughly equivalent with AxCrypt 1.x (file encryption, 128-bit AES). Premium adds key sharing for working efficiently in teams with encrypted files, 256-bit encryption, password manager, direct support and more stuff to come. We'll be releasing apps for iOS and Android which will be included in the Premium subscription. AxCrypt 2, Free as well as Premium, also sports a fully featured portable mode which has been in demand for a long time.

So here's what the greedy, ugly, rougish developer has done, in summary:

• - Retained full access to all AxCrypt 1.x software, compiled with and without OpenCandy and with full source code under GPL. I.e. no change.

• - Written a completely new modern AxCrypt 2, which is available for free (gratis) with full source code under GPL.

• - Stopped using advertising wrappers, or any kind of advertising at all. The software and the web sites are entirely free of ads.

• - Added a bunch of new cool features, and included an existing online password manager, giving you the option to pay for the features as well as the good warm feeling of contributing at the cost of €2/month. Entirely optional! But, yes, we do accept money for extra features and services rendered. Greedy, but we do.

• - Added the long awaited fully featured portable version of AxCrypt. Also Free or with Premium features.

Useful links:

http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/Download.html - Compiled installer downloads AxCrypt 1.x.
https://bitbucket.org/axantum/axcrypt/ - Full C++ source code for AxCrypt 1.x.
http://www.axcrypt.net/download - Compiled installer downloads AxCrypt 2.x.
https://bitbucket.org/axantum/axcrypt-net/ - Full C# source code for AxCrypt 2.x.

Happy AxCrypt:ing, Old, Free or Premium. It's your choice. If you don't like the way I do things, you can change them. That's what open source is for.

Best (but greedy, ugly and rougish ) Regards,

Svante

[Enternal]

Oh hey Svante! Thank you for all the work you put in AxCrypt. It's been really useful for all the years I had used it. These days though I just went towards using encrypted volumes and devices so I use it a lot now. But good luck with the product!

Thanks for pointing out the source code for the version 1.7 though. I thought 1.7 was closed source but it was just me missing the clear link to BitBucket which I could have used to browse back to your other projects to see the source code for 1.7 instead of the 2.0 version.

@ smaragdus and webfork
Sorry I should have replied earlier since I was busy and did not have a chance to get on the forum. But yes, it's true that download links had always remained on the old http://www.axantum.com/ site and I verified it before I wrote my previous post. I should have pointed it out earlier when I replied the last time but I was in a hurry

[webfork]

You said a lot there that I'll try to answer more in the near future. As to my comments:

...it more bothers me because there are some helpful resources and goodwill on the part of the community for open source tools. Walking away from that by deleting old versions just to commercialize the current one is therefore dishonest.

Along with many others, we have also been unhappy with SourceForge so I should have kept digging to see if the source code was moved rather than taken down. Sorry about that.

[smaragdus]

@svante

Thanks for stopping by explaining what happened to the previous versions of AxCrypt. In my opinion it would be better to keep all the previous versions at SourceForge (I connect to it mainly via my bookmarks in my FTP client so I don't feel great when I discover something has been removed) but of course it is your project and you are free to do whatever you like with the previous versions and the source code.

I have a suggestion- a diversification of the paid version- why don't you release a paid light (lite) version without the cloud features- just 256 encryption, secure shredder, portable version, with two payment options instead of the subscription- one year of free updates license and lifetime license (3-5 times the price of the one year license)- I suppose that there would be many users (including me) who don't need the cloud features and would like to pay one time fee just for the encryption tool-box. I think that such a licensing model is more flexible (just an example- Notezilla is sold with or without cloud features)- it gives the users a choice and I don't think that such a model would diminish the revenue- I am convinced that there would be users who just need a robust, portable encryption tool without the cloud features.

[webfork]

With the subscription model you're paying for services provided: Servers, Bandwidth and me and my pals coding our fingertips bloody, responding to support etc

We understand that software is hard and have no issue with this stuff costing money and that developers need to eat. I know from experience that donations are very rare. Your decision to move to a non-freeware model has come up several times here in forums, most recently with a copier program's move to adware.

If you continue to go the adware route, I encourage you to include a program installation that people generally want such as Google Chrome. That program uninstalls easily if you decide you don't like it and doesn't see the same level of hostility as OpenCandy (which among other problems, scans of the user's system and does geolocation [wikipedia]). As adware goes, a copy of Chrome is pretty innocuous.

So here's what the greedy, ugly, rougish developer has done, in summary

Quoting myself from the link above: "... if you start out freeware and then take a different direction, some on the forums are going to feel slighted. That's just the case on a site with freeware in the title."

Much of this particular situation comes down to an uncomfortable similarity to FreeFileSync -- an also open source program that just went awry. You can read all about the sordid business but, right or wrong, it's created a level of cynicism in this community.

[webfork]

One additional note: The program currently on the download site (both install and standalone) are registerware, which isn't something we host on the main database. So at least part of this conversation is moot.