Sunday, November 22, 2020

"Old Fashioned" Software Sales from Corel

A while back Humble Bundle had an amazing software bundle. It was a bunch of the Corel art software, plus a bunch of extras, for about $30 donation.
Given that I had been seriously considering a purchase of Corel Painter 2020 earlier in the year, but couldn't quite justify the price in my budget, it was perfect for me. Corel Painter 2020 with a whole bunch of brush packs, plus a collection of others like Paintshop Pro, their CAD software, and so on.

What was especially appealing is Corel's sales model. These are sold with a lifetime license. Unlike Adobe's "Open Up a Vein" licensing, once they're bought, they're bought. Which means the software and access to my own work isn't going to go "poof" someday if I change credit cards, stop a subscription, or whatever.

In fact, even though I am only getting started with Corel Painter 2020, I have to say that the sales model makes their come ons for Corel Painter 2021 appealing. They are offering some great prices (compared to what I was looking at dropping last January), and again, knowing that when it's bought I keep it makes me more willing to give up my lucre. I do know that once I've made some money off my use of Corel Painter 2020, I'm going to be favorably disposed toward putting some more of it into updates, upgrades, and extras.

But it goes further than that. I've not been happy with the online office software lately--I've been using the Google stuff for a long time, mostly as a light user but occasionally more deeply--and I don't think much of Office 365 in the use I've made of it. And hey, Corel sells office software, too, the legendary WordPerfect in its current form among them. And this deal with Corel 2020 is definitely making me go "Hmmmm..."

WordPerfect Office Suite
Wordperfect Guy Going Hmmm.
(This plug is completely unsolicited. I like their stuff, I'm amazed at the deal I got on the art software, and I don't mind paying for good software so long as I don't have to keep paying and keep paying whether I use it or not like it's an MMO.")