Did you hear that sound? It was the nearly silent sound of a long era come crashing to an end. Nearly every computer user knows the name WinZip. What may or may not have come to your attention was that the company (for company it was) was recently acquired by Corel Corporation.
The software is still there, so the wailing doesn’t begin until you run up against the fact that it’s NO LONGER SHAREWARE. Such was the case when I installed the upgrade from version 9.1 to version 10.0. As is my habit, I tried plugging in my registration info, since that’s the norm, and ZAP! I got a ‘TILT’ message. What? WinZip has been shareware for around ten years and upgrades have always been free. I did some snooping through the online site and immediately saw notice of the fact that it was now COREL WinZip. Hmm. Further looking through the FAQs showed me that the software just wasn’t ever gonna accept my registration info, because I hadn’t paid the upgrade FEE. Huh? A quick e-mail to support revealed that upgrades are no longer free, since WinZip is just another commercial package to Corel Corp.
What a sad end to a great software package. It’s with a heavy heart that I will now turn to one of the other archive handlers and wave goodbye to an old friend who is friendly no more.
[tags]shareware,archive,corel,winzip,upgrade fee,registration info[/tags]