Black Friday sale for new users?

[DEvolve]

Hi there,

I’ve been following HexOS for a while now (kicking myself for missing the Black Friday deal last year!) and I’m really eager to finally jump in. I checked the current sale, but I only see the bundle for 2 servers at $298.

To be honest, $200+ is a little over my budget at the moment, and I’m not sure I would get enough use out of two servers right away. Is there any way to grab a single license at the Black Friday pricing? Also, for a "noob" user, what is the main advantage of having two licenses? I want to make sure I’m not missing some hidden value there before I decide.

Thanks,

[Todd Miller]

By simple blind luck, I got in at the first sale.  That sale, in my opinion, was to fund the current work.  While the option to allow existing customers to purchase a second license seemed odd at first, I think it is there to give us options for a backup server or the ability to try new things on a virtual machine leaving our "production machine" unaffected.  The buddy backup idea certainly blew up into a big discussion but only because we saw a interesting opportunity that was being taken away as fast as we were recognizing it.

As for the $199 new user license price, I guess that is within Eshtek's right since HexOS is their product.  As I have said, I am a paying customer who has asked a lot of questions and called people to task because I think this product can be everything I have wanted since a friend built me a NAS that I can't really administrate myself.  I don't know enough about TrueNAS to really be comfortable with the product but most of the experience has been pretty simple.  Had I missed the LTT video I wouldn't have been part of that initial group of investors/testers/buyers.  Like you, $199 is enough to make me pause and think f this is really where I want to spend my money.  

My only thoughts that would be in Eshtek's defense (if they really need a defense) are that they took a chance on a new product.  Because of this they have a company that is working on a product with a staff payroll both in developers today but also support staff, customer service representatives a full development staff working on new options or improving existing ones and a ton of marketing costs.  I won't pretend that I know that cost but I don't want this product to be abandoned in five years if the money dries up.  There has been discussion of a month by month cost but that has been quiet for a while.  The forums have several entries about future pricing and Eshtek has held to their word from the one time initial investment to eventually going to $299 as the new starting price.  And because they probably have people who bought in at $99 and $199, they can't really lower that price without angering their community.  This is a community not only including folks like me who seem to jump on every unclear statement but also content creators  who enjoy criticising business decisions they don't like and have millions of followers.  At the end of the day when the smoke clears HexOSS is a business and to ensure survival it needs to be treated that way.  You choosing to spend your money elsewhere is your right and I don't think anyone directly linked to Eshtek would ever say anything different.  You must do what's right for you.  If HexOS doesn't fit your budget now, maybe it will when it matures some more.  Who knows.